Anybody have an article on a Vietnam peace mission involving Kerry?

[coloradodem2005]

So I can counter the smear against him. THat he is a Commie, essentially.

[sandnsea]

1. Start here

This is what the people who spread garbage about Kerry say about McCain. I would think a simple, "yeah and they think John McCain is a Communist agent", with links, would be enough to shut them up. But, I'll keep looking for the exact info on Kerry and all the Vietnam stuff.

"In 1992, Sampley wrote a long article that portrayed McCain as a "Manchurian candidate," who had betrayed America to the North Vietnamese and then enlisted as a secret Communist agent."
http://www.usvetdsp.com/mccainpg.htm

http://www.usvetdsp.com/ferrat_in.htm

http://www.usvetdsp.com/ferrat_in.htm

[WatchWhatISay]

2. Here you go

They played it on Democracy Now today. The only show I watch everyday, first thing in the morning.

http://www.democracynow.org/print.pl?sid=04/07/30/1510259

[sandnsea]

3. July 1993

Here's a distorted story, but it's got the facts just the same. The picture was taken during this visit. This was a thankless project that Kerry took on for those very vets who are slandering him. They've got a conspiracy theory cover up thing going on. That's what those other two links on McCain were about too. They're flat out nuts. Anyway, the picture is hung in the Vietnam War Remnants Museum. That's all I know for sure about that part of it.

"The AP reported July 17, 1993, a U.S. delegation headed by Deputy Secretary of Veterans Affairs Hershel Gober was sent to Vietnam by President Clinton to deliver to the Vietnamese microfilm of some 3 million captured Vietnam War documents related to finding American POWs and MIAs. The story says the delegation was scheduled to meet with Do Muoi.

While the story does not mention Kerry, a White House press release July 2, 1993, mentioned Kerry and the "high-level delegation," which included represenatives of three major veterans groups."

http://www.politicalmachine.com/articles.asp?c=1&MID=3&AID=18441&u=0

[Feanorcurufinwe]

4. This trip?

Almost 20 years ago now, a group of American servicemen took the first step to reestablish contacts between the United States and Vietnam. They traveled back to Vietnam for the first time since the war, and as they walked through the streets of Hanoi, they were approached by Vietnamese citizens who had heard of their visit: Are you the American soldiers, they asked? Not sure what to expect, our veterans answered, yes, we are. And to their immense relief, their hosts simply said, welcome to Vietnam.

More veterans followed, including distinguished American veterans and heroes who serve now in the United States Congress: Senator John McCain, Senator Bob Kerrey, Senator Chuck Robb, and Senator John Kerry from Massachusetts, who is here with me today, along with a number of representatives from our Congress, some of whom are veterans of the Vietnam conflict.

When they came here, they were determined to honor those who fought without refighting the battles; to remember our history, but not to perpetuate it; to give young people like you in both our countries the chance to live in your tomorrows, not in our yesterdays. As Ambassador Pete Peterson has said so eloquently, "We cannot change the past. What we can change is the future."

http://japan.usembassy.gov/e/p/tp-c223.html

More

But Kerry's time as a combatant, and his equally well-known role as a leader of the veterans who returned from Vietnam and opposed the war, account for only part of his personal odyssey involving the war and its aftermath that symbolically culminated in Clinton's visit to Hanoi. More than any other member of Congress, it was Kerry, with his ally Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who cleared the way for normal diplomatic relations between the United States and Vietnam, beginning the process of healing the deep wounds of war.

They did so largely out of the limelight, in the tedious and grinding work of a special Senate committee that was appointed to investigate the fates of Americans still missing from the war and the rumors that some of them were alive and being held captive in Southeast Asia. When the committee completed its work, Kerry, the chairman, had produced a unanimous, 585-page report that declared: "There is, at this time, no compelling evidence that proves that any American remains alive in captivity in Southeast Asia."

McCain was the lightning rod for critics of the committee's more than yearlong search for the truth, but it was Kerry who held the enterprise together. A lawyer by training, he used his skills to mediate vast differences of opinion on an emotional topic within the committee and with many of those who appeared before it. According to those who watched the process, he was invariably calm, evenhanded and, above all, persistent.

"Kerry was always there saying, 'Hey, everybody calm down,' " said Mark Salter, McCain's chief of staff. "He kept it going. It should have imploded."

The committee's report did not eliminate the explosive POW/MIA issue, but it did much to defuse it and lift the cloud that had been hanging over the country since the fall of Saigon in 1973. A little more than a year after the report was issued in 1993, Clinton ended the U.S. trade embargo against Vietnam; the next year, the United States established formal diplomatic relations with the Vietnamese. Both steps were preceded by passage of Senate resolutions, co-sponsored by Kerry and McCain, urging the actions.

Kerry was only one of many who eased the country down the long road to reconciliation with a once-bitter enemy, but other participants in the process describe his role as "pivotal" and that of "the catalyst."

"John, on behalf of this nation, brought us back to Vietnam with our heads held high," said former senator Bob Kerrey (D-Neb.), who lost part of a leg and was awarded the Medal of Honor as a Navy Seal in Vietnam. "I think only John could have done it."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A50479-2004Jan2




It seems to be a habit. When Bush faces a Vietnam War hero in an election, a Vietnam veteran perfectly happy to trash his opponent always turns up. In the case of Ted Sampley, the same guy who did Bush's dirty work in going after Sen. John McCain in the 2000 Republican primaries is doing the job against Kerry this year. Sampley dared compare McCain, who spent five years as a Vietnam POW, with "the Manchurian Candidate." Now, Sampley says that Kerry "is not truthful and is not worthy of the support of U.S. veterans. . . . To us, he is 'Hanoi John.' " Is that where Sam Johnson got his line?

One person who is outraged by the attacks on Kerry is McCain. When I reached the Arizona Republican, I found him deeply troubled over the reopening of wounds from the Vietnam era, "the most divisive time since our Civil War." He called Sampley "one of the most despicable characters I've ever met." McCain said he hoped that in the midst of a war in Iraq, politicians "will confront the challenges facing us now, including the conflict we're presently engaged in, rather than refighting the one we were engaged in more than 30 years ago."

McCain recalled that he had worked with Kerry on "POW/MIA issues and the normalization of relations with Vietnam" and wanted to stand up for his war comrade because "you have to do what's right." Speaking of Kerry, McCain said: "He's my friend. He'll continue to be my friend. I know his service was honorable. If that hurts me politically or with my party, that's a very small price to pay."

Now that McCain has spoken, will Bush have the guts to endorse or condemn the attacks on Kerry's service? Or will he just sit by silently, hoping the assaults do their work while he evades responsibility? Once more, Welsh's words call out for an answer: "Have you no sense of decency, sir?"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A44999-2004Apr26?language=printer