[Gimpy]

Commentary: The Republican War Against Vietnam Veterans


First John McCain, then Max Cleland, and now John Kerry: the Republican attack machine slanders and insults not only these three Americans who sacrificed for their country, but all Americans.

By Stewart Nusbaumer

First they attacked a U.S. Navy pilot shot down over North Vietnam who was imprisoned and tortured for five years. Shadowy Republican groups insisted he was mentally unfit to be President of the United States because he had been a POW in Vietnam. The propaganda was relentless and sneaky, eventually undermining John McCain?s credibility and his bid to be the Republican Party?s presidential nominee. The winner was George W. Bush.

Then they attacked a man who lost three limbs--two legs and one arm--on the battlefield in South Vietnam. First in Georgia and then nationally--highlighted by Ann Coulter--they proclaimed that he made no sacrifices for America and should not be respected. Max Cleland lost his Senate seat to a tough Republican patriot who somehow missed the fighting in Vietnam.

Among veterans, this election is referred to as the ?Shame of George.? If the South rises again, it is said, it will be to disgrace more honorable Americans who fought for America. Evidently, the only veterans the South wants to honor are those who attacked America, veterans of their Confederacy.

In both campaigns, Republicans sought not to educate the public but to create doubt in voters, not to discuss the issues, but to undermine the character and reputation of John McCain and then Max Cleland. Republicans successfully twisted these two men?s honorable service in Vietnam into a political liability here in America and rendered both men ineffective politically. Both combat veterans were defeated by men who supported the Vietnam War yet hid behind deferments so they would not have to personally fight in the war.

Knowing that Americans would not tolerate an obvious dirty attack on their combat veterans, the Republicans used innuendoes and slander and sneaky lies--half lies--and distorted facts. They used a shadowy network that is accountable to no one and is therefore free to say anything. This Republican attack machine attacks without restraint and without conscience and without morality. It attacks those who oppose their view of America, a view they hide as they disguise their attack.

As the ?Vietnam generation? has taken over the reigns of power, this Republican stealth attack machine has begun to focus more and more on those who fought that war. That few Republican leaders fought in Vietnam does not seem to faze these self-described tough patriots. In their eyes, they were simply too important to serve in Vietnam. ?I went to where the real war was,? Newt Gingrich told the Washington Post some years ago, ?Washington.?

But their absence from a war that they had strongly supported does bother a group of Americans. Vietnam veterans call these Republicans ?Chickenhawks?: chicken during Vietnam because they refused to fight in a war they supported and super-hawks in middle age because they are beyond draft age and very willing to send others to war. Since the Republican Party is a haven for Chickenhawks, their clandestine attack machine needed help; the truth was beginning to show. The machine needed a new public face.

New Face to Old Sleaze

To extend their successful smear and discrediting campaign against Vietnam veterans, the Republican attack machine has adopted a group of far-right Vietnam veterans as mouthpieces, as their front boys. As the Chickenhawks had others fight the Vietnam War, a war they supported, today they have Vietnam veterans fight their political war.

The ?Swift Boat Veterans for Truth? is a Republican group of right-wing veterans who are telling Americans that John Kerry did not do what he said, that John Kerry did not act honorably in Vietnam, that John Kerry is unfit to be President of the United States.

It was only a few months ago that Republicans were telling Americans that John Kerry acted dishonorably when he returned home from the war; now they want Americans to believe he also acted dishonorably in the war. Those who actually served with John Kerry, however, disagree, as does the U.S. Navy.

Wounded three times and awarded two medals for bravery: is that acting dishonorably in Vietnam? The Chickenhawks say John Kerry lies. They say all the crewmembers who served on the boats with John Kerry lie. They say that the U.S. Navy that treated John Kerry?s three wounds and gave him two medals lies. But it is Kerry, the crewmembers, and the Navy who are telling the truth.

The Republican machine attack on veterans is now fully focused on John Kerry, using the same unethical tactics used earlier against John McCain and Max Cleland. It is dissing and slandering three men who served and sacrificed for America--one a tortured prisoner, another with three limbs amputated, and another with three combat wounds. Three combat veterans are being insulted not by America?s enemies, but by supposedly good Americans.

Stealing the Heartland?

When anger reaches a certain level, one has two options: rage or repression. I?m teetering on a violent explosion, or possibly catatonic silence. I?m not sure, but I know that some injustices are too unjust to deal with rationally.

You see, I?m a disabled Vietnam veteran. One leg was amputated and the other has nerve damage, my spleen and a testicle were removed, and I have lots of shrapnel scars. But I?m just another Marine who made it home, minus a few parts. The war is over for me, a long time ago. Yet some Americans want to bring the war back, to bring it back to hurt us who fought that war. It is not the longhaired hippies of yesterday or the war protestors that marched in our streets against that divisive war that are attacking us, but supposedly patriotic Americans.

And these so-called patriotic Americans say they represent the heartland of America. But do they? I don?t think so.

By trashing these three combat veterans, two Democrats and one Republican, they have actually trashed all combat veterans of that war. Is this what Americans want? They have insulted the 58,000 Americans who died in that horrible war and also the parents, most of whom are now in their graves, who lost a son in Vietnam.

This Republican attack machine does not speak for the heartland of America; it is attacking the heart of America.

These are the same people who do not like the American working class, those struggling to make ends meet today. And they do not care about their children who suffer from the wounds of war--just look how Republicans in Congress are attempting to cut the VA budget during this war. The war on Vietnam veterans is an extension of this Republican class war, a branch of the Republican war against working Americans. Not only do these Republicans not represent the heartland of America; they don?t represent anything about this country. This is why they are attacking good Americans who sacrificed for their country.

A Few Facts

Let's look at the facts. John Kerry volunteered for the military and then volunteered for service in Vietnam, where he was wounded three times and was awarded a Silver Star and a Bronze Star for valor. George W. Bush supported the Vietnam War yet avoided fighting in that war by joining the Guard; he selected the option not to go to Vietnam, then refused to show up for his physical and lost his right to fly. He also appears to have been AWOL for many months, if not a year or more.

So who was dishonorable in their military service during the Vietnam War? It?s a simple question with a simple answer when the facts are known.

Yet the Republican Attack machine is pervasive and powerful, refining its sneak attacks and hiding its real intensions. In this election, will enough Americans conclude that John Kerry?s conduct during Vietnam was dishonorable and push a crucial battleground state or two into George Bush?s column? The Republican attack machine beat John McCain and Max Cleland. Is John Kerry next?

If enough Americans are given only the steady diet of Fox News propaganda and hear only the megaphone of corporate media, then George Bush will win. If John Kerry?s credibility as a soldier in Vietnam is destroyed, then his political credibility in America will be destroyed. So write a letter to your local newspaper, give the facts, and demand the truth. Call your television stations and tell them you are sickened by the slandering of John Kerry?s military record. Call your radio stations and tell them to forbid innuendoes and slander to stab our Vietnam veterans in the back.

This is your country, not the country of these Republicans. But you must be willing to fight for your country, or it will become their country.


Posted Sunday, August 15, 2004
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