By Walter Simpson
Buffalo, NY – John Kerry has highlighted his military record in Vietnam in order to demonstrate his national security credentials. This strategy seems to have backfired on Kerry who may have underestimated the Republicans ability to counter-attack. The glowing testimonials about Kerry's Vietnam War heroism which we heard at the Democratic Party's national convention have been followed by political ads critical of Kerry from a group calling itself the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. These vets are less concerned with the truth than they are with taking shots at Kerry who they have hated for decades for his anti-war activism.
Interestingly enough, the vets opposed to Kerry are willing to overlook President Bush's military record which could be summed up as follows: Dad of rich kid uses political influence to get son into Texas Air Guard so he can avoid military service in Vietnam. Son goes AWOL during 1972-73 and records mysteriously disappear.
The swift boat ads are the product of a well financed campaign to smear and discredit Kerry. As the Washington Post has reported, Robert Perry, a top Bush-Cheney fundraiser, has been bankrolling the ads. And Benjamin Ginsberg, a top lawyer for the Bush campaign, is the group's advisor. One can only wonder what was on John McCain's mind while he was kissing up to Bush last week at the Republican national convention, given the similarities of this smear campaign and the one they used to destroy McCain's presidential hopes four years ago. And where is the Democratic response? You can't play nice when your opponent's campaign is in full attack mode and has no qualms about employing lies, deceptions, and dirty tricks.
Bush strategists undoubtedly anticipated full media cooperation and an on-going controversy as a way of diverting attention away from the mess in Iraq, the lies used to justify this unnecessary oil war, a 9/11 Report which says Bush didn't do enough, the flat economy, loss of jobs, children being left behind, attacks on the environment and civil liberties, and tax cuts for the rich while the deficit spirals out of control. No wonder the Bush campaign wants to talk about swift boat adventures 35 years ago - having already tried other transparent diversions like the dire threat to the sanctity of marriage posed by gays and the pressing need for space travel to Mars.
I was opposed to the Vietnam War while in college and was active in the anti-war movement when I came to Buffalo. I applied for conscientious objector status but abandoned that application when a meeting with my draft board convinced me they would never seriously consider my religious and moral opposition to the war. Even my pro-war father could see that I was just canon fodder to my draft board. To avoid being drafted, I gave up my student deferment late in 1970 when it was clear to me that my lottery number would not be called. So I can understand Bush's draft dodging though I wish he would be honest about it. And while I am impressed by Kerry's bravery as a soldier, I believe the war he fought in was wrong. I would prefer to hear about his opposition to the war than how many Vietnamese he killed.
On April 22, 1971, John Kerry testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, relaying the stories of 150 Vietnam veterans who participated in the Winter Solider Investigation hearings sponsored by the Vietnam Veterans Against the War. Kerry told the senators about war crimes these American soldiers had witnessed or committed on a regular basis with full awareness at all levels of command. He described the horror of this war and atrocities which included raping women, cutting off the ears, limbs, and heads of victims, torturing prisoners, and randomly shooting at civilians, livestock and pets. He spoke of destroying villages to save them. He described "free fire zones" where American soldiers killed anything that moved.
Years ago, John Kerry had the courage to tell the difficult truth about a horrible, illegal, immoral war that was devastating Indochina, destroying American soldiers and their families, and tearing up the United States. He became a voice for peace. That's the part of John Kerry's war record I admire.
"Reality Check" with Commentator Walter Simpson is a monthly feature of WBFO News.