Despite a speech given in 1992, when John Kerry defended Bill Clinton (specifically, his lack of military service), announcing we need to put Vietnam behind us and move on, recently John Kerry has been attacking President George Bush for not having been deployed to Vietnam (President Bush had signed up for the National Guard; however, he was not deployed). John Kerry has also been inviting a lot of attention regarding his history in the military, during the Vietnam War era. So, let’s discuss John Kerry’s activities during the Vietnam War. Afterall, he insists on it.

Everyone is touting John Kerry as a decorated war hero, since Kerry has a Silver Star, Bronze Star, and three Purple Hearts. According to Vietnam Veterans Against John Kerry, this is how his Silver Star and three Purple Hearts were earned.

During his first intense experience in a combat situation on December 2, 1968, Kerry suffered a slight arm wound. He was awarded his first Purple Heart. On February 20, 1969, Kerry experienced a small shrapnel wound in his left thigh, earning his second Purple Heart. Eight days later, on February 28, 1969, Kerry beached his boat in the center of enemy territory after receiving a B-40 rocket shot. As an enemy sprang up and fled, a machine gunner shot him. Kerry “leaped from the boat and dashed in to administer a ‘coup de grace’ to the wounded Viet Cong,” and returned with the B-40 rocket and launcher. He was awarded the Silver Star for this. On March 13, 1969, a mine detonated near Kerry’s boat, slightly wounding him in the arm. He was awarded his third Purple Heart.

Conveniently, Naval rules allowed a soldier wounded three times to return to the United States. After two weeks of receiving his third wound, on March 27, 1969, Kerry’s request to leave duty early was granted.

John Kerry was also awarded a Bronze Medal. This was not listed on the Vietnam Veterans Against John Kerry website, but according this article on johnkerry.com, it was for pulling a “Green beret back into his boat under intense fire,” and happened at the same time he received his third wound in battle. Admirable, no doubt, even if just two weeks later he asked to leave Vietnam.

Perhaps if this was John Kerry’s only record in Vietnam, he could be considered a respectable soldier. However, what really makes Kerry not just not a war hero, but an anti-hero, is his demoralizing and accusatory anti-war activism after he returned to the United States, particularly the book he put together, The New Soldier.

Although some are reporting that Kerry’s book is hard to find in any library, I was able to find it quite easily at my own library.

The book is mostly filled with pictures (this is why liberals can never get a radio show; lots of pictures is a requirement for spreading liberal propaganda), features John Kerry’s testimony before Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in which he asked the question: "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die in Vietnam – How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?" and is filled, mostly, with alleged firsthand accounts of soldiers about the atrocities they committed in Vietnam or witnessed in Vietnam.

Some of the supposed eye witness accounts in Kerry’s book include a story about how a rabbit was shown to soldiers about to deploy to Vietnam, then was killed, skinned, and its organs were thrown around as play; a soldier who opened fire on a Vietnamese man in a fire-free zone, because the man had a machete (and, it said, it was common for villagers to carry machetes); a young boy that one US soldier came upon who was bludgeoned to death by another US soldier and covered his face with straw; several Vietnamese killed while blindfolded in a helicopter, and so on. There were also insinuations that the US military was ripe with racism, as was also mentioned in John Kerry’s speech.

It is one thing to be opposed to the Vietnam War. It is another to actively smear the soldiers over there as vicious monsters. John Kerry is not only a soldier who snuck himself out of duty for three minor scratches: while soldiers were still fighting and dying in Vietnam, John Kerry actively sought to demoralize and smear the United States’ military.

Regarding the alleged eyewitness accounts of atrocities in Vietnam not just in Kerry’s book but anywhere in the United States, when the Naval Investigative Service tried to interview those who allegedly witnessed atrocities, most refused to cooperate. Of those that did, they did not provide enough details of actual crimes, and the NIS discovered that many of the testimonies were given by fake witnesses1.

Is this the guy you would want as Commander in Chief, in a post 9-11 world? The war on terror is not over, and any President who gets elected this November must be prepared to motivate the United States and our troops. Perhaps Kerry can give some excerpts from his book, of which he to this day seems to be proud, telling the troops that US soldiers are nothing but racists and baby killers.

The fact that this man keeps drawing attention to his service during Vietnam is bizarre. Perhaps he is stupid, or thinks we are – and won’t investigate and/or remember what he and his communist buddies did.

Indeed, it is odd that he is now pointing to and boasting about his record as a Vietnam veteran. By his own argument, being a US soldier in Vietnam would make him a monster. Which is it Kerry? Vietnam veterans: heroes or villains? John Kerry is not proud of his service to this country. He uses it for personal profit: once, used to smear the United States’ soldiers as evil, and now to get himself elected President.

John Kerry tries to smear George Bush because George Bush never was deployed. I ask you: does it matter that Bush’s physical body was never near combat? What matters is how both men either harmed or helped the military and the country throughout their lives. Although John Kerry served in Vietnam (and it could be speculated it was nothing but a move to help his political career), Kerry’s actions throughout his life have actively torn down and harmed the US military.

Compare this to George Bush’s leadership, motivation, and inspiration. Let me remind you of President Bush’s words, which motivated the troops, and led a war with a minimal number of casualties: “We will not tire, we will not falter, and we will not fail." In fact, you could accurately say that George Bush is a “uniter not a divider.”

There is little doubt in my mind if most Americans knew what John Kerry did during the time of Vietnam, the thought of him becoming President of the United States during these times would make their stomachs turn. So, John Kerry, keep bringing up your Vietnam history. Anyone who investigates the issue can find that you are an anti-hero, if not downright treasonous.

Amber Pawlik

1. Owens, Mackubin Thomas. (2004, February 23). But Was It True? What John Kerry said about the Vietnam War and the men who served in it. National Review, LVI.3, 37.