John Kerry: A Man For All Sides

March 14, 2004

Senator John F. Kerry is known to have asserted that anyone who has not served in Vietnam has no right to question his actions during that conflict. Using that observation as a guideline, it can be argued that thousands upon thousands of Vietnam veterans, including this writer, do have the right to question him…and he has an obligation to answer those questions. To date, the few answers he has given are in conflict with earlier statements.

At the top of the list is the fact that presidential candidate Kerry strongly denies ever accusing members of the American armed forces of committing war crimes in Vietnam. Yet, in 1971 he wrote “We were sent to Vietnam to kill Communism. But, we found instead that we were killing women and children.”

Kerry now claims he always supported and always fought for the soldiers. Yet when reviewing his book, The New Soldier much of the text is found to be anti military, including charges that our service personnel committed unspeakable atrocities against the Vietnamese, including rape, torture, disfigurement and murder.

The senator further claims that his four-month combat experience in Vietnam was an awakening because he “saw Vietnam ravaged equally by American bombs and search and destroy missions…” He further says that “because of all that I saw in Vietnam, the treatment of civilians, the ravaging of their countryside, the needless, useless deaths, the deception and duplicity of our policy, I changed.”

But, according to the Boston Globe, one of Kerry’s former crewmembers, Steven M. Gardner, does not see the former lieutenant as ever being heroic. “He absolutely did not want to engage the enemy when I was with him,” said Gardner. “He wouldn’t go in there and search. That is why I have a negative viewpoint of John Kerry.” Gardner, who served with three additional skippers on Swift boats, felt he had seen enough to make such a comparison.

Gardner also recalls a shooting incident when his Swift boat came across a sampan in the darkness. There was a curfew and sampans were not allowed on the rivers at night. Gardner, who was in a machine gun 'tub', shined a spotlight on the sampan and was answered with gunfire. He fired his machinegun at the boat and saw one person fall overboard. All of the Swift boat crewmembers fired upon the sampan, with the exception of Kerry. When the firing ceased the crew examined the sampan and found one woman alive and a boy who was dead.

Kerry started “screaming at the top of his lungs”, says Gardner. “He threatened me with a court martial. ‘What the hell do you think you’re doing? I ought to have you court-martialed’, he yelled.”

Gardner claims the only thing, which quieted the incident, was the other crewmembers telling Kerry that the sampan had been firing upon them…and that they too had returned fire.

The former crewmember also recalls a time when the boat was engaged in a combat action and he was slightly wounded. He claims this wound was “no big deal” and he kept on firing his weapon at the targets.

When Kerry learned the crewmember had been wounded he turned the boat around and left the battle scene to get medical treatment for Gardner. “I said, Lieutenant Kerry, I’m fine, nothing’s wrong. I got a little flesh wound here.”

Gardner argued the retreat was unnecessary and that leaving the scene might endanger other boats on the mission, but that Kerry “was already backing out of the canal and getting ready to make a run for it.”

Claims from the Kerry camp are the usual, “politically motivated” response to the former enlisted man’s recollections. However, it should also be pointed out that Gardner never came forward with any of these statements. It was only after journalists tracked him down and asked specific questions that these responses became public.

Another Vietnam veteran who is well aware of John Kerry’s record is retired Navy Admiral and former United States Senator Jeremiah Denton. His opinions are very pointed.

“When Kerry joined me in the Senate,” he says, “I already knew about his record of defamatory remarks and behavior criticizing U.S. policy in Vietnam and the conduct of our military personnel there. I had learned in North Vietnamese prisons how much harm such statements caused. To me, his remarks and behavior amounted to giving aid and comfort to our Vietnamese and Soviet enemies. So, I was not surprised when his subsequent overall voting pattern in the Senate was consistently detrimental to our national security.”

The admiral has written on the topic of the Kerry candidacy in the Mobile Register. One of the strongest charges he makes in his article proclaims, “As a nation, we are at the point of no return. The good guys are finally angry enough to join the fray, and I pray we are not too late. John Kerry is not among the good guys.”

There once was another American cited for brave deeds and victory in battle. He attacked and secured enemy emplacements. He made our first amphibious landing. He displayed intellect and valor. He was seriously wounded. Though promoted to high military rank, few remember what he accomplished or how brave he was in combat. Instead, he is forever erased from the roster of American heroes because he gave aid and comfort to the enemy and for his traitorous actions. His name…Benedict Arnold.

Thomas D. Segel