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Contributors
Gordon
Cucullu- Contributor
Former Green
Beret lieutenant colonel, Gordon Cucullu is now an editorialist,
author and a popular speaker. Born into a military
family, he lived and served for more than thirteen years in East
Asia, including eight years in Korea. For his Special Forces
service in Vietnam he was awarded a Bronze Star, Vietnamese Cross
of Gallantry, and the Presidential Unit Commendation. After separation
from the Army, he worked on Korea and East Asian affairs at both
the Pentagon and Department of State as well as an executive
for General Electric in Korea. His first major non-fiction work,
Separated
at Birth: How North Korea became the Evil Twin, is
based in large part on his extensive experience in
Korea and East Asia as a governmental insider and businessman.
[website]
[go to Cucullu index]
 A
Repugnant Legacy
A brief moment of honor - a career of contempt...
[Gordon Cucullu] 6/28/04
John F. Kerry has made a conscious decision to base his 2004
presidential campaign on his war record. In case you are unaware,
the Senator served in the US Navy in Vietnam. He commanded a
small, brown water vessel called a swift boat. The swifties operated
in a riverine environment. Typical missions were to escort troops
in landing craft, guard larger boats carrying supplies to distant
outposts, and route and point reconnaissance.
Kerry was assigned to the swift boats after working offshore
on larger ships. When he transferred to the swift boats they
were used to ferry personnel and material from shore to the offshore
vessels. After he had transferred to the unit, the swift boat
mission was changed to a combat role.
Swift boat crews were vulnerable to ambush from the banks of
the rivers. The boats, armed with machine guns and small arms,
almost always engaged the enemy from the river. On very rare
occasions the crew might go ashore to police the battlefield.
The swift boat mission demanded independent thinking, initiative
and courage from the crew.
Young John Kerry spent approximately four months in Vietnam.
For comparison purposes, a normal tour of duty in Vietnam was
12 months. He submitted a request to curtail his tour after incurring
his third wound, having thereby received his third Purple Heart
medal. Reassignment based on wounds received was not automatic
but was at the initiative of each eligible service member.
When Kerry returned to the States he wore a Silver Star for
valor, the three Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star for service
in a combat area. At this point he is to be thanked for his service
to his country. But from then on things went terribly wrong.
In a coldly calculated maneuver Kerry plunged into the most virulent
element of the anti-war movement. It was associated with violent
demonstrations and anti-establishment activities.
Even membership in
this group, while causing some concern, would not in itself
be damning. But Kerry assumed a leadership role.
Kerry was not ‘coincidentally’ juxtaposed near Jane
Fonda. He was the lead speaker in events in which she was backup.
They planned demonstrations and programs together. They were
fellow self-styled revolutionaries.
Kerry flew to Paris to meet with the North Vietnamese representative
to the peace negotiations. They met privately for several hours.
Their conversation is not public. It is known that afterwards
Kerry loudly advocated removal of all US forces from South Vietnam
as a way of obtaining release of our POWs held by Hanoi.
He became a core member
and leader of the group Vietnam Veterans Against the War. In
today’s vernacular we would call this
the Taliban wing of the anti-war movement. It was made up ironically
of a majority of men who had not only never been to Vietnam but
had never even served in the military. BG Burkett in his excellent
book, Stolen Valor, catalogs an extraordinarily vast number of
Vietnam wannabes in the VVAW who have sullied the reputation
of real veterans. Almost all of them used the war as a way of
making money or attaining influence.
This is where legitimate
vets have serious issues with Senator Kerry. As part of his
involvement and rise to leadership in the
VVAW and with the other anti-war groups such as those including
Tom Hayden, Jane Fonda and the rest of the dregs, Kerry turned
viciously on his fellow veterans. He testified before Congress,
giving lurid tales - all manufactured - of atrocities that were ‘normal’ and ‘known
by officials at all levels’ in Vietnam.
Kerry described disgusting things: torture, rape, burnings,
dismemberment, violence against civilians and more as if they
were common daily fare. In fact he said specifically that these
crimes occurred virtually on a 24/7 routine basis with no interference,
indeed with encouragement, from higher headquarters.
He went on to describe
the Vietnam veteran as someone psychologically damaged by the
war. In his words the Vietnam vet was a soldier
driven to heavy drug and alcohol use, incapable of readjustment
to normal civilian life after have been required to engage in
atrocities ‘worse than Genghis Khan.’ One need only
look as far as the crowd surrounding Kerry - the scrufty, fatigue-wearing,
long hair, strung out misfits - to see how terrible the war was
to its poor, innocent soldiers. Except that it was all a lie.
Kerry’s testimony and his organization created a myth that
persists to this day.
Hollywood, of course, loves the myth: Coming Home, Deerhunter,
Apocalypse Now, Platoon, Born of the Forth of July, Rambo, and
many more all raged at the war and exploited the myth. Indeed
they pushed it so deep into the American conscious that most
ordinary citizens cringe at the thought of a Vietnam veteran.
They think that the wacked-out, crazy, drug-besotted image is
the real one. How tragic for our veterans then and now. And John
F. Kerry was and continues to be a major factor in perpetuating
this gross lie, this appalling disrespect.
Today the
persistence of this anti-veteran image still manifests itself
in tragic ways. In April a terrific young man, Ranger
Corporal Pat Tillman, gave his life for his country in Afghanistan.
Tillman was not unique in his dedication, concern and patriotism:
an extraordinary number of young people share that with him.
And a majority of those who served in all our previous wars -
including Vietnam - were cut from the same special cloth.
What made Tillman unique was that he was a successful professional
athlete who turned down a multi-million dollar contract to join
the army and fight against those who attacked us. His idea of
loyalty was to pay back to his country for all the opportunities
it had give him. And he sacrificed all so that we might stay
free.
But the repugnant
legacy created by John Kerry, the anti-Vietnam war movement
leaders and their ilk persists unabated. Tillman
has been attacked in the most disgusting manner as a ‘dead
dumb jock’ and an ‘idiot who died for oil’ by
the vulgar extreme left that Kerry helped create and continues
to court for votes and support.
So I don’t care
about where or if he tossed his medals or ribbons, or how deep
the scratch was that got him a cheap
Heart. All those I can forgive. But the legacy of disrespect
and contempt that Kerry intentionally produced and deliberately
exploits to this day for his political benefit is unforgivable.
It is for his post-war behavior that he must answer to his fellow
veterans.
We are not your ‘band of brothers,’ Senator.
You betrayed us and we want no part of you. You have caused
too many
people too much pain. Have the decency to leave us alone and
stop using your fellow veterans to advance your career. For once
act like a man.CRO
copyright
Gordon Cucullu 2004
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