Robert A Whit
01-29-2013, 09:54 PM
DON GILLELAND
GUEST COLUMNIST
Disappointing hearing
Kerry not a good choice for secretary of state
But for the Naval Swift Boat Sailors Association, Sen. John Kerry might have become president of the United States in 2004. Now it appears he is going to become secretary of state.
The Senate virtually rubberstamped his nomination, which I’m sure was a huge disappointment to a great many veterans of the Vietnam War.
Even the GOP granted him a pass, without even referring to the most contentious part of his career. Doesn’t anyone remember his congressional testimony in 1971? While Kerry is considered to be a foreign policy expert, his opposition to the Vietnam War and related congressional testimony in 1971 should have been enough to at least question his qualification for this critical position. During his 1971 testimony, he demonized the 2.5 million Americans who served in that war.
Someone should have reminded members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as well as the American public, that Kerry accused almost all American soldiers serving in Vietnam of committing the most heinous war crimes imaginable.
When our gallant military men and women returned home from that unpopular war, they were harassed at airports, spit upon and called vile names.
Now, nearly 40 years after Vietnam, for many, if not most Americans, the Vietnam War is a dim memory. However, some 700 American POWs who languished in stinking cells in what was euphemistically called the Hanoi Hilton will never forget the way Kerry besmirched their honor and demeaned their valor.
For many of our POWs, their time in that hellhole was prolonged because of the likes of Kerry and other anti-war activists. Many POWs suffered prolonged brutality and degradation as a consequence of antiwar activists’ propaganda, which the North Vietnamese made the POWs listen to.
Kerry has spent the last 40 years burying that shameful attempt to demean our military under a spectacular effort to build a laudatory political career. Just as Sen. Ted Kennedy spent years successfully overcoming the reputation that followed him after Chappaquiddick, Kerry may well overcome the stigma of his 1971 testimony, but the military community will not soon forget the denigrating things he said about them.
It is difficult to believe Sen. John McCain considers Kerry to be his friend, since McCain spent more than five years in a North Vietnamese prison.
I suspect the reason the GOP went so easy on Kerry was because they used up so much capital dislodging Ambassador Susan Rice’s secretary of state nomination and still need to derail the nomination of former Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel for secretary of defense.
But Congress and the American public should have been reminded that all was not well in the life of Sen. John Kerry, and he is not a good choice for that powerful position.
Gilleland served in Vietnam with the Joint Casualty Resolution Center. He is retired and lives in Suntree.
GUEST COLUMNIST
Disappointing hearing
Kerry not a good choice for secretary of state
But for the Naval Swift Boat Sailors Association, Sen. John Kerry might have become president of the United States in 2004. Now it appears he is going to become secretary of state.
The Senate virtually rubberstamped his nomination, which I’m sure was a huge disappointment to a great many veterans of the Vietnam War.
Even the GOP granted him a pass, without even referring to the most contentious part of his career. Doesn’t anyone remember his congressional testimony in 1971? While Kerry is considered to be a foreign policy expert, his opposition to the Vietnam War and related congressional testimony in 1971 should have been enough to at least question his qualification for this critical position. During his 1971 testimony, he demonized the 2.5 million Americans who served in that war.
Someone should have reminded members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as well as the American public, that Kerry accused almost all American soldiers serving in Vietnam of committing the most heinous war crimes imaginable.
When our gallant military men and women returned home from that unpopular war, they were harassed at airports, spit upon and called vile names.
Now, nearly 40 years after Vietnam, for many, if not most Americans, the Vietnam War is a dim memory. However, some 700 American POWs who languished in stinking cells in what was euphemistically called the Hanoi Hilton will never forget the way Kerry besmirched their honor and demeaned their valor.
For many of our POWs, their time in that hellhole was prolonged because of the likes of Kerry and other anti-war activists. Many POWs suffered prolonged brutality and degradation as a consequence of antiwar activists’ propaganda, which the North Vietnamese made the POWs listen to.
Kerry has spent the last 40 years burying that shameful attempt to demean our military under a spectacular effort to build a laudatory political career. Just as Sen. Ted Kennedy spent years successfully overcoming the reputation that followed him after Chappaquiddick, Kerry may well overcome the stigma of his 1971 testimony, but the military community will not soon forget the denigrating things he said about them.
It is difficult to believe Sen. John McCain considers Kerry to be his friend, since McCain spent more than five years in a North Vietnamese prison.
I suspect the reason the GOP went so easy on Kerry was because they used up so much capital dislodging Ambassador Susan Rice’s secretary of state nomination and still need to derail the nomination of former Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel for secretary of defense.
But Congress and the American public should have been reminded that all was not well in the life of Sen. John Kerry, and he is not a good choice for that powerful position.
Gilleland served in Vietnam with the Joint Casualty Resolution Center. He is retired and lives in Suntree.