Vets to Kerry - Tell The Truth
 

The letter below was signed by 189 of John Kerry's fellow Vietnam veterans. It was published today at NationalReview.com and is being spread throughout the conservative circuit (I got the email today).

...Thought you might find it of interest.
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"We Know the Truth"
Some of Kerry's Vietnam colleagues challenge the Democratic candidate.

An NRO Primary Document
EDITOR'S NOTE: The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth released the following letter to John Kerry, signed by 189 fellow veterans of the Navy vessels featured so prominently in the senator's campaign ads. The group's organizers explain that the veterans who have signed to date represent the large majority of those who served with Lt. Kerry in Vietnam. Scores of others are expected to join up in the days ahead.

May 4, 2004

Senator Kerry,

We write from our common heritage as veterans of duty aboard Swift Boats in the Vietnam War. Indeed, you should note that a substantial number of those men who served directly with you during your four month tour in Vietnam have signed this letter.

It is our collective judgment that, upon your return from Vietnam, you grossly and knowingly distorted the conduct of the American soldiers, marines, sailors and airmen of that war (including a betrayal of many of us, without regard for the danger your actions caused us). Further, we believe that you have withheld and/or distorted material facts as to your own conduct in this war.

We believe you continue this conduct today, albeit by changing from an anti-war to a "war hero" status. You now seek to clad yourself in the very medals that you disdainfully threw away in the early years of your political career. In the process, we believe you continue a deception as to your own conduct through such tactics as the disclosure of only carefully screened portions of your military records. Both then and now, we have concluded that you have deceived the public, and in the process have betrayed honorable men, to further your personal political goals.

Your conduct is such as to raise substantive concerns as to your honesty and your ability to serve, as you currently seek, as Commander-in-Chief of the military services.

It is vital that the American public have as much information as possible about candidates for President of the United States. In various ways, you have rightly called upon President Bush to be fully accountable and to provide full disclosure. In the same spirit, now that you are the presumptive nominee of your Party, we believe it is incumbent upon you to make your total military record open to the American people.

Specifically, we the undersigned formally request that you authorize the Department of the Navy to independently release your military records (through your execution of Standard Form 180), complete and unaltered, including your military medical records. Further, we call upon you to correct the misconceptions your campaign seeks to create as to your conduct while in Vietnam. Permit the American public the opportunity to assess your military performance upon the record, and not upon campaign rhetoric.

Senator Kerry, we were there. We know the truth. We have been silent long enough. The stakes are too great, not only for America in general but, most importantly, for those who have followed us into service in Iraq and Afghanistan. We call upon you to provide a full, accurate accounting of your conduct in Vietnam.

Respectfully,

Rear Admiral Roy Hoffmann, USN

Captain Charley Plumly, USN (ret)

Mr. Alvin A. Horne

Mr. Bill Lannom

Mr. John O'Neill

Mr. Wey Symmes

Mr. William W. Franke

Yet another low-blow to the Kerry campaign.

Really? It's only fair that Kerry be held to the same standard they're holding the Bush campaign to.

Bush had all of his records released -- he was actually VERY cooperative with the media in this area. Even held a press conference in which they discussed the information on record.

Why not Kerry?

If he's going to sell himself as a war hero (which he certainly would not have even thought about doing in his immediate post-war years) why should the American people not have the right to know whether or not he's being truthful about his record? Kerry has always been a man of two truths, why should anyone think this instance would be any different?

I'm not so sure of that. Seems to me that the records were released after a fair number of questions, and at least somewhat grudgingly. At least that was my impression.

As for Kerry, the Navy called him a hero a long time before this campaign. They don't sell or rent Silver Stars or Bronze Stars.

At least somebody in his chain of command though he did something special.

I heard a radio interview with one of the signers yesterday. What he had to say was very interesting. Their purpose is not to get Bush re-elected - it's to keep Kerry from getting elected. The group of signers are bi-partisan. He said that if Kerry steps out of the race and a democratic candidate "worthy" of the office of President of the United States steps in, they will go home.

This race is getting uglier and uglier. I wish we could just have the election tomorrow and get it over with... this coming from a poli sci major that has worked on numerous North Carolina Senate Campaigns and now working on a Georgia Senate Campaign... I usually love this stuff... but I'm getting tired already.

I keep wondering if it will ever get to the point where the Amiercan Public has had enough and lets the political parties know that they've gone too far.

Probably not.

Who was it that said something like, "nobody will ever go broke overestimating the American Public"? Obviously, that's a paraphrase.

Neither side is blameless, but the Republicans keep pushing me farther and farther off of my comfortable position here on the fence.

It's still a long time until November, but if the election was tomorrow, Kerry would get my vote.

I want to hear about their plans to fix current problems and address current issues and don't really care about their past military service. Given the changes in our society since they stopped the draft, I doubt that most future Presidents will have served in the military at all. The pool is much smaller of those who served from my generation. The people from my high school who served in the military weren't college bound. The ROTC men and women were going into the military after college, but with no major wars during that time period, there would have been little opportunity for medals, purple hearts, etc.

I want them to stick to the current issues. Keeping Medicare and Social Security viable, maintaining our civil rights, job creation and the economy, education, prescription coverage for seniors, balancing our budget, making affordable health care available to every American, etc.

It angers me when people say if you don't support this war, you don't support the troops. You can do be against the war and still support our troops. It's a matter of believing that the cause isn't worth the loss of these valuable lives. I do not blame the troops for having to fight in this war, I blame the leaders who started it.

Dee

Actually your past determines your performance in the future. If it didn't, why did you bring up what Kerry had voted for previously?

And who said anything about Iraq? It seems when Democrats get flustered all of a sudden, they shift to try and focus it on "I'm a good citizen and it frustrates me that you think I have to support the war in Iraq." It's like how's the weather AGDee? "Bad because you think I have to support the war in Iraq." By the way, Kerry voted for the war in Iraq except voted against the subsequent funding for the development of the country and the defense of the troops there. But this wasn't about Iraq; in fact, it wasn't about the 10 million other topics you brought up. It was about Kerry's relationship to the military in the past and what that entails in the future.

-Rudey

I agree that the past has some influence on your future performance, but I also know that over time, with life experience, your views change and therefore, so does your performance. Also, intelligent people learn from their mistakes.

I was addressing the comments by DA and AlphaXiGirl about the race getting out of control with negatives and not focusing on the original topic. Yes, we hijacked your thread.

Dee

ITs a pretty safe letter to write. It lambasts Kerry and dares him to reveal all his records, but i have a nagging suspicion that even if the records validated him they would still be attacking.

I am not a Kerry fan, but neither am I really a Bush fan. But I wouldn't hold either of their military records against them. Its just something to muddy the waters and confuse the issues.