Kerry's Lasting Legacy

Despite anything Kerry does, accomplishes, or fails to do in the near future, there is one thing that he must do: apologize to his fellow Vietnam Vets for vilifying them at home. Jed Babbin of NRO on Senator Kerry:

Thirty years later, it still makes their blood boil. When, in April 1971, John Kerry testified to a Senate committee that "...war crimes committed in Southeast Asia [were] not isolated incidents but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command," he said that the average American soldier who fought in Vietnam was a war criminal. Kerry's statement was false, a blood libel that hangs in the air to this day. If John Kerry had apologized, maybe he'd never have had to deal with the little group that calls itself "Vietnam Veterans for Truth."

The article goes on to talk about the various experiences of the Vietnam Veterans for Truth. The group is planning a rally in Washington to protest Kerry’s lies about the veterans and his continued lies for the past 30 years. More from the article:

When Kerry accused Americans of raping, cutting off ears, heads, and limbs, and razing villages in the manner of Genghis Khan, he wasn't talking about some random "other": He was talking about these men. They and their fellow Vietnam veterans were — and are — innocent of the atrocities of which Kerry accused them. They can't forgive Kerry for what he said, or forget what they suffered because of it. They took Kerry's accusation personally. It would have been impossible for them to do otherwise. In Larry Bailey's words, "I never told a lie about John Kerry. He never told the truth about me."

This isn't about politics. Pete Webster told me, "If the GOP were running Hillary Clinton, we'd still be saying, 'Kerry lied.'" The Vietnam Vets for Truth want their reputations restored, and they want Kerry to apologize for more than 30 years of defaming their character. As they see it, Kerry stole their honor from them in 1971. They want it back — and they're coming to get it.

Unlike the veterans from any other conflict, the Vietnam vets did not return to praises and honors. They were shunned and treated like well, criminals. John Kerry is a good part of the reason why.

While searching the Internet, I found an article by Barbara Stock over at IntellectualConservatives.com that recounts the horror story of one Vietnam Vet’s homecoming:

On the radio last week, one man related that he had unpacked the uniform that he wore home from Vietnam all those years ago. It had not seen the light of day for over thirty years. He showed it to his children and grandchildren and, for the first time, spoke of the day that he returned home from war and was spat on, cursed at, and literally had to run a gauntlet of protesters who threw human waste and rotten fruit on him and his fellow vets. With the words “baby killers” ringing in his ears he was warned by laughing policemen not to retaliate or he would be arrested. So he ran. The able-bodied helped the wounded as they do on any battlefield because those on crutches or in wheelchairs were not spared the profanity and bags full of feces that were thrown at them by the raging anti-war protesters.

You can check out Vietnam Veterans for Truth here, and a Google search will yield many more veteran groups that are against Kerry and his libel.