An article from The Washington Times.
. AND FLASHBACKS
By Oliver North
Dear John: As usual, you have it wrong. You dont have a beef
With President Bush about your war record. He has been exceedingly
generous about your military service.
Your complaint is with the 2.5 million of us who served honorably in a
war that ended 29 years ago and which you, not the president, made the
centerpiece of this campaign.
I talk to a lot of vets, John, and this really isnt about your medals
or how you got them. Like you, I have a Silver Star and a Bronze
Star. I only have two Purple Hearts though. I turned down the others so I
could stay with the Marines in my Rifle Platoon. But I think you might agree
with me, though Ive never heard you say it, that the officers always got more
medals than they earned and the youngsters we led never got as many medals
as they deserved.
This really isnt about how early you came home from that war
either, John. There have always been guys in every war who want to go home.
There are also lots of guys, like those in my Rifle Platoon in Vietnam, who
did a full 13 months in the field. And there are, thankfully, many young
Americans today in Iraq and Afghanistan who volunteered to return to war
because, as one of them told me a few weeks ago, the job isnt finished.
Nor is this about whether you were in Cambodia on Christmas Eve
1968. Heck John, people get lost going on vacation. If you got lost, just
say so. Your campaign has admitted you now know you really werent in
Cambodia that night and Richard Nixon wasnt really president when you thought he
was. Now would be a good time to explain to us how you could have all that
bogus stuff seared into your memory - especially since you want to have
your finger on our nations nuclear trigger.
But thats not really the problem either. The trouble youre
having, John, isnt about your medals or coming home early or getting lost -
or even Richard Nixon. The issue is what you did to us when you came home,
John, when you got home, you co-founded Vietnam Veterans Against the War and
wrote The New Soldier, which denounced those of us who served - and
were still serving - on the battlefields of a thankless war. Worst of all, John,
you then accused me - and all of us who served in Vietnam of committing
terrible crimes and atrocities.
On 22 April 1971, under oath, you told the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee you had knowledge American troops had personally raped,
cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human
genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly
shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot
cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the
countryside of South Vietnam. And on television you admitted, Yes, yes, I
committed the same kind of atrocities as thousands of other soldiers have committed.
And for good measure you stated, [America is] more guilty than
Any other body, of violations of [the] Geneva Conventions... the torture of
prisoners, the killing of prisoners.
Your antiwar statements and activities were painful for those
of us scarred in Vietnam and trying to move on with our lives. For those
still there, it was even more hurtful. But those who suffered the most from
what you said and did were hundreds of American prisoners of war held by
Hanoi.. Heres what some of them endured because of you, John:
* Capt. James Warner had already spent four years in Vietnamese
custody when he was handed a copy of your testimony by his captors.
Capt. Warner says that for his captors, your statements, were proof I
deserved to be punished. He wasnt released until March 14, 1973.
* Maj. Kenneth Cordier, an Air Force pilot in Vietnamese custody 2,284
days, says his captors repeated incessantly your one-liner about
being the last man to die for a lost cause. Maj. Cordier was released
March 4,1973.
* Navy Lt. Paul Galanti, says your accusations were as
demoralizing as solitary [confinement]... and a prime reason the war dragged on.
He remained in North Vietnamese hands until Feb. 12, 1973.
John, did you think they would forget? When Tim Russert asked
About your claim you and others in Vietnam committed atrocities, instead
Of standing by your sworn testimony, you confessed your words were a
bit over the top. Does that mean you lied under oath? Or are you a war
criminal?
You cant have this one both ways, John. Either way, youre not fit to be a
prison guard at Abu Ghraib, much less commander in chief.
One last thing, John, in 1988, Jane Fonda said:
I would like to say something... to men who were in Vietnam,
who I hurt, or whose pain I caused to deepen because of things that I said
or did. I was trying to help end the killing and the war, but there were
times when I was thoughtless and careless about it and Im... very sorry that I
hurt them. And I want to apologize to them and their families.
Even Jane Fonda apologized. Will you, John?
Oliver North is a nationally syndicated columnist.
Submitted by Paul S.
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