Vietnam accuses former U.S. Senator

[sfc_darrel]

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) -- Vietnam has accused former U.S. Senator Bob Kerrey of crimes during the Vietnam War, saying Friday that families of villagers killed by his Navy team experienced "incomparable suffering and losses."

It was the first time Vietnam has publicly accused Kerrey of criminal activity. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Phan Thuy Thanh made the accusation in reaction to a revised account of the raid in Kerrey's new memoir.

Thanh did not specify what crimes Vietnam believed Kerrey had committed.

"Whatever Mr. Kerrey says cannot change the truth. Mr. Kerrey himself has admitted that he was ashamed of the crimes he committed," she said.
http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapc....ap/index.html

[39mto39g]

The military spend a lot of time and money teaching boys how to kill, then put them in a war and wonder why they kill?
There are lots of different kinds a killers, some don't live with it well, some don't dwell on it and a bunch in-between. The best guys to be in a war with a homicidal mainiacs that kill without hesitation, I wouldn't want to live next to one but they are the best at what they do.
I don't belive that LT Calley at My Lai should have been prosicuted, I also don't belive it shoud have happened. The cercomstances that lead up to his and most other instances are what promted the insident. The US droped an A-bome on Japan city,(not a military instalation) wipeing out the city, is this any worse that shooting them one by one.
Im rambaling.

Seeeeeeeee Ya
Ron

[Keith_Hixson]

A Little bit of evil rubs off on all who visit hell. Ron, I agree with your assessment. Hitler bombed London, allies bombed Berlin and Germany, Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, we bombed Tokyo war is just plain evil.

Keith

[Andy]

My pedigree is not in question. The half of my family that was here during the Civil War was from Maine, abolitionists, a GG grandfather who wore a blue uniform. (Dad?s side of the family was from the country side near Krakow Poland, on the North side of town.)

However, a while ago I was listening to some music by an old country boy from the south, a guy named Hoyt Axton. He sings a song called ?I?m A Good Old Rebel?. Listened to it again this morning. There some words that might apply to US troops who fought in Vietnam, especially when the Vietnam government is complaining about Bob Kerry.

?I killed a chance of Yankees (VC),
And I?d liked to kill some more.
300,000 Yankees is stiff in Southern dust,
We got 300,000 before they conquered us.
They died of Southern fever and southern steel and shot,
I wish we got three million instead of what we got.?

?? I aint asked any pardon for anything I done.?

The War is long over and I try to harbor no ill will towards the Republic of. However, if they want to start throwing rocks, it sure works both ways. I?ve still never heard of one single grunt from the 25th Division who was ever taken prisoner. If your going to play that game, you get what you give. Phuck the government of Vietnam and the water buffalo they rode in on.

Stay healthy,
Ol unreconstructed Andy

[Keith_Hixson]

What the North Vietnam did to the Southerns after the war, especially the Mountain people was as bad / worse as anything the U.S. troops did. When we accuse we often have three fingers pointing back at us.

Keith

[usmcsgt65]

It is the same old story from a couple of months ago. Kerry in his book talks about civilians getting in the line of fire as the VC and NVA fired on his team. They returned fire to elimnate the thread.

[ssgtron]

Just like any other VietNam Vet, either in this post or, others who may read this.....Kerry was caught up in a moment of horror and had no time to stop and analyze the situation. Kerry's experience happened everyday in Nam and all of us who served there have seen atrocities that will remain etched in our minds for the rest of our lives. During the time I was there (68-69) I met some friends who I will never forget. I didn't like Nam but, when it came time for me to leave, I had mixed feelings about coming home to a country who was protesting everything I did over there. I wore my uniform and got eggs thrown at me. You didn't see anyone throwing food in Nam.....it was eaten. The people who critisize our actions in VietNam the most are those who never served in the military. I don't condone what happened at the Kerry incident but, I do understand how easy it happened and how common it was.
Semper Fi,
Ron

[Arrow]

you can bet your sweet ass this pic never got much press, there or here..

[Arrow]

Vets With A Mission

www.vwam.com/

[Arrow]

Good Bye Ho Chi Minh
A Vietnam War Hero's Tale of Disillusionment
Book Title: Following Ho Chi Minh: Memoirs of a North Vietnamese
Colonel (Crawford House, New South Wales, 202 pages, A$24.95)

Written by Bui Tin
AS AN OFFICER AND a journalist for the North Vietnamese army newspaper, Bui Tin knew many of the political leaders of the post-French era in Indochina. Twice he made the dangerous journey down the Ho Chi Minh Trail, which was the main military supply route from the North through the Laotian panhandle to the South during the American phase of Vietnam's wars of independence. He was one of the first high-ranking communists to enter Saigon when the government of South Vietnam collapsed in 1975. That probably was the high point of his career. Bui Tin rapidly became disillusioned with the post-war regime as it sank into corruption and arrogance. Bui Tin was particularly appalled at the political humiliation of his long-time mentor, Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap, the hero of the Battle of Dien Bien Phu. But what turned him totally and irrevocably against the communist regime was the colonial attitude of his country's leaders toward Laos and Cambodia, which Vietnam's army invaded in 1979. Bui Tin fled Vietnam in 1990 and became a powerful critic of the communist regime from the safety of the U.S.

Quote from his book

In a recent interview published in The Wall Street Journal, former colonel Bui Tin who served on the general staff of the North Vietnamese Army and received the unconditional surrender of South Vietnam on April 30, 1975 confirmed the American Tet 1968 military victory: "Our loses were staggering and a complete surprise. Giap later told me that Tet had been a military defeat, though we had gained the planned political advantages when Johnson agreed to negotiate and did not run for reelection.

The second and third waves in May and September were, in retrospect, mistakes. Our forces in the South were nearly wiped out by all the fighting in 1968. It took us until 1971 to reestablish our presence but we had to use North Vietnamese troops as local guerrillas. If the American forces had not begun to withdraw under Nixon in 1969, they could have punished us severely.

We suffered badly in 1969 and 1970 as it was." And on strategy: "If Johnson had granted Westmoreland's requests to enter Laos and block the Ho Chi Minh trail, Hanoi could not have won the war.... it was the only way to bring sufficient military power to bear on the fighting in the South. Building and maintaining the trail was a huge effort involving tens of thousands of soldiers, drivers, repair teams, medical stations, communication units .... our operations were never compromised by attacks on the trail. At times, accurate B-52 strikes would cause real damage, but we put so much in at the top of the trail that enough men and weapons to prolong the war always came out the bottom .... if all the bombing had been concentrated at one time, it would have hurt our efforts. But the bombing was expanded in slow stages under Johnson and it didn't worry us. We had plenty of time to prepare alternative routes and facilities. We always had stockpiles of rice ready to feed the people for months if a harvest was damaged. The Soviets bought rice from Thailand for us. And the left: "Support for the war from our rear was completely secure while the American rear was vulnerable. Every day our leadership would listen to world news over the radio at 9AM to follow the growth of the antiwar movement.

Visits to Hanoi by Jane Fonda and former Attorney General Ramsey Clark and ministers gave us confidence that we should hold on in the face of battlefield reverses. We were elated when Jane Fonda, wearing a red Vietnamese dress, said at a press conference that she was ashamed of American actions in the war and would struggle along with us .... those people represented the conscience of America .... part of it's war- making capability, and we turning that power in our favor."

Bui Tin went on to serve as the editor of the People's Daily, the official newspaper of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Disillusioned with the reality of Vietnamese communism Bui Tin now lives in Paris.