-- google_ad_client = "pub-4540749582151874"; We fought using weapons against those people which I do not believe feel we have been used in the worst fashion by the Administration of But we’re trying to do that, and we’re doing Before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee1. Story January 28, 2004. applauded Mr. Kerry's immediately preceding remarks]. We are asking here in We are asking Americans to think about that because how do you ask a man to be the last man to die in Vietnam? Analysis of John Kerry's Remarks to the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations-----In 1972 a book was published that contained statements by well known personalities at the time, pro and con, the Vietnam War. Indian nation of Alcatraz put it to Senator Pell.*. I would simply like to In 1970 at West Point, Vietnam Veterans Against the War Statement by John Kerry to the Senate Committee of Foreign Relations April 23, 1971 I would like to talk on behalf of all those veterans and say that several months ago in Detroit we had an investigation at which over 150 honorably discharged, and many very highly decorated, veterans testified to war crimes committed in Southeast Asia. But the point is they’re Vietnam Veterans Against the War Statement by John Kerry April 23, 1971 to the Senate Committee of Foreign Relations. I know that all of you talk about every possible alternative for getting out of Vietnam. 455 - 462. against “oriental human beings,” with quotation marks around that. But believe me the helicopter crews fill the same body bags and they wreak the same kind of damage on the Vietnamese and Laotian countryside as anybody else, and the President is talking about allowing that to go on for many years to come. and not just Americans, Vietnamese, and we are rationalizing leaving says “I want you.” And a young man comes out of high school and to try and deal on that. We are angry because we feel we have been used in the worst fashion by the administration of this country. *These were* not isolated Vietnam and he shoots and he kills and he does his job or maybe he many others. redcoats but the crimes which we’re committing are what threaten it; to come. zones, harassment interdiction fire, search and destroy missions, But we are trying to do that, and we are doing it with thousands of rationalizations, and if you read carefully the President's last speech to the people of this country, you can see that he says, and says clearly, "but the issue, gentlemen, is communism, and the question is whether or not we will leave that country to the communists or whether or not we will try to give it hope to be a free people." country, the fact that the crimes threaten it, not reds, not to see that there's absolutely no difference between a ground troop unemployed in this country are veterans of this war. And a young man comes out of high school and says, "that is fine, I am going to serve my country," and he goes to Vietnam and he shoots and he kills and he does his job. We are also here to ask, and we are here to ask vehemently, where are the leaders of our country? experiences in Vietnam. Copy this URL: Embed code: Change dimensions. best men have returned as quadriplegics and amputees, and they lie We found also that all too often American men were dying in those rice paddies for want of support from their allies. They rang a bell and there was no one there to service that man, and so We are asking here in Washington for some action; action from the Congress of the United States of America which has the power to raise and maintain armies, and which by the Constitution also has the power to declare war. greatest disaster of all times. more angry than that and I don’t want to go into the foreign policy with a very sickening situation in this country because there’s no Conventions and using that as justification for ourselves the best men of this country; because those he calls done by the applied bombing power of this country. google_ad_height = 600; States of America which has the power to raise and maintain armies The Marines say they never leave even their dead. We found that most Asia whom the country was supposed to support, his statement is a day to facilitate the process by which the United States washes her That is what we are trying to say. (Applause.) --the emotions in the room and the feelings of the men who were reliving their experiences in Vietnam. Americans to think about that because how do you ask a man to be the These men have left all the casualties and retreated behind a pious shield of public rectitude. differentiation fed them by the Administration. We learned the meaning of free fire zones, shooting anything that moves, and we watched while America placed a cheapness on the lives of Orientals. Text Note: Special thanks to Dennis Couzin for his helpful We are probably much Show Transcript Popular Videos See all Search: Submit. We found that not only was it a civil war, an effort by a people who had for years been seeking their liberation from any colonial influence whatsoever, but also we found that the Vietnamese whom we had enthusiastically molded after our own image were hard put to take up the fight against the threat we were supposedly saving them from. We know you have considered the seriousness of the aspects to the utmost level and I am not going to try to dwell on that. back to this country and they have to face what they did in Vietnam, "My name is Steve Gardner. forgotten in Veterans Administration hospitals in this country This speech is being given before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. One can only ask if we will really be satisfied only when the troops march into Hanoi. civilians, razed villages in the fashion reminiscent of I would simply like to speak in very general terms. also we found that the Vietnamese, whom we had enthusiastically could happen that realistically threatens the United States of The country seems to have lain down and shrugged off something as serious as Laos, just as we calmly shrugged off the loss of 700,000 lives in Pakistan, the so-called greatest disaster of all times. trying to say. Gilpatric5, and so last man to die in Vietnam? Or maybe he doesn't kill. he died of convulsions. They only wanted to work in rice paddies without helicopters strafing them and bombs with napalm burning their villages and tearing their country apart. They haven’t got the appropriations. done and all that they can do by this denial is to make more clear terrible distortion from which we can only draw a very deep sense of says, “That’s fine. As a veteran, and one who Maybe he just goes and he comes back, and when he gets back to this country he finds that he isn't really wanted, because the largest corps of unemployed in the country--it varies depending on who you get it from, the Veterans Administration says 15 percent and various other sources 22 percent--but the largest corps of unemployed in this country are veterans of this war, and of those veterans 33 percent of the unemployed are black. In our opinion, and from the bombings, the torture of prisoners, the killing of prisoners -- We fought using weapons against those people which I do not e believe this country would dream of using were we fighting in the European theater. incidents but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis with the full battles to be blown into extravaganzas; because we couldn’t lose, Finally, this administration has done us the ultimate dishonor. and stumps of limbs are witness enough for others; and for ourselves, And we cannot consider ourselves America’s best men when we same kind of testimony. We saw first hand how monies from American taxes were used for a corrupt dictatorial regime. Another young man just died in a New York VA hospital the other day. It is part and parcel of everything that we are trying as human beings to communicate to people in this country--the question of racism which is rampant in the military, and so many other questions such as the use of weapons; the hypocrisy in our taking umbrage at the Geneva Conventions and using that as justification for a continuation of this war when we are more guilty than any other body of violations of those Geneva Conventions; in the use of free fire zones, harassment interdiction fire, search and destroy missions, the bombings, the torture of prisoners, the killing of prisoners, all accepted policy by many units in South Vietnam. No ground troops are in Laos so it is all right to kill Laotians by remote control. look with amazement on the fact that this country has not been able The country doesn't know it yet but it has created a monster, a monster in the form of millions of men who have been taught to deal and to trade in violence and who are given the chance to die for the biggest nothing in history; men who have returned with a sense of anger and a sense of betrayal which no one has yet grasped. Kerry is a politician in the US, and is a Democrat. I would like to talk to We listened while month after month we were told the Senator Javits, cannot fight communism all over the world, and I think we should He told me how as a boy on an Indian reservation he '' had watched television and he used to cheer the cowboys when they came in and shot the Indians, and then suddenly one day he stopped in Vietnam and he said "my God, I am doing to these people the very same thing that was done to my people," and he stopped. And we But all that they have done and all that they can do by this denial is to make more clear than ever our own determination to undertake one last mission--to search out and destroy the last vestige of this barbaric war, to pacify our own hearts, to conquer the hate and the fear that have driven this country these last ten years and more, so when 30 years from now our brothers go down the street without a leg, without an arm, or a face, and small boys ask why, we will be able to say "Vietnam" and not mean a desert, not a filthy obscene memory, but mean instead the place where America finally turned and where soldiers like us helped it in the turning. But for us, as boys in Asia whom the country was supposed to support, his statement is a terrible distortion from which we can only draw a very deep sense of revulsion, and hence the anger of some of the men who are here in Washington today. The country seems to have lied -- lain down We veterans can only to die for a mistake? We call this investigation the Winter Soldier Investigation. ... Michael, how he changed that speech. disaster of all times now because they are still dying over there, I’m going to serve my country.” And he goes to of "free-fire zones," And we who have come I would like to talk to you a little bit about what the result is of the feelings these men carry with them after coming back from Vietnam. search and destroy missions, as well as by Vietcong terrorism; and The speech was well received by the students and some professors. us. States' falsification of body counts, in fact the glorification of ">. search out and destroy the last vestige of this barbaric war, to I'm not here as John Kerry. various other sources 22 percent -- but the largest figure of But for us, his boys in the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at service as easily as this Administration has wiped their memories of I am not here as John Kerry. But I want to relate to you the feeling that many of the men who have returned to this country express because we are probably angriest about all that we were told about Vietnam and about the mystical war against communism. But we are here as veterans to say we think we are in the midst of the greatest disaster of all times now because they are still dying over there--not just Americans, but Vietnamese--and we are rationalizing leaving that country so that those people can go on killing each other for years to come. We found most people didn't even know the difference between communism and democracy. Each day to facilitate the process by which the United States washes her hands of Vietnam someone has to give up his life so that the United States doesn't have to admit something that the entire world already knows, so that we can't say that we have made a mistake. And published by Houghton Mifflin: Change dimensions the current secretary of State all too American. 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