The Honor Lost May Be Redeemed

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Many of you may recall the documentary “Stolen Honor: Wounds that never heal” that was made in 2004. The film focused on Kerry’s claims before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in April 1971 that his fellow Vietnam veterans were committing “war crimes” on a genocidal scale.

The film examined the impact these words and claims had on hundreds of POW’s being held at that time and the many Vietnam veterans since then.
While it was an important film, and needed to be seen worldwide, this was prevented by Kerry and his fellow lefty cohorts who railed against the Sinclair Broadcasting Company. They were successful in browbeating the company to only allow the film to be played on a few local network channels.

But now there are some interesting developments:

Thirty five years ago John Kerry slandered an entire generation of men who fought in Vietnam branding them as a “war criminals.” Today, much of the same thing is being said about our young men and women in Iraq.

Now, a lawsuit filed in Philadelphia’s Court of Common Pleas will test the very foundation of Kerry’s anti-war persona for the first time. It isn’t dubious medals or Kerry’s disputed service record in Vietnam that is being called into question. This time Kerry may finally be forced to answer for the events that launched his public career, one that made him an anti-war hero for many American liberals and a turncoat for millions of Vietnam veterans.

The lawsuit (Vietnam Veterans Legacy Foundation, et al. v. Kenneth Campbell, et al.) challenges the basis, the factual accuracy of then-Lt. (j.g.) Kerry’s acrimonious testimony before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1971. It was there Kerry’s public career was catapulted with his now ubiquitous portrayal of American soldiers as murderers, rapists and torturers “who ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam . . . [and] razed villages in a fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan.”

Kerry said then his accusations were based on the so-called “testimony” of “150 honorably discharged” Vietnam veterans who, like himself, claimed to have committed or witnessed “war crimes, not isolated incidents but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command.”

Many if not all were members of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW), an organization led by Kerry and financed by Jane Fonda during the early 1970s. Now, a number of those “witnesses” will be required to testify, under oath for the first time ever, about what they really did and saw in Vietnam.

What these VVAW witnesses say could have implications reaching beyond Kerry’s veracity and reputation. Their lasting portrait of the American soldier as a blood-thirsty butcher, a baby killer, is also at stake. And that picture remains entrenched among their kind, “proof” that those serving in the U.S. military, even today, truly are a “horde of barbarians” capable of unspeakable brutalities. That is the underlying theme, the constant drumbeat from the mainstream media and others as they try to undermine the American military today.

For the anti-war, anti-American protesters, the American soldiers are the “terrorists,” and the enemies are the victims of a barbaric U.S. military which tortures and murders defenseless civilians.

How this lawsuit came about is even more interesting. It has it’s history in a lawsuit filed by a fellow Kerry pal, Kenneth Campbell, who also testified at the Winter Soldier farce:

To guarantee Stolen Honor would never be seen by anyone – not even theatre-goers – the producer was slapped with a libel and defamation lawsuit. That lawsuit was filed by Kenneth Campbell, a University of Delaware professor, Kerry campaign aide, and long-time anti-war disciple of the Massachusetts Senator. Campbell co-founded the Philadelphia chapter of Vietnam Veterans Against the War and, in 1971, he was one of Kerry’s key war crimes “witnesses,” one of several on whom Kerry claims he based his Senate testimony.

Campbell was and still is regarded by some as one of the VVAW’s most articulate and publishedexperts on U.S. atrocities in Vietnam. He has “testified” before Congress, in Europe, and elsewhere that while in Vietnam he deliberately killed “dozens and dozens” of innocent civilians as a Marine artillery forward observer. He has written extensively about his and others’ atrocities in Vietnam and he even teaches a course on the Vietnam War that showcases his war crime accusations. Campbell, like Kerry, met with enemy delegations — Vietcong and North Vietnam Communist officials — in Paris in 1971 while he was still a U.S. uniformed reservist. He was also flown to Moscow that same year to meet with other Communist leaders, all expenses paid by the Soviets.

Campbell’s lawsuit put a unique spin on the definition of defamation: He claimed that Stolen Honor damaged the public reputations of himself, Kerry and others by questioning whether they truly were the baby-killers they claimed to be!

[…]For our efforts, we were promptly sued by Campbell and another long-time anti-war Kerry follower and VVAW member, Dr. Jon Bjornson. It was clear that Kerry not only wanted to punish us for Stolen Honor; he intended to use surrogates to sue us into permanent silence and financial ruin.

But in lawsuits, even defendants have an opportunity to question the accuser under oath in pre-trial depositions — even when a lawsuit is filed solely to harass, intimidate and silence and when the legal system is abused for political vengeance, as these lawsuits clearly were.

Our chance came earlier this year when Kenneth Campbell was deposed. Among the first thing he disclosed was that this was the first time he had actually been put under oath in over 35 years of “testifying” about Vietnam “war crimes.” Neither he nor any of his fellow “war criminals” – Kerry included – had ever been sworn in at any hearings, not before the Senate, the House of Representatives, or anywhere.

All of the so-called “testimony” the old mainstream media trumpeted for nearly four decades — graphic, sickening and grisly “testimony” about savage atrocities committed by Vietnam veterans, “testimony” to which Congress and the media gave so much weight and credibility — wasn’t “testimony” at all! Just propagandist speeches told without limitation or fear of consequences, least of all penalties for perjury. As for the “war crimes” Campbell claimed for years he committed and personally witnessed, he now conceded he didn’t actually see innocent civilians killed by his artillery barrages. In fact, if anyone had been killed or wounded, he admitted, they may not have been civilians at all! Concerning other atrocities Campbell identified in his lawsuits — things like Marines massacring an entire village, killing surrendering enemy soldiers — those incidents, too, failed to stand up under questioning. Some were things he said he had heard or assumed happened; others, he acknowledged, were simply “rumors.”

That Campbell alleged personal knowledge of horrible atrocities in his complaints and then gave wholly different stories of hearsay and assumption at his deposition is detailed in the recently filed Philadelphia lawsuit, which repeatedly alleges that Campbell lied about supposed war crimes in 1971 and lied again when he claimed in 2004 that his war crime stories were true.

While hard evidence may have been in short supply during his sworn testimony, Campbell did offer the names of “witnesses” who would confirm his stories. Not surprisingly, the first two were Kerry State Veterans Campaign Coordinators and long-time VVAW organizers in Florida and Massachusetts.

Subpoenas were served on both men but, before either could be deposed, one checked himself into a hospital for elective back surgery and the other had himself arrested and committed to a mental institution. At last press reports, he was released from the psychiatric hospital and fled the country to Vietnam via Hawaii.

Both men clearly knew what was coming, as did Campbell. For the first time in nearly four decades they would be forced to answer for their alleged “war crimes,” their slanderous accusations against their fellow soldiers finally examined, under oath.

It was just a matter of days before all the lawsuits were withdrawn, nearly two years of costly litigation abruptly ended, Campbell’s libel claims ground to dust under the weight of his own testimony.

Amazing isn’t it? When it came time for people to be put under oath all of sudden they are leaving the country and checking themselves into hospitals. Not very suspicious huh? All this comes on the heels of Kerry boasting he was going to “fight back” against the Swift Boat guys:

Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry lashed out Sunday against a group that bashed him during his last run at the White House.

Kerry, who made a weekend appearance in northwest Iowa, said he is concerned that Swift Boat Veterans for Truth is again resorting to “the politics of fear and smear.”

The group, financed by Texas conservatives, ran commercials questioning his record of being a decorated Vietnam veteran — the centerpiece of his presidential campaign in 2004.

“We’re not going to give them an ounce of daylight,” said Kerry, who is considering another run at the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008.

Sure think Mr. Kerry. God willing these Winter Soldiers will be forced to testify UNDER OATH about what they really know, and I doubt it will be much.

Because of them millions of Vietnam Veterans have had their memories and legacy dragged through the mud.

Maybe, just maybe, things will be righted.

If you have a chance, head over to their organizations website at Vietnam Veterans Legacy Foundation and donate a few buck.

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