As
its dominant tactic in their battle against the war, the antiwar movement
successfully demonized Vietnam veterans by calling a series of
"tribunals" or hearings into war crimes. But... they were packed with
pretenders and liars
-- historian Guenter Lewy, writing in "America in Vietnam"
April 22, 1971
-- John
Kerry testifies on behalf of the VVAW before the Senate Committee on Foreign
Affairs. He claims that American soldiers 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..." and that these
acts were "not isolated incidents but crimes committed on a day-to-day
basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command." Kerry
also accuses the U.S. military of "rampant" racism and of being
"more guilty than any other body" of violating the Geneva Conventions,
supports "Madame Binh's points" when asked to recommend a peace
proposal, and states that any reprisals against the South Vietnamese after an
American withdrawal would be "far, far less than the 200,000 a year who are
murdered by the United States of America."
--An American Viet vet website
Dear Papa-san Kerry
I met you at The Wall
Veterans Day 2002
You were busy signing autographs
I autographed for you this printed poem
Which I left there for my papa-sans,
58,000-plus souls who made the sacred sacrifice
That ultimately brought down communism in world politics...
For
A Purple Heart
Today
is a very special day
You have done a lot for America
You went to Nam, a war very far away
To keep Communism from attacking America
No one would understand the "theory"
Why would Communistic expansionism hurt?
Until September 11 hit you and me
Witnessing a piece of World Liberty crushed into dirt
American God has His hand on our beloved nation
Keeping other "gods" from taking our spirits
Communism would have spread its cancer
Had the Vietnam vets not stood up to the VC Communists.
Today is your blessed birthday
Your Purple Heart has lain there with a special say.
Linh Duy Vo
(The
Boy in the Poem)
August
3, 2002 ©
Offerings on Veterans Day
2002
© Copyright by Linh Duy Vo. All rights reserved.