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VVAW Statement on Robert Kerrey
By Clarence Fitch Chapter of VVAW
[Printer-Friendly Version] Recent news reports and the admissions of former US Senator
and Medal of Honor recipient Robert Kerrey that in 1969, he led
a six man SEAL team that killed 21 women, children and old men
in the village of Thanh Phong has once again focused public attention
on the ugly realities of the US war in Vietnam.
Knowledge of atrocities is not news to many Vietnam veterans.
When returning GIs began telling people what was happening, many
Americans
didnt want to believe it. In January 1971 the Winter Soldier Investigation
was organized by Vietnam Veterans Against the War and held in
Detroit. Over 100 combat vets testified there about atrocities
they had been involved in or witnessed as a direct result of the
US military policy of free fire zones, search and destroy missions
and body count as the measure of success.
The governments response was denial. They tried to discredit
the Winter Soldier hearings, calling the veterans who testified
imposters and
liars. In those cases they couldnt cover up, like the notorious
My Lai massacre, they put the blame on a few "bad apples"
while protecting those higher up the chain of command and in Washington.
The hard truth is that what happened that night in Thanh Phong
was approved in advance by US militarys rules of engagement. Much
of the
Mekong Delta had been designated as a free fire zone. The peasants
who lived there were considered the enemy and dead Vietnamese
became "VC killed" whether they were armed guerillas
or unarmed civilians. Although Kerreys Raiders failed in their
mission to "take out" a village leader, the Pentagon
considered it successful. He was even awarded a Bronze Star and
whatever he may think of that medal, he got it according to standard
operating procedure in Vietnam.
Kerrey?s admissions challenge attempts to rewrite the history
and distort peoples memories of that time. After the war ended,
right wing forces began a long term effort to convince the American
people that despite a few mistakes that were made, they were for
the right reasons. The unjust and criminal nature of the war was
being transformed into what Ronald Reagan called a "noble
cause".
The purpose of this revisionism was to confuse people and weaken
opposition to new military interventions. Strategies were developed
to manipulate public opinion, duck accountability and minimize
US casualties while waging war in Latin America and the Middle
East.
Now a small portion of the brutal facts are again before the
American public. Some have responded to Kerreys revelations by
painting him as the victim, ignoring the Vietnamese dead. Others
have pointed fingers at him, a bad soldier in a good war. In some
quarters, the differing versions of events have even been used
to justify the killings.
There can be no justification for what happened but the culpability
lies primarily with the politicians and generals who initiated,
planned and ran the war, not those who were sent to fight it.
Until we honestly face up to what happened in Vietnam and those
who are responsible, especially Johnson, Nixon, McNamara, Laird,
Rusk, Kissinger, Westmoreland and Abrams, are held accountable,
the past will continue to haunt us.
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