BoatBanter.com - OT George W. Bush & John F. Kerry, 1968 to 1973

George W. Bush & John F. Kerry, 1968 to 1973

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BUSH
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Bush's National Guard years
Before you fall for Dems' spin, here are the facts
by Byron York
The Hill

What do you really know about George W. Bush's time in the Air National
Guard?

That he didn't show up for duty in Alabama? That he missed a physical? That
his daddy got him in?

News coverage of the president's years in the Guard has tended to focus on
one brief portion of that time - to the exclusion of virtually everything
else. So just for the record, here, in full, is what Bush did:

The future president joined the Guard in May 1968. Almost immediately, he
began an extended period of training. Six weeks of basic training. Fifty-
three weeks of flight training. Twenty-one weeks of fighter-interceptor
training.

That was 80 weeks to begin with, and there were other training periods
thrown in as well. It was full-time work. By the time it was over, Bush had
served nearly two years.

Not two years of weekends. Two years.

After training, Bush kept flying, racking up hundreds of hours in F-102
jets. As he did, he accumulated points toward his National Guard service
requirements. At the time, guardsmen were required to accumulate a minimum
of 50 points to meet their yearly obligation.

According to records released earlier this year, Bush earned 253 points in
his first year, May 1968 to May 1969 (since he joined in May 1968, his
service thereafter was measured on a May-to-May basis).

Bush earned 340 points in 1969-1970. He earned 137 points in 1970-1971. And
he earned 112 points in 1971-1972. The numbers indicate that in his first
four years, Bush not only showed up, he showed up a lot. Did you know that?

That brings the story to May 1972 - the time that has been the focus of so
many news reports - when Bush "deserted" (according to anti-Bush filmmaker
Michael Moore) or went "AWOL" (according to Terry McAuliffe, chairman of
the Democratic National Committee).

Bush asked for permission to go to Alabama to work on a Senate campaign.
His superior officers said OK. Requests like that weren't unusual, says
retired Col. William Campenni, who flew with Bush in 1970 and 1971.

"In 1972, there was an enormous glut of pilots," Campenni says. "The
Vietnam War was winding down, and the Air Force was putting pilots in desk
jobs. In '72 or '73, if you were a pilot, active or Guard, and you had an
obligation and wanted to get out, no problem. In fact, you were helping
them solve their problem."

So Bush stopped flying. From May 1972 to May 1973, he earned just 56
points - not much, but enough to meet his requirement.

Then, in 1973, as Bush made plans to leave the Guard and go to Harvard
Business School, he again started showing up frequently.

In June and July of 1973, he accumulated 56 points, enough to meet the
minimum requirement for the 1973-1974 year.

Then, at his request, he was given permission to go. Bush received an
honorable discharge after serving five years, four months and five days of
his original six-year commitment. By that time, however, he had accumulated
enough points in each year to cover six years of service.

During his service, Bush received high marks as a pilot.

A 1970 evaluation said Bush "clearly stands out as a top notch fighter
interceptor pilot" and was "a natural leader whom his contemporaries look
to for leadership."

A 1971 evaluation called Bush "an exceptionally fine young officer and
pilot" who "continually flies intercept missions with the unit to increase
his proficiency even further." And a 1972 evaluation called Bush "an
exceptional fighter interceptor pilot and officer."

Now, it is only natural that news reports questioning Bush's service - in
The Boston Globe and The New York Times, on CBS and in other outlets -
would come out now. Democrats are spitting mad over attacks on John Kerry's
record by the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

And, as it is with Kerry, it's reasonable to look at a candidate's entire
record, including his military service - or lack of it. Voters are
perfectly able to decide whether it's important or not in November.

The Kerry camp blames Bush for the Swift boat veterans' attack, but anyone
who has spent much time talking to the Swifties gets the sense that they
are doing it entirely for their own reasons.

And it should be noted in passing that Kerry has personally questioned
Bush's service, while Bush has not personally questioned Kerry's.

In April - before the Swift boat veterans had said a word - Kerry said
Bush "has yet to explain to America whether or not, and tell the truth,
about whether he showed up for duty." Earlier, Kerry said, "Just because
you get an honorable discharge does not, in fact, answer that question."

Now, after the Swift boat episode, the spotlight has returned to Bush.

That's fine. We should know as much as we can.

And perhaps someday Kerry will release more of his military records as well.

http://www.hillnews.com/york/090904.aspx

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KERRY
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John Kerry's Trail of Treachery
By WinterSoldier.com
WinterSoldier.com
April 8, 2004

Early April, 1969 -- U.S. Naval Lieutenant John Kerry leaves Vietnam and is
soon reassigned as a personal aide and flag lieutenant to Rear Admiral
Walter F. Schlech, Jr. with the Military Sea Transportation Service based
in Brooklyn, New York.

November, 1969 -- In response to a public call from the Bertrand Russell
foundation in New York, Jeremy Rifkin and Tod Ensign launch a new
organization called Citizens Commissions of Inquiry (CCI) to publicize
American war crimes in Indochina.

November 22, 1969 -- During a fund-raising tour for GI deserters, Vietnam
Veterans Against the War, and the Black Panthers, Jane Fonda is quoted in
the Detroit Free Press as saying, "I would think that if you understood
what communism was, you would hope, you would pray on your knees that we
would someday become communist," and "The peace proposal of the Viet Cong
is the only honorable, just, possible way to achieve peace in Vietnam."

December, 1969 -- Kerry requests an early discharge from the Navy in order
to run for a Massachusetts congressional seat on an antiwar platform.

January 3, 1970 -- Kerry is discharged from active duty.

February 13, 1970 -- Candidate Kerry tells the Harvard Crimson, "I'm an
internationalist. I'd like to see our troops dispersed through the world
only at the directive of the United Nations," and that he wants "to almost
eliminate CIA activity."

February, 1970 -- CCI co-sponsors its first "commissions of inquiry" in
Toronto and Annapolis MD, and begins providing accounts of war crimes to
the press. During the next few months, the CCI holds events in Springfield
Massachusetts, Richmond, New York City, Buffalo, Boston, Minneapolis, Los
Angeles, and Portland Oregon.

March, 1970 -- Kerry drops out of the Fourth District congressional race to
make way for antiwar activist Father Robert F. Drinan, dean of Boston
College Law School, and later becomes chairman of Drinan's campaign. Drinan
defeats pro-war incumbent Philip Philbin in the Democratic primary and goes
on to win the general election.

May 7, 1970 -- Kerry appears on The Dick Cavett Show for the first time,
speaking in opposition to U.S. involvement in Vietnam.

May 23, 1970 -- Kerry marries Julia Stimson Thorne in New York.

Late May or early June, 1970 -- John and Julia Kerry travel to Paris on a
private trip. Kerry meets with Madam Win Thi Binh, the Foreign Minister of
the Provisional Revolutionary Government of Vietnam (PRG) -- the political
wing of the Vietcong -- and with representatives of Hanoi who were in Paris
for the peace talks.

June, 1970 -- Kerry joins Vietnam Veterans Against the War.

August, 1970 -- VVAW Executive Secretary Al Hubbard asks Tod Ensign and
Jeremy Rifkin of the CCI to join with the VVAW, the Reverend Dick Fernandez
of Clergy and Laymen Concerned about Vietnam (CALCAV), Jane Fonda, Mark
Lane and others to organize national hearings on war crimes. Lane suggests
calling the hearings "Winter Soldier," a play on the opening lines of
Thomas Paine's The American Crisis: "These are the times that try men's
souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis,
shrink for the service of his country; but he that stands it now, deserves
the love and thanks of man and woman." By the end of the month the Winter
Soldier Investigation has been planned as a simultaneous event
featuring "Vietnamese victims" in Windsor, Canada, and Vietnam veterans in
Detroit, connected by closed-circuit television.

September 4, 1970 -- Operation RAW (Rapid American Withdrawal). Some 75
VVAW members begin a three-day hike to Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. Along
the way they simulate war atrocities against civilians, and hand out flyers
to townspeople stating that they might have been raped, murdered or
tortured by the U.S. Infantry had they been Vietnamese, and claiming
that "American soldiers do these things every day."

September 7, 1970 -- At the conclusion of Operation RAW, a rally is held in
Valley Forge, featuring speeches by John Kerry, Jane Fonda, and Mark Lane.
Fonda is quoted as saying that "...My Lai was not an isolated incident but
rather a way of life for many of our military."

September 11, 1970 -- A VVAW Executive Committee meeting is attended by
president Jan Crumb, executive secretary Al Hubbard, treasurer Jason
Gettinger, Northeast representative John Kerry, and three others. The
organization leadership decides to picket against the National Guard
Association in New York, send Hubbard on a "speaking tour" with Jane Fonda,
consider an "appropriate induction center action for purpose of making
clear transition from citizen to war criminal," and "sponsor turn in of war
crimes testimony to UN" after the Winter Soldier event.

October, 1970 -- Jane Fonda and Al Hubbard raise money for the VVAW and
create new chapters through a nationwide lecture tour covering more than 50
college campuses. Fonda and Mark Lane also plug the VVAW during appearances
on the Dick Cavett Show.

November, 1970 -- After a falling-out between Mark Lane and the CCI
leadership, the CCI splits from the VVAW and drops out of the Winter
Soldier event. The CCI turns to planning a National Veterans Inquiry in
Washington, D.C. in early December. Fonda and Lane continue working with
the VVAW on Winter Soldier.

December 27, 1970 -- In Mark Lane: Smearing America's Soldiers in Vietnam,
reporter and Vietnam veteran Neil Sheehan savages Mark Lane's Conversations
With Americans in the New York Times Book Review as "irresponsible" and
details several fabricated claims of American atrocities. Publisher Simon &
Schuster quickly cancels future printings of Lane's book.

December 29, 1970 -- Playboy subscribers start receiving the February 1971
issue of the magazine, which contains a full page ad provided for free to
the VVAW by publisher Hugh Hefner. The ad brings in thousands of new
members during the next several weeks.

January, 1971 -- Jane Fonda raises money for the Winter Soldier
Investigation through a series of benefit concerts. Participants include
Fonda, Dick Gregory, Donald Sutherland, Graham Nash, David Crosby and Phil
Ochs.

Late January, 1971 -- Newly elected Congressman Ronald Dellums permits the
CCI to set up a display of "war crime materials" in his Washington office.

Late January, 1971 -- Canadian authorities deny visas to the Vietnamese
refugees who had been scheduled to describe American atrocities in Windsor,
limiting the Winter Soldier Investigation to the single event in Detroit.

January 31 - February 2, 1971 -- The Winter Soldier Investigation. Members
of the VVAW meet in a Detroit hotel to document war crimes that they had
participated in or witnessed during their combat tours in Vietnam. During
the next three days, more than 100 Vietnam veterans and 16 civilians give
anguished, emotional testimony describing hundreds of atrocities against
innocent civilians in South Vietnam, including rape, arson, torture,
murder, and the shelling or napalming of entire villages. The witnesses
state that these acts are being committed casually and routinely, under
orders, as a matter of policy.

February, 1971 -- VVAW leaders meet with Vietcong representatives in
Windsor, Canada after the Winter Soldier Investigation.

February 19, 1971 -- VVAW leaders meet in New York to plan the
organization's next action. John Kerry proposes to "march on Washington and
take this whole thing to Congress." The protest is designated "Dewey Canyon
III," after two military operations into Laos intended to interdict the Ho
Chi Minh Trail.

Early 1971 -- Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland form "FTA" (F*** The Army),
an anti-war, anti-American road show that tours near Army bases in order to
undermine troop morale. Skits and songs portray American defeats, soldiers
refusing to fight, and the murder of officers by their troops. FTA cast
members mingle with soldiers after the shows, encouraging them to desert or
to sabotage the Army.

March, 1971 -- Jane Fonda meets privately in Paris with Madame Binh of the
PRG. Fonda then flies to London where according to the book "Citizen Jane"
she alleges American atrocities that include "applying electrodes to
prisoners' genitals, mass rapes, slicing off of body parts, scalping,
skinning alive, and leaving 'heat tablets' around which burned the insides
of children who ate them.'"

March 16, 1971 -- John Kerry holds a news conference with retired general
David Shoup in a congressional hearing room.

Early April, 1971 -- The VVAW is flat broke the week before the Dewey
Canyon III event, with no way to transport protestors. In his book "Home to
War," Gerald Nicosia will report that "Kerry immediately got on the phone
to some of the biggest Democratic Party fund-raisers in New York and set up
a meeting. When it broke up, VVAW was $75,000 in the black, and busfare for
at least a few hundred out-of-towners was assured." Writing in "Winter
Soldiers," Richard Stacewicz will cite an FBI memorandum dated April 13,
1971 as follows, "VVAW had received fifty thousand dollars from United
States Senators McGovern and Hatfield, who... obtained the money from an
unknown New York source."

April 18, 1971 -- John Kerry and Al Hubbard appear on NBC's "Meet the
Press" to allege widespread atrocities by U.S. soldiers in Vietnam. Hubbard
is introduced as a former Air Force captain who had spent two years in
Vietnam and was wounded in action. Kerry seems to admit to committing war
crimes, saying, "There are all kinds of atrocities, and I would have to say
that, yes, yes, I committed the same kind of atrocities as thousands of
other soldiers have committed in that I took part in shootings in free fire
zones. I conducted harassment and interdiction fire. I used 50 calibre
machine guns, which we were granted and ordered to use, which were our only
weapon against people. I took part in search and destroy missions, in the
burning of villages."

April 18 - 23, 1971 -- Operation Dewey Canyon III. More than a thousand
VVAW members stage an "invasion" of Washington D.C., where they hold
memorial ceremonies, meet with sympathetic members of Congress, camp on the
Mall, perform "guerilla theater" -- re-enactments of atrocities against
civilians, complete with fake blood -- on the Capitol steps and in front of
the Justice Department, and hold a candlelight march around the White House
carrying an upside-down American flag. At the end of the six-day event, a
number of the veterans throw military medals and ribbons over a fence in
front of the Capitol in a gesture of contempt. Many shout obscenities or
threats against the government. The protests receive enthusiastic coverage
in the communist Daily World newspaper on April 20th (Part 1, Part 2), 21st
(Part 1, Part 2), 23rd (Part 1, Part 2), and 24th (Part 1, Part 2). Later
in 1971, Kerry and the VVAW will publish The New Soldier, a book of essays
and photographs documenting the event.

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."

April 22, 1971 -- The NBC Nightly News reveals that Al Hubbard had not been
an Air Force Captain, as he claimed, but a staff sergeant E-5. A later
investigation of Hubbard's military records shows that he was never
assigned to Vietnam.

April 25 - 28, 1971 -- Congressman Dellums sponsors ad hoc war crimes
hearings organized by the CCI and attended at least in part by twenty
members of Congress.

April 27, 1971 -- Hundreds of thousands of protestors march in Washington,
D.C., led by members of the VVAW. Kerry spoke to the crowd, accepting
applause on behalf of "the 1,200 active-duty GIs who took part in the
[Dewey Canyon III] demonstration." The Daily World is on the job, with
glowing coverage of the day's events (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4).

May 3, 1971 -- VVAW members throw bags of cow manure on the steps of the
Mall Entrance to the Pentagon, then offer to clean up the mess in return
for an audience with an assistant Secretary of Defense. This offer is
rejected, and 28 people are arrested and charged with disorderly conduct.

May 25, 1971 -- Kerry appears on 60 Minutes with Morley Safer. Asked
whether he wants to be President of the United States, Kerry replies in the
negative, and calls it a "crazy question."

June 20, 1971 -- Kerry appears on The Dick Cavett Show to debate Navy
veteran John O'Neill, who is representing a group called Veterans for a
Just Peace put together by the Nixon Administration.

July 17, 1971 -- Following a month-long speaking tour of the Soviet Union
and other countries, six VVAW and CCI members meet with PRG representatives
in Paris to show support for the communist peace plan.

July 20, 1971 -- Leaders of the VVAW hold a staff meeting. They agree to
use the designations favored by North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of
Vietnam) and the Vietcong (Provisional Revolutionary Government) for future
press releases, decide to remove all American flags from VVAW offices, and
discuss how best to handle Al Hubbard's planned trip to Hanoi.

July 24, 1971 -- the Daily World features a photograph of John Kerry
speaking in support of the Provisional Revolutionary Government (Vietcong)
Seven Point Plan.

August, 1971 -- VVAW Executive Committee member Joe Urgo travels with other
antiwar leaders to North Vietnam, where he meets with Prime Minister Pham
Van Dong.

August, 1971 -- The FBI opens a full investigation of the VVAW
to "determine the extent of control over VVAW by subversive groups and/or
violence-prone elements in the antiwar movement," noting that "sources had
provided information that VVAW was stockpiling weapons, VVAW had been in
contact with North Vietnam officials in Paris, France, VVAW was receiving
funds from former CPUSA members and VVAW was aiding and financing U.S.
military deserters. Additionally, information had been received that some
individual chapters throughout the country had been infiltrated by the
youth groups of the CPUSA and the SWP [Socialist Workers Party]." Source:
FBI Memorandum to Senate Select Committee, 12/2/75, pp. 2-3; Hearings, Vol.
6, Exhibit 72.

Late August, 1971 -- Kerry and Hubbard meet with leftist millionaires in
East Hampton to promote the VVAW and show film clips of atrocity claims
from the Winter Soldier Investigation. According to the New York Times, a
request for funds had the attendees "scrambling for pens and checkbooks."

November 12-15, 1971 -- the VVAW leadership meets in Kansas City. Fearing
surveillance by authorities, the group relocates the meeting to another
building. They debate, then vote down a plan to assassinate several pro-war
U.S. Senators. Several witnesses, meeting minutes and FBI records
eventually place John Kerry at this meeting.

December 26, 1971 -- Fifteen VVAW protesters take over the Statue of
Liberty and drape a large upside-down American flag across the statue's
face.

December 27, 1971 -- Twenty-five VVAW protesters take over the Betsy Ross
House in Philadelphia, hanging an upside-down American flag in front of the
house.

December 28, 1971 -- 150 VVAW protesters splash bags of blood in front of
the White House, then take over the Lincoln Memorial. 87 are arrested.

January 11, 1972 -- John Kerry represents the VVAW at Dartmouth College.

January 25, 1972 -- John Kerry represents the VVAW at the "People's State
of the Union" in Washington, D.C.

February, 1972 -- A VVAW delegation attends a World Assembly for Peace and
Independence of the People of Indochina in Versailles, France.

April 22, 1972 -- John Kerry represents the VVAW at the "Emergency March
for Peace" in Bryant Park in New York City.

July 8 - 22, 1972 -- Jane Fonda visits Hanoi, where she makes numerous
radio broadcasts to American military personnel, encouraging mutiny and
desertion while repeatedly claiming that the United States is committing
war crimes in Vietnam. Fonda also visits American prisoners, reporting on
the air that they are being "well cared for" and that they wished to convey
their "sense of disgust of the war and their shame for what they have been
asked to do." Upon leaving North Vietnam, Fonda accepts from her hosts a
ring made from the wreckage of a downed American plane.

September 18, 1972 -- John Kerry's brother Cameron and Vietnam veteran
Thomas Vallely are arrested in Lowell, Massachusetts in the basement of a
building that houses both Kerry's campaign headquarters and those of
opposing candidate Tony DiFruscia. Cameron Kerry and Vallely are charged
with breaking and entering with the intent to commit larceny. Kerry will
win the Democratic nomination for a Massachusetts congressional seat the
next day, but lose in the general election to Republican Paul Cronin.
Thomas Vallely will later become director of the Vietnam Program at the
John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.

Late 1972 -- The U.S Congress votes to eliminate funding for military
operations in Indochina.

January, 1973 -- The Nixon Administration signs the Treaty of Paris.

February and March, 1973 -- American prisoners of war are released by North
Vietnam. They report having been starved, beaten and tortured by their
captors, in an effort to make them sign documents in which they admitted to
committing war crimes.

April, 1973 -- Jane Fonda calls the freed American prisoners "hypocrites
and pawns," insisting that, "Tortured men do not march smartly off planes,
salute the flag, and kiss their wives. They are liars. I also want to say
that these men are not heroes."

http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/Rea...e.asp?ID=12920

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