Kerry and his handlers need to downplay his Vietnam record due to the huge downside potential. Kerry risks alienation of red meat Democrats with his post Vietnam criticism of veterans and anti-war Democrats with his boast of war crimes.
Kerry complained about Amercian soldiers in Vietnam while testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on April 23, 1971.
Kerry claimed that U.S. soldiers had "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, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam."
Bush "AWOL" Story Fades Months before Election
The Bush "AWOL" issue appears to be a dead horse as more witnesses appear to buttress his service in Alabama in 1972-73.
Doctor recalls treating Bush
http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/NEWS/StoryLocalbush15w.htm
Kerry and War Crimes
The downside for Kerry is large as there is an effort under way to explore his self declared assertion that he committed war crimes in Vietnam.
Portion of John Kerry remarks on NBC's "Meet the Press" May 6, 2001:
MR. RUSSERT: You mentioned you're a military guy. There's been a lot of discussion about Bob Kerrey, your former Democratic colleague in the Senate, about his talking about his anguish about what happened in Vietnam. You were on this program 30 years ago as a leader of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War. And we went back and have an audiotape of that and some still photos. And your comments are particularly timely in this overall discussion of Bob Kerrey. And I'd like for you to listen to those with our audience and then try to put that war into some context:
(Audiotape, April 18, 1971):
MR. CROSBY NOYES (Washington Evening Star): Mr. Kerry, you said at one time or another that you think our policies in Vietnam are tantamount to genocide and that the responsibility lies at all chains of command over there. Do you consider that you personally as a Naval officer committed atrocities in Vietnam or crimes punishable by law in this country?
KERRY: 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. All of this is contrary to the laws of warfare, all of this is contrary to the Geneva Conventions and all of this is ordered as a matter of written established policy by the government of the United States from the top down. And I believe that the men who designed these, the men who designed the free fire zone, the men who ordered us, the men who signed off the air raid strike areas, I think these men, by the letter of the law, the same letter of the law that tried Lieutenant Calley, are war criminals.
(End audiotape)
MR. RUSSERT: Thirty years later, you stand by that?
SEN. KERRY: I don't stand by the genocide. I think those were the words of an angry young man. We did not try to do that. But I do stand by the description-I don't even believe there is a purpose served in the word "war criminal." I really don't. But I stand by the rest of what happened over there, Tim.
I mean, you know, we-it was-I mean, we've got to put this war in its right perspective and time helps us do that. I believe very deeply that it was a noble effort to begin with. I signed up. I volunteered. I wanted to go over there and I wanted to win. It was a noble effort to try to make a country democratic; to try to carry our principles and values to another part of the world. But we misjudged history. We misjudged our own country. We misjudged our strategy. And we fell into a dark place. All of us. And I think we learned that over time. And I hope the contribution that some of us made as veterans was to come back and help people understand that.
http://www.vietnamveteransagainstjohnkerry.com/page2.html
Additionally, opposition research is looking for Kerry's NAVMC Form 1650 - Recommendation for Personal Award to determine if he recommended himself for his decorations for service in Vietnam.
President Bush's "AWOL" story has had it's run and the press has largely ignored Kerry recently. Perhaps, the press is in a self-flagellation mode after it's heavy handed treament of Dean.
