I don't know if anyone else has heard Kerry's Senate testimony on Vietnam in 1971. I never had. Today I heard it for the first time... (my comments below)
But, if you haven't listened to the testimony before, or haven't heard it lately... you can find it here: Kerry's 1971 Testimony. And you should give it a listen.
(Links to the streams are up at the top. The testimony starts at the 5 minute mark)
I've been keeping some right-wing hate radio on in the background... just to see what is really there (and it's ugly). Today, the local right-wing radio station (WRKO 680AM Boston) surprised me -- they played Kerry's entire testimony unedited. They then of course, asked the loaded poll question, "Will Kerry's testimony hurt him enough to cost him the presidency" (Yes won 66% to 34% FWIW -- not bad for a haven of wingnuts).
But I was really moved and inspired by Kerry's testimony. Here was a man that spoke truth to power.
It was interesting... the first lady who got through to call after the testimony was played said, "I was impressed by the speech, I'm going to take a closer look at him". They hung up on her quick! The next person: "If Kerry was like that today, I would vote for him in a heartbeat." They hung up on her pretty fast too. Of course, they then finally got the screening right and it was just wingnuts after that. The host was very interesting... in a bad way. His basic take (paraphrase):
"This just shows how Kerry will support soldiers, and even be one, when it is politically expedient. He talks out of both sides of his mouth. But when it isn't convenient to support the war anymore he'll turn on the soldiers. You could replace "Vietnam" in Kerry's testimony with any other country, "Iraq", "Okinawa", "Afghanistan". A man never escapes his past and this is still in him. He cannot be trusted to protect us and he cannot be trusted to defend this country. He will not support our soldiers but will turn on them when he doesn't need them anymore."
I was shocked. I was also shocked by that this blowhard who talks in the isolated, echo chamber world of right-wing hate radio could get off saying that it wasn't courageous for Kerry to be in VVAW at the time. That WAS NOT a politically popular thing to do at the time. He also ignores that Kerry's testimony was very much a plea for support of the troops, a plea for respecting the sacrifices of veterans... it was not a repudiation of either.
The last caller was a Republican, who warned the radio host that if they were going to make this next election a referendum on the Vietnam war and whether Kerry was ultimately right in opposing it -- that that would be a losing strategy.
Indeed.
And, after listening to this testimony, I think I agree, to some extent, with the radio host. The man who sat testifying to the Senate is still part of John Kerry. He has not been afraid to talk truth to power in the past, and I believe he will be able to do so in the future.
Call me a convert. Kerry '04 has my full support, and it is no longer ABB support, but real support.
Kerry looking forward to today:
We wish that a merciful God could wipe away our own memories of that service as easily as this administration has wiped away their memories of us. But all that they have done, and all that they can do by this denial, is to make more clear than ever our own determination to undertake one last mission: To search out and destroy the last vestige of this barbaric war; to pacify our own hearts; to conquer the hate and fear that have driven this country these last ten years and more. And more. And so, when, thirty years from now, our brothers go down the street without a leg, without an arm, or a face, and small boys ask why, we will be able to say "Vietnam" and not mean a desert, not a filthy obscene memory, but mean instead where America finally turned, and where soldiers like us helped it in the turning.
