Kerry met with North Vietnamese to find out about POWs

[sangh0]

Thanks to A_Possum for posting this.

When someone repeats the RNC lie that Kerry "negotiated" with our enemies, inform them that Kerry went to find out if the North Voetnamese were going to return the US POW's they were holding

Kerry, the Congressional Record, 1971

The Chairman: Do you support or do you have any particular views about any one of them you wish to give the committee?

Mr. Kerry: My feeling, Senator, is undoubtedly this Congress, and I don't mean to sound pessimistic, but I do not believe that this Congress will, in fact, end the war as we would like to, which is immediately and unilaterally and, therefore, if I were to speak I would say we would set a date and the date obviously would be the earliest possible date. But I would like to say, in answering that, that I do not believe it is necessary to stall any longer. I have been to Paris. I have talked with both delegations at the peace talks, that is to say the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the Provisional Revolutionary Government and of all eight of Madam Binh's points it has been stated time and time again, and was stated by Senator Vance Hartke when he returned from Paris, and it has been stated by many other officials of this Government, if the United States were to set a date for withdrawal the prisoners of war would be returned. (The same POW's who were so "devastated" by this attempt to get them freed sooner rather than later?)

I think this negates very clearly the argument of the President that we have to maintain a presence in Vietnam, to use as a negotiating block for the return of those prisoners. The setting of a date will accomplish that...




Mr. Kerry: Senator, if I may interject, I think that what we are trying to say is we do have a method. We believe we do have a plan, and that plan is that if this body were by some means either to permit a special referendum in this country so that the country itself might decide and therefore avoid this recrimination which people constantly refer to or if they couldn't do that, at least do it through immediate legislation which would state there would be an immediate cease-fire and we would be willing to undertake negotiations for a coalition government. But at the present moment that is not going to happen, so we are talking about men continuing to die for nothing and I think there is a tremendous moral question here which the Congress of the United States is ignoring.

The Chairman: The congress cannot directly under our system negotiate a cease-fire or anything of this kind. Under our constitutional system we can advice the President. We have to persuade the President of the urgency of taking this action. Now we have certain ways in which to proceed. We can, of course, express ourselves in a resolution or we can pass an act which directly affects appropriations which is the most concrete positive way the Congress can express itself.

But Congress has no capacity under our system to go out and negotiate a cease-fire. We have to persuade the Executive to do this for the country.

Mr. Kerry: Mr. Chairman, I realize that full well as a student of political science. I realize that we cannot negotiate treaties and I realize that even my visits in Paris, precedents had been set by Senator McCarthy and others, in a sense are on the borderline of private individuals negotiating, et cetera. I understand these things. But what I am saying is that I believe that there is a mood in this country which I know you are aware of and you have been one of the strongest critics of this war for the longest time. But I think if can talk in this legislative body about filibustering for porkbarrell programs, then we should start now to talk about filibustering for the saving of lives and of our country. (Applause.)

And this, Mr. Chairman, is what we are trying to convey.

[JohnKleeb]

1. thank you for posting this and thanks possum for the research

Good work you two.

[Pirate Smile]

2. Does anyone know if their was any kind of outcry at the time or was it

no big deal?

[annxburns]

3. From what my mom tells me everything at that time was angst ridden

but all sorts of groups were going over and observing and commenting on the Paris peace talks. Remember Kissinger was the only one negotiating on behalf of the US government. It was up to Nixon to pull us out. Kerry's main concern was the POWs and MIAs and ending the slaughter. It was a complete meat grinder according to my mom. Hundreds of our service men were getting killed every week with no hope of victory because of the rules of engagement and the Vietnamese turning against us. Paralysis by the Nixon administration who didn't want to "surrender" but felt like they could not win (Johnson admitted it and Nixon knew it too)

Quagmire doesn't even begin to cover it ....

[Pirate Smile]

4. So when Kerry went over there, Kissinger was over there

in talks or negotiations with them at that same time?

I'm just trying to get the facts straight because we all know the lies are soon going to be flying fast and furious.

[KittyWampus]

5. Kick