Did Kerry ever say ALL Vets comitted war crimes with Fonda?

[usregimechange]

My brother in law whom I have always respected said he was voting for Bush and mentioned that Kerry said all Vietnam vets comitted war crimes at some speech with Jane Fonda. Anyone know where he is getting this BS from?

Help, I have lost faith in humanity...

[FXDS]

1. No!

I don't think so for a second. I think your brother in law has watched the factor one to many times.

[usregimechange]

4. Yes and its hard to verify if I don't have the year and state in

which it allegedly occured!

[sonicx]

2. Hannity probably - the best way to counter this is

to show people Kerry's actual senate testimony (or show them a transcript). RWers love to take snippets out on context. If you see or read the whole thing, it is crystal clear that kerry was pro-troops.

[usregimechange]

7. No he said it wasn't in the testimony but at some speech...nt

[sonicx]

10. ask them what one

i've read about Kerry from back them and it was clear to me that he was relaying stories from other troops and telling his own experience. He was against the war and the administration, but very pro-troops(in the senate testimony, i believe he said that many troops begged him to tell about their experiences there and what they were made to do).

[vetwife]

3. No he did not but many did and trust me I know this.

HE was reporting crimesthat had been reported to him when he testified before the congress. HE also did do search and destroy which they were ordered to do. Tell your borther in law to go to Iraq and see what is propoganda and what is real combat. There is a difference. Kerry never said any such thing. He never even said the Swift Boar liars did these things. What does the person who asked you this think Me Lei was..a picnic?

[bobbieinok]

5. at testimony before congress he reported on what he heard at

the Winter Soldier conference in Detroit; there individuals reported on what they themselve had done or saw.

I don't think he ever claimed all US soldiers committed war crimes.

the kerry web site has a debunk section, I believe.

presentations with Fonda.....I doubt it.....check snopes

[mzmolly]

6. Nope, it's Right Wing Bullshit.

They have to lie, because the truth is not in their favor.

http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/k/kerry-fonda.htm

Send him the link above. I don't think they associated during the anti-war movement.

[auntAgonist]

8. His testimony can be found here

http://www.urich.edu/~ebolt/history398/JohnKerryTestimony.html

<snip>
WINTER SOLDIER INVESTIGATION

I would like to talk, representing all those veterans, and say that several months ago in Detroit, we had an investigation at which over 150 honorably discharged and many very highly decorated veterans testified to war crimes committed in Southeast Asia, not isolated incidents but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command....

They told the stories at times they 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, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam in addition to the normal ravage of war, and the normal and very particular ravaging which is done by the applied bombing power of this country.

We call this investigation the "Winter Soldier Investigation." The term "Winter Soldier" is a play on words of Thomas Paine in 1776 when he spoke of the Sunshine Patriot and summertime soldiers who deserted at Valley Forge because the going was rough.

We who have come here to Washington have come here because we f eel we have to be winter soldiers now. We could come back to this country; we could be quiet; we could hold our silence; we could not tell what went on in Vietnam, but we feel because of what threatens this country, the fact that the crimes threaten it, not reds, and not redcoats but the crimes which we are committing that threaten it, that we have to speak out.

<snip>
on edit..
and at the end of the page it says ...

Editorial Note: Later as Democratic senator from Massachusetts, John Kerry joined 61 others in favor of a nonbinding resolution to lift the U.S. trade embargo against Vietnam. The original embargo began against the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in 1964 and extended to the united Socialist Republic of Vietnam in April 1975. Following the nonbinding senate resolution, President Clinton repealed the embargo 4 February 1994.

[Roland99]

9. No, and who cares?

Seriously, it's time to put all of this Vietnam stuff to bed. The war was over 30 years ago.

[Bridget Burke]

16. If somebody is actually voting for Bush because of Vietnam....

then it's not "over".

[cheshire]

11. With all due respect your BIL is a fucking idiot. Sorry but he don't know

what the hell he's talking about. Tell him he's brainwashed and to get an education. And you wouldn't have to ask if you had one.

[deckerd]

12. Yes, but ONLY with Fonda; no Fonda-ing of the native Vietnamese took place

...She must've really gotten around, if you know what I mean.

I call BS on the OP. This is NOT a legitimate point of curiosity,
it is a RW talking point that your brother-in-law has just picked
up and is mindlessly parroting in public. I suggest that your
brother-in-law do his own research and stop expecting your candidate
and your candidate's supporters to constantly defend every outlandish
allegation that your brother-in-law demands be talked about instead
of modern day issues of war and peace.

Don't bother correcting people on obviously false allegations, let
them do their own research and come to their own conclusions. If
it is an overt smear campaign and the media is not challenging the
allegation then obviously the candidate or his surrogates have to
respond in some effective, low-key but decisive fashion, this is
known as rapid resonse. In either case it does not help to talk
about this here. I'm not a rabid partisan either, but I understand
this. I hope your "Democratic brother-in-law" does too.

[rullery]

13. There was a photo circulating some time ago

showing Kerry and Fonda standing side by side, at a podium. However it was a photo-shopped phoney, produced as propaganda to spread this lie. They never appeared together. There was an event at which they were both present, and a picture that shows both of them. However they were sitting several rows apart! My understanding is that they may have met, but only briefly.

[AP]

14. He didn't accuse any Vet of anything. He was repeating what they told him.

He was conveying confessions.

[Gore1FL]

15. It is all Bullshit

The mischaracterize statements, associate with people that never were directly associated, and then sorinklle in a few outright lies.

[deutsey]

17. I wish we Americans had a better sense of our history

We all seem to live in a bubble world concerned only with the present, and a distorted view of the present at that.

Kerry was reporting what honorably discharged American troops told him about atrocities they committed in Vietnam. To my knowledge, he never accused all troops of these crimes, he never accused troops of anything. He reported what a large number of troops told him they did.

[Borgnine]

18. Ridiculous.

The shit people believe is moranic. My own parents are convinced that Kerry shot himself in Vietnam so he could go home and use his faked bravery to start an insidious political career. You can't even argue with them, because they're convinced that the facts are, in reality, liberal media lies.

[bunkerbuster1]

19. It just shows how desperate Bush/Cheney are at this point

...that the "Hanoi John" crap is still a primary negative attack of their campaign. It's garbage: Kerry was pro-troops, and everything he did was to save them from being misused by a heartless, stupid Federal Government.