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Kerry and His Medals

A BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION
by Bill Sybert

The following item appeared in the April 28 edition of the Dallas Morning News. My response, in a Letter to the Editor which follows will never see the light of day.

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KERRY'S MEDALS
Changing answers undercut candidate's image

It's one of the dumbest things a politician can do: reinforce a negative stereotype that others have of him.

Over the years, Vietnam veteran John Kerry has offered diifferent responses to a simple question: Did he hurl his war medals at the Capital during a April 1971 protest organized by Vietnam Veterans Against the War? His changing anwers playright into the perception by some Americans that he is someone who will say anything to get elected.

Last week, Mr. Kerry told The Los Angeles Times that he never tossed his medals and that he never even had "implied" otherwise. And in December, he insisted to ABC News; Peter Jennings that he merely had thrown away his combat ribbons and the medals of two other veterans.

So what are Americans supposed to make of a videotape recently obtained by ABC News in which Mr. Kerry says -- in a November 1971 interview on a Washington news program -- that he "gave back . . . six, seven, eight, nine, medals: to protest the Vietnam War?

Which John Kerry should Americans believe -- the one who said, 33 years ago, that he tossed his medals or the one who has denied, at various times in the years since, that he ever did any such thing? Which one is running for president?

The problem isn't that Mr. kerry may have performed a dramatic act in the name of principle more three (sic) decades ago. It's that his backtracking since then suggests he may not have the firmest group on the meaning of the word.

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Letter to the Editor:

I find it just a little disingenuous your finding it so newsworthy to devote nearly eighteen column inches of apace to the technique used by Senator John Kerry to protest the Vietnamese war. What possible difference does it make if he cast, chucked, fired, flung, heaved, hurled, launched, pitched, slung, threw, or tossed his medals and/or ribbons?

Is the fact that he did or did not do any or all of the things you say, as vital to the current debate as many of the major concerns you and most of the major newspapers of today seem to take for granted toward Senator Kerry's opponent? You have accepted the belief that if Mr. Kerry changes his story it is a lie, but if Bush, his cabinet, and his staff tell a lie five times it becomes true, acceptable, and unquestionable.

The fact remains the medals were his metals. He earned them by putting his life on the line for what he believed. With the medals he won the right to protest a war he believed to be unjust -- and not winnable. History proved him right in that belief. Unfortunately, It took 58,854 body bags to convince us.

To have his actions, during and after the war, challenged by a bunch of ideologues who have never spend a minute in harm's way in service to their country is beyond comprehension. And to have it done by a bunch whose only purpose in life is to denigrate the lives of others who have spent a lifetime in service to their country is beyond contempt.

If I have the evaluations of two servicemen before me, one of which reads, "In a combat environment often requiring independent, decisive action, Lt. j.g. Kerry was unsurpassed." Later decorated for this action the citation reads, "Lt. Kerry's calmness, professionalism and great personal courage under fire were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United State Naval Service." Juxtaposition the second man's records, which seem to be incomplete, and I see he checked the box "Do not volunteer for Overseas," and his commanding officer could not evaluate him because, "Lt. Bush has not been observed at this unit during the (one year) period of report." It is not difficult for me to determine which man I want at my side in a fight, or to lead my country in any and all endeavors facing it. I don't care what he did with his medals, but if I were Senator Kerry I know where I would like to stick them.

Somehow I keep hearing the voice of Joseph Welch resonating down the annals of history, "Sir, do you have no sense of decency?"

Bill Sybert
Dallas, Texas

A BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION