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I Recieved this in the mail last week.
____________________________________
October 20, 2003
Dear __________,
What do you call a man who has risked his life for his fellow servicemen and saved his crew and the men in his command?
What do you call a young officer in the United States Navy who won three Purple Hearts, a Bronze Star with Combat V, and a Silver Star for gallantry in action in wartime?
What do you call a young American who served not one, but two tours of duty in the war of his generation?
I don't know what you call him, but I call him John - John Kerry. And, with your help, we can soon call him "Mr. President."
Having just been through a brutal Senate campaign in Georgia, you and I know better than most what our Democratic nominee can expect to face in 2004.
Let's put it this way. To win a Georgia Senate race, the Republicans were willing to distort my record, ignore my personal history, and run ads putting my face next to those of Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. We can only imagine how far they'll go to keep George W. Bush in the White House.
Count on it. They'll question our presidential candidate's patriotism the same way they questioned mine. They'll twist and distort the facts and wrap their candidate in the flag as if patriotism, love of country, and willingness to make personal sacrifices for American values were partisan issues.
Ralph Reed, the former Christian Coalition leader and Georgia Republican Party chairman who devised and carried out the vicious personal attacks in our Senate race, is now a leading figure in the Bush re-election drive. It doesn't take much to figure out that his assignment will be to carry the brutal campaign tactics used in Georgia into the 2004 presidential campaign.
You and I don't have any interest in reliving last year's campaign. But, we do have a deep and abiding commitment to winning next year's.
I'm writing to tell you that John Kerry has what it takes to win.
John and I fought on the same battlefield in Vietnam. We bled and almost died on that battlefield. We were fighting terrorists and suicide bombers in a protracted guerrilla war where we saw friends die and young, men lose their limbs and portions of their lives forever. Because we were lucky enough to come home alive, John and I committed ourselves to living life as if every day after Vietnam is a gift.
That's why John Kerry and I are passionate about providing new leadership in the White House for a new generation of Americans.
I know that making a decision about whom to support in one of the most important presidential elections America has ever faced is a deeply personal matter.
But, because you and I have long counted on each other's loyalty and friendship, I hope you will give me the opportunity to share with you my reasons for endorsing John Kerry. Then, if those reasons make sense to you, I hope you'll consider joining me as an active supporter of his spirited, energetic and principled campaign.
John has experienced the sting of battle in war. That's why he isn't cavalier about sending young Americans in harm's way. But it is also why when troops are committed, they should be committed to win, and then brought home and given the respect they have earned.
As John says, "America should never go to war because it wants to, but only when it has to." And he knows the importance of having a military second to none and diplomacy equally great. That's why I believe John Kerry is the most qualified person - Republican or Democrat - to run for president of the United States and be the Commander in Chief of our armed forces. He's been there, done that, and gotten some holes in his T-shirt along the way.
John has served 18 years on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, spent six years on the Senate Intelligence Committee and four years before the tragedy that befell our country at the merciless hands of terrorist attackers on September 11, 2001, John wrote a book about the new threat America faced called The New War.
John Kerry knows more personally, professionally and politically about fighting terrorists who threaten America than anybody running for President. He is totally committed to making this country more secure through its foreign policy, not less secure.
John also understands that the trickle-down economic policy of the current administration gives the biggest tax breaks to the 1% of Americans who need them least, while leaving crumbs for the three quarters of Americans who need them most.
John sees it as I do, that trickle-down economics has never worked, is not working now - and, because of it, more and more Americans are not working.
Three million jobs have been lost since President Bush took office. We are not only less secure in our homeland, but we are also less secure abroad. We are less sound in our economic policy. More and more Americans are finding out that trickle-down economics means being trickled on. As George W. Bush's father once called it, it is truly "voodoo economics" and the hex is on working people in our country.
America is in trouble. Our citizens cry out for new direction and new leadership with courage, compassion and a sense of commitment to get this country moving again in the right direction.
Aldous Huxley once said that "experience isn't what happens to a man, it's what a man does with what happens to him." Vietnam was a defining moment for both John and me. When the swift boat he commanded came under fire from an enemy ambush, John Kerry did a very unorthodox thing. He led his team and his crew under his command in a new direction. He did not try to outrun the ambush, he did not just stand and return fire or continue to be a target. He turned the bow of his ship towards the shore and began to attack the attackers. He surprised the enemy with his unorthodox move and won the battle. The ship was saved, the crew was saved and the enemy was killed and defeated.
We need that kind of leadership in America today. We need unorthodox methods that directly attack the problems facing America whether it is our foreign policy, the war against terrorism or the sinking economy that is pulling us all down.
I'm convinced that John Kerry has the ideas to move America forward in a new direction to attack our problems, the leadership qualities to build broad public support for those ideas, the spirit and energy to get America moving again, and the courage to wage a winning campaign against relentless opposition.
Those are the qualities we need in our next Democratic nominee. More importantly, they are the qualities we need in our next president.
If you agree, I hope you'll consider joining me today as an active, enthusiastic supporter of the Kerry for President campaign. I'm proud to be one of John Kerry's oldest friends and newest campaign supporters - and hopeful that you will join me in this critically important endeavor.
Sincerely, Max Cleland
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