DemocracyNow.org- A rare broadcast - whole Kerry speech post Vietnam

[realFedUp]

This is a lengthy speech, but a very honest one
from a young John Kerry. Listen to it here:

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/07/30/1510259

Friday, July 30th, 2004
Flashback: A Rare Broadcast of John Kerry's 1971 Speech Against the Vietnam War Before the Senate

Before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the young Vietnam veteran says: "Someone has to die so that President Nixon won't be, and these are his words, "the first President to lose a war... how do you ask a man to be the last man to die in Vietnam? How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?"

In January 1971, the organization held a series of hearings in Detroit called the "Winter Soldier Investigation" in which soldiers returning home testified about their experiences in Vietnam. Kerry did not speak at that event, but it did provide the basis for the testimony John Kerry would give some 3 months later before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Television cameras lined the walls, and veterans packed the seats. Kerry was 27 years old and dressed in his green fatigues and Silver Star and Purple Heart ribbons. On April 22, 1971, he sat at a witness table and delivered the most famous speech of his life. It was to become the speech that defined him and make possible his political career.