John Kerry - POW-MIA ( Part 2 of 2 )

[angrydemocrat]

Over the course of the next year, Kerry and his committee pursued leads leads in the United States and overseas, and ordered key government officials to testify. In Feb.1992, Smith and Kerry flew to Moscow, where authorities handed over documents purporting to clarify the fate of hundreds of MIAs and the country's vice president promised to help in urging Vietnam and Laos to cooperate.

Kerry's committee, together with the Pentagon and the media, began exposing hoaxes, including direct mail operations using fraudulent photos and other phony evidence to raise millions from hopeful MIA families. Although Kerry doubted that American servicemen remained in Southeast Asia, he did suspect that the Nixon administration had- in its haste to pull out of Vietnam in March 1973- left behind U.S. prisoners of war.

"To say that all prisoners of war had returned, as the president announced......was wrong. You knew it was wrong," Kerry told a former Pentagon official during a June 1992 hearing before his committee. Kerry was joined in his denunciation by four Republicans, including Iowa's Charles Grassley, who accused the Nixon administration of ignoring evidence that 100 prisoners had not been repatriated. "People are incensed because of the deception around this issue," Grassley said.

Among those who said prisoner's were left behind were former defense secretaries Melvin Laird and James Schlesinger. But at a stormy hearing before Kerry's committee in Sept., Henry Kissinger, who was Nixon's national security adviser, called it "a flat out lie."

Kerry and McCain continued to come under fire from MIA-POW activists during their investigation. But the select committee was clearly moving closer to the truth. At the podding of lawmakers, Vietnam had begun to provide unprecedented access to its files, prisons, and military bases.

In 1992 Kerry traveled to Vietnam, this time bearing a letter from from the president promising improved relations in return for increased cooperation on the issue. Hoping to mend the ties with the United States, authorities handed over to Kerry-there along with South Dakota Democrat and Colorado Republican Hank Brown- a treasure trove of relics, including photos and flight suits of American GIs. At one point Kerry asked point blank if any American servicemen were still alive in Vietnam. He was told no. The country's president offer to allow visits by doubtful American families.

By Dec.1992, Kerry's committee was moving closer towards it conclusion that "there is no compelling evidence that proves that any American remains alive in captivity in Southeast Asia."
A key witness that month POW Medal of Honor retired rear admiral James Stockdale offered a harsh dose of reality to MIA families still pursuing loved ones. "We've become a litigious society, where we believe that somebody owes us a explanation and a apology and a payback if something is not quite right. When you lose a war, you don't get to go in and account for your people."

As the panel released it's report Kerry- who had spent much of his political career fighting government lies- was now positioned to argue that "we have not had people willfully trying to hide something." The report asked the question: "Is anyone left alive?" And then came this answer: "As much as we would hope that no American has had to endure twenty years of captivity....there is nothing the Members of the Committee would have like more than to be able to prove this fact....Unfortunately, our hopes have been realized." The committee said this conclusion was not "a failure of investigation" but rather a "confrontation with reality"

The panel concluded that 100 Americans who had been expected to return with the U.S. pullout did not return. Some were known to be captives or known to have survived battle incidents. The panels work launch a long and difficult effort to locate the remains of more than 2000 MIAs. As time passed and and U.S.businesses began to push Washington to renew trade with the Vietnamese, Kerry and McCain said the cooperation of the countries merited a lifting of the trade embargo against Vietnam, Robert Smith, Kerry's co-chair, argued that this would be an insult to Vietnam veterans. Congress ultimately agreed with Kerry.

As someone who dodged military service in Vietnam era, President Bill Clinton was never out in front on the issue of normalization. He needed the kind of political cover that only genuine war heroes could provide.

Kerry and McCain were willing to conduct the painstaking work of building a consensus, first in the Senate, and then in the White House, bringing a close to a painful chapter in American history. Kennedy said: "The work John Kerry and John McCain did is truly one of the most extraordinary events we have had in fifty years."

On that summer day in 1995, Kerry and McCain stood beside President Clinton in the East Room of the White House as he announced that the United States would normalize diplomatic relations with Vietnam. For the president who never served in their war, the two combat veterans served as wingmen.

[seito]

1. Thanks angrydemocrat

Your efforts are really appreciated. I said in the other thread that for me, the court is still out on McCain. He deserves the thanks of a grateful nation, and he speaks out against much of the injustice within his own party. However, when he was most needed, to stop the the man responsible for slandering his own record, he apparently caved. sigh

I especially liked this part.

Kennedy said: "The work John Kerry and John McCain did is truly one of the most extraordinary events we have had in fifty years."

[angrydemocrat]

2. Your Welcome

I'm like you I'm not sure what to think about McCain right now. I don't understand why he did what he did. Check out some of my other post and comment on them. This man is amzing. The Prosecutor is a good one.