Kerry in a 1971 Interview Admitting He Committed Atrocities

[adios]

Vietnam 30 Years Later: What John Kerry Said on Meet the Press

In particular:

(Audiotape, April 18, 1971):

MR. CROSBY NOYES (Washington Evening Star): Mr. Kerry, you said at one time or another that you think our policies in Vietnam are tantamount to genocide and that the responsibility lies at all chains of command over there. Do you consider that you personally as a Naval officer committed atrocities in Vietnam or crimes punishable by law in this country?

SEN. KERRY: There are all kinds of atrocities, and I would have to say that, yes, yes, I committed the same kind of atrocities as thousands of other soldiers have committed in that I took part in shootings in free fire zones. I conducted harassment and interdiction fire. I used 50 calibre machine guns, which we were granted and ordered to use, which were our only weapon against people. I took part in search and destroy missions, in the burning of villages. All of this is contrary to the laws of warfare, all of this is contrary to the Geneva Conventions and all of this is ordered as a matter of written established policy by the government of the United States from the top down. And I believe that the men who designed these, the men who designed the free fire zone, the men who ordered us, the men who signed off the air raid strike areas, I think these men, by the letter of the law, the same letter of the law that tried Lieutenant Calley, are war criminals.

(End audiotape)

This was tape was recorded in a Meet the Press Interview in 1971. Tim Russert asked Kerry about it in 2001 interview. From the Russert interview:

On May 6, 2001 Tim Russert interviewed Senator John Kerry on Meet the Press. In the course of the interview, Mr. Russert asked the senator about his views on Vietnam.

MR. RUSSERT: You mentioned you're a military guy. There's been a lot of discussion about Bob Kerrey, your former Democratic colleague in the Senate, about his talking about his anguish about what happened in Vietnam . You were on this program 30 years ago as a leader of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War. And we went back and have an audiotape of that and some still photos. And your comments are particularly timely in this overall discussion of Bob Kerrey. And I'd like for you to listen to those with our audience and then try to put that war into some context:

(Audiotape, April 18, 1971):

MR. CROSBY NOYES (Washington Evening Star): Mr. Kerry, you said at one time or another that you think our policies in Vietnam are tantamount to genocide and that the responsibility lies at all chains of command over there. Do you consider that you personally as a Naval officer committed atrocities in Vietnam or crimes punishable by law in this country?

SEN. KERRY: There are all kinds of atrocities, and I would have to say that, yes, yes, I committed the same kind of atrocities as thousands of other soldiers have committed in that I took part in shootings in free fire zones. I conducted harassment and interdiction fire. I used 50 calibre machine guns, which we were granted and ordered to use, which were our only weapon against people. I took part in search and destroy missions, in the burning of villages. All of this is contrary to the laws of warfare, all of this is contrary to the Geneva Conventions and all of this is ordered as a matter of written established policy by the government of the United States from the top down. And I believe that the men who designed these, the men who designed the free fire zone, the men who ordered us, the men who signed off the air raid strike areas, I think these men, by the letter of the law, the same letter of the law that tried Lieutenant Calley, are war criminals.

(End audiotape)

MR. RUSSERT: Thirty years later, you stand by that?

SEN. KERRY: I don't stand by the genocide. I think those were the words of an angry young man. We did not try to do that. But I do stand by the description--I don't even believe there is a purpose served in the word "war criminal." I really don't. But I stand by the rest of what happened over there, Tim.

I mean, you know, we--it was--I mean, we've got to put this war in its right perspective and time helps us do that. I believe very deeply that it was a noble effort to begin with. I signed up. I volunteered. I wanted to go over there and I wanted to win. It was a noble effort to try to make a country democratic; to try to carry our principles and values to another part of the world. But we misjudged history. We misjudged our own country. We misjudged our strategy. And we fell into a dark place. All of us. And I think we learned that over time. And I hope the contribution that some of us made as veterans was to come back and help people understand that.

I think our soldiers served as nobly, on the whole, as in any war, and people need to understand that. There were great sacrifices, great contributions. And they came back to a country that didn't thank the veteran, that didn't--I mean, everything that the veteran gained in the ensuing years, Agent Orange recognition, post-Vietnam stress syndrome recognition, the extension of the G.I. Bill, you know, improvement of the V.A. hospitals, all came from Vietnam veterans themselves fighting for it. Indeed, even the memorial in Washington came from that.

MR. RUSSERT: By your own comments, Bob Kerrey was not alone in doing the things that he did.

SEN. KERRY: Oh, of course, not. And not only that, we, the government of our country, ran an assassination program. I mean, Bill Colby has acknowledged it. We had the Phoenix Program, where they actually went into villages to eliminate the civilian infrastructure of the Vietcong. Now, you couldn't tell the difference in many cases who they were. And countless veterans testified 30 years ago to that reality. And I think--look, there's no excusing shooting children in cold blood, or women, and killing them in cold blood. There isn't, under any circumstances. But we're not asking, you know, nor is Bob Kerrey saying, "Excuse us for what we did." We're asking people to try to understand the context and forgiveness. And I think the nation needs to understand what the nation put its young in a position to do, and move on and take those lessons and apply them to the future.

MR. RUSSERT: The folks who oversaw the war, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger, you do not now 30 years later consider them war criminals?

SEN. KERRY: No, I think we did things that were tantamount that certainly violated the laws of war, but I think it was the natural consequence of the Cold War itself. People made decisions based on their perceptions of the world at that time. They were in error. They were judgments of error. But I think no purpose is served now by going down that road. I think, you know, the rhetoric of youth and of anger can be redeemed by the acts that we put in place after time to try to move us beyond that. And I think there are great lessons to learn from it. But we would serve no purpose with that now. But we have to be honest about the mistakes we made. We don't have legitimacy in the world, Tim, if we go to other countries, in Bosnia or China or anywhere else, and not say, "You know, we made some terrible mistakes."

And that honesty, that lack of a sense of honesty is part of what is driving people's anger toward the United States today. That's why we have the vote in the U.N. That's why people--our allies, too--are disturbed by this defense posture. You can't abrogate the ABM treaty and move forward on your own to build this defense in a way that threatens the perceptions of security people have. And if you build a defense system, Tim, that can do what they say at the outside, which is change mutual assured destruction, you have invited a potential adversary to build, build, build, to find a way around it. The lesson of the Cold War is, you do not make this planet safer by moving unilaterally into a place of new weapons. Every single advance in weaponry through the Cold War was matched by one side or the other, and that's why we put the ABM treaty in place, and that's why we need to proceed very cautiously and very thoughtfully.

I didn't inhale [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img].

[adios]

Also note this statement from Kerry's 1971 Meet the Press interview:

There are all kinds of atrocities, and I would have to say that, yes, yes, I committed the same kind of atrocities as thousands of other soldiers have committed in that I took part in shootings in free fire zones. I conducted harassment and interdiction fire. I used 50 calibre machine guns, which we were granted and ordered to use, which were our only weapon against people. I took part in search and destroy missions, in the burning of villages.

The theads where people state that Kerry only relayed what he heard from 150 soldiers and never claimed many Viet Vets committed atrocities more or less are over. Kerry said he committed them himself. The reality is that there are Vets who have a beef with Kerry whether you all believe they should or not. Are we going to try and "shoot the messenger" again?

[vulturesrow]

Whoa adios! You might want to be careful...you might be part of a SMEAR CAMPAIGN!!! [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[elwoodblues]

[ QUOTE ]
Are we going to try and "shoot the messenger" again?

[/ QUOTE ]

Are you suggesting that "the messenger" is the swifties, not Kerry?

I don't recall people quibbling with the fact that Kerry indicted a lot of soldiers (in this statement, "thousands.") Even "thousands" isn't even close to indicting all soldiers.

[MaxPower]

[ QUOTE ]
All of this is contrary to the laws of warfare, all of this is contrary to the Geneva Conventions and all of this is ordered as a matter of written established policy by the government of the United States from the top down. And I believe that the men who designed these, the men who designed the free fire zone, the men who ordered us, the men who signed off the air raid strike areas, I think these men, by the letter of the law, the same letter of the law that tried Lieutenant Calley, are war criminals.


[/ QUOTE ]

You left out this part, he is criticizing the US goverment, not the soldiers.

This whole thing is just really sad. I heard someone say that the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth have a right to their own opinions, but they do not have a right to their own facts. They could have made a convincing case against John Kerry without debasing themselves and distorting the truth.

[adios]

[ QUOTE ]
You left out this part, he is criticizing the US goverment, not the soldiers.

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So what? Did I say he didn't criticize the government? I don't believe I even condemned Kerry for what he stated in 1971. In fact in other posts buried in other threads I've more or less supported his allegations to degree. I'm not sure how wide spread the atrocities were and I'm not sure what the military policy was in the battlefield at the time. My point is there are a significant number of Viet Nam Vets, rightly or wrongly, that have a beef with Kerry. My interpretation of many of the posts is that they're stating there should be no beef as Kerry never "indicted" a lot of Viet Nam vets for committing atrocities. That's clearly not the case, he has indicted a lot of Viet Nam Vets. Kerry may have been right in his 1971 statements. I don't know. Saying that I was only following orders is not a defense for war crimes and the Vets know it. You're shooting the messenger.

[adios]

[ QUOTE ]
I don't recall people quibbling with the fact that Kerry indicted a lot of soldiers (in this statement, "thousands.") Even "thousands" isn't even close to indicting all soldiers.

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I do but maybe I interpreted their posts incorrectly.

[cardcounter0]

A man couragous enough to stand up and admit what he has done! Brave enough to suggest he has made mistakes! Willing to own up to shortcomings, to review his past, and see how he could have done better, or what needs to be done better in the future.

Contrast with Bush. The man who went into Deer In The Headlights Stare and said he couldn't think of anything when asked "Have you ever made a mistake".

The man who is first and quickest to always find someone else to blame, all the while denying any involvement in anything.

The man who's sense of history is "We will all be dead".

Deny the past, grab all you can now, don't worry about the future.

Contrast with the emotional soul-searching of Kerry. Excellent Interview!
[img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[MaxPower]

I am not a Vietnam vet so I cannot speak about what it is appropriate for them to feel.

Kerry said that atrocities happened and they they were fairly common. Yes, by definition then he did "Indict" Vietnam veterans, in the sense that he accused them of wrongdoing.

I'm my posts I never claimed that he didn't do this. My suggestion was that he did not "dishonor" or "betray" (the words used in the SBVFT ad) his fellow veterans. If you look at the meaning of what he was trying to convey and not just particular sentences, he we trying to stand up for veterans.


You keep making this point

[ QUOTE ]
My point is there are a significant number of Viet Nam Vets, rightly or wrongly, that have a beef with Kerry.

[/ QUOTE ]

I can't argue with that, but I'm not sure why it matters. I'll allow that they have a beef with Kerry and perhaps for very good reason. But that does not give them the right to distort his record and his words. If their beef is so legitimate, they should not have to do that.

I can't really blame the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and their Republican backs for doing this. It is effective and they can get away with it. What really pisses me off is that the media and public at large allow them to get away with this kind of BS.

[sam h]

At this point, the atrocities he is referring to are pretty much straightforward products of how the war was strategically designed, so one would expect a great many soldiers to be fingered as committing them. Certainly anybody who flew a bomber over there would be committing atrocities with this type of definition.

People continue to live in absurd denial about this war. How do you kill a couple million civilians over a six or seven year span if the atrocities are not routine and committed by only a handful of bad apples?