Updated: John Kerry as New Secretary of Disloyalty

Senate Confirms Kerry

After returning from honorable and decorated service, Kerry joined the Vietnam Veterans Against the War in which he served as a nationally recognized spokesperson and as an outspoken opponent of the Vietnam war.

During that period, he appeared before the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs where he deemed United States war policy in Vietnam to be the cause of "war crimes". On April 22, 1971, Kerry became the first Vietnam veteran to testify before Congress about the war, when he appeared before a Senate committee hearing on proposals relating to ending the war. He was still a member of the United States Navy Reserve, holding the rank of Lieutenant Junior Grade. Wearing green fatigues and service ribbons, he spoke for nearly two hours with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in what has been named the Fulbright Hearings, after the Chairman of the proceedings, Senator J. W. Fulbright. Kerry began with a prepared speech, in which he presented the conclusions of the Winter Soldier Investigation, and then went on to address larger policy issues.

Winter Soldier Investigation (1971) - US War Crimes in Vietnam P1

The name "Winter Soldier Investigation" was proposed by Mark Lane, and was derived from Thomas Paine's first Crisis paper, written in December 1776. When future Senator John Kerry, then a decorated Lieutenant in the Naval Reserve (Inactive), later spoke before a Senate Committee, he explained,
"We who have come here to Washington have come here because we feel we have to be winter soldiers now. We could come back to this country; we could be quiet; we could hold our silence; we could not tell what went on in Vietnam, but we feel because of what threatens this country, the fact that the crimes threaten it, not reds, and not redcoats but the crimes which we are committing that threaten it, that we have to speak out."


The day after the Fulbright testimony, Kerry participated in a demonstration with thousands of other veterans in which he and other veterans threw their medals

and ribbons over a fence erected at the front steps of the United States Capitol building to dramatize their opposition to the war. Jack Smith, a Marine, read a statement explaining why the veterans were returning their military awards to the government. For more than two hours, almost 1000 angry veterans tossed their medals, ribbons, hats, jackets, and military papers over the fence. Each veteran gave his or her name, hometown, branch of service and a statement. Kerry threw some of his decorations as well as some given to him by other veterans to throw. As Kerry threw his decorations over the fence, his statement was: "I'm not doing this for any violent reasons, but for peace and justice, and to try and make this country wake up once and for all." The documentary film Sir! No Sir! includes archival footage of Kerry at the demonstration: he is one of several young men seen throwing things over the fence.

The photograph shows a man sitting hunched on the lawn near the Capitol, his head bowed. Sitting beside him is a woman.
The picture, in "The New Soldier," a book of photographs and essays about the April 1971 antiwar protest in Washington, is of John Kerry.
The woman comforting him is Julia Thorne, Kerry's first wife. The photograph was taken just minutes after veterans tossed their war decorations over a wood-and-wire fence erected to keep protesters off the Capitol steps.
Kerry was overcome with emotion at the time. Both David Thorne, Julia's brother and one of Kerry's best friends, and George Butler, the documentary filmmaker [and another of Kerry's lifelong friends since Yale] who took the picture, recall him being in tears. He had come to Washington to try to wake America up about the Vietnam War, and he had returned ribbons commemorating war heroism [that] he was proud of [in order] to make a statement.
Because Kerry was a decorated veteran who took a stand against the government's official position, he was frequently interviewed by broadcast and print media. He was able to use these occasions to bring the themes of his Senate testimony to a wider audience.

For example, Kerry appeared more than once on The Dick Cavett Show on ABC television. On one Cavett program (June 30, 1971), in debating John O'Neill, Kerry argued that some of the policies instituted by the U. S. military leaders in Vietnam, such as free-fire zones and burning noncombatants' houses, were contrary to the laws of war. In the Washington Star newspaper (June 6, 1971), he recounted how he and other Swift boat officers had become disillusioned by the contrast between what the leaders told them and what they saw: "That's when I realized I could never remain silent about the realities of the war in Vietnam."
On NBC's Meet The Press in 1971, Kerry was asked whether he had personally committed atrocities in Vietnam. He responded:
“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.”
Kerry's prominence also made him a frequent leader and spokesman at antiwar events around the country in 1971. One of particular note was Operation POW, organized by the VVAW in Massachusetts. The protest got its name from the group's concern that Americans were prisoners of the Vietnam War, as well as to honor American POWs held captive by North Vietnam.
The event sought to tie antiwar activism to patriotic themes. Over the Memorial Day weekend, veterans and other participants marched from Concord to a rally on Boston Common. The plan was to invoke the spirit of the American Revolution and Paul Revere by spending successive nights at the sites of the Battle of Lexington and Concord and the Battle of Bunker Hill, culminating in a Memorial Day rally with a public reading of the Declaration of Independence.
The second night of the march, May 29, 1971, was the occasion for Kerry's only arrest, when the participants tried to camp on the village green in Lexington. At 2:30 a. m. on May 30, 1971, local and state police awoke and arrested 441 demonstrators, including Kerry, for trespassing. All were given the Miranda Warning and were hauled away on school buses to spend the night at the Lexington Public Works Garage. Kerry and the other protesters later paid a $5 fine, and were released. The mass arrests caused a community backlash and ended up giving positive coverage to the VVAW.
Kerry eventually quit the organization over differences with its more radical leaders and members. Kerry has been criticized during his political campaigns about his antiwar activities with VVAW, inspiring the widely-used political pejorative "swiftboating."
200,000 at Washington Peace march, circa 1971 John Kerry speaks
FBI files reveal:
1. VVAW Plan to assassinate seven US senators.
2. VVAW was training to execute a Phoenix plan to decapitate the leaders of the US Government.
3. Member of VVAW arrested in-route to VP Agnew speech with an explosive device (BOMB).
4. VVAW running guns to a black militant group in Cairo IL.
5. VVAW funded by Communist party of America.
6. VVAW receiving funds from the Communist Party of a country in Europe.
7. VVAW taking directions from the North Vietnamese Communist Government.
8. VVAW sent tapes to NV to be played to our POW's being held by the communists.
9. VVAW sent its leaders (Kerry was a leader) to NV to be indoctrinated by the NV Communists.
10. FBI files indicate that Kerry only resigned from the executive committee of the VVAW at the Kansas City meeting.
Link to FBI files concerning Nov. 1971 VVAW meeting, go to page 190 for FBI report.
http://ice.he.net/~freepnet/fbifiles/100-HQ-448092/Section%2011/Section%2011.pdf
11. FBI files indicate there was concern about a possible assassination attempt on President Nixon in FL. Go to page 10-13 http://ice.he.net/~freepnet/fbifiles/100-HQ-448092/Section%2013/Section%2013.pdf
12. Plan by members of VVAW to assassinate two of the national leaders of VVAW reported from the Pittsburgh PA FBI office.
13. VVAW had a plan to kidnap US leaders and hold them for ransom to force US to withdraw out troops from Vietnam. Not unlike the terrorist today!
14. On 1/21/72 some VVAW members had a meeting with William C. Frey who stated that is was associated with Revolutionary movements in South America. The Guatemalan police wanted Mr. Frey at that time. Later trown out of Guatemala for being a Communist!
And there is an article that proves Kerry was still with the VVAW as a leader as late as Feb. 1972.
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=26038
As the presidential campaign of 2004 developed, approximately 200 Vietnam veterans formed the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (SBVT), subsequently renamed Swift Vets and POWs for Truth, which held press conferences, ran ads and endorsed a book questioning Kerry's service record and his military awards. The group included several members of Kerry's unit, such as Larry Thurlow, who commanded a swift boat alongside of Kerry's, and Stephen Gardner, who served on Kerry's boat.
Swift Boat v. John Kerry Ad #1: "Sell Out"
John Kerry Confronted on Building 7 "Controlled Fashion" Comment
Furthermore, Kerry praised dictator Assad of Syria.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/generous-remember-john-kerrys-praise-of-syrian-dictator-assad/
Confronting John Kerry about Winter Soldier II
YAF/HotAir correspondent Jason Mattera confronts John Kerry about his Winter Soldier testimony--and asks for a special autograph.
Kerry Has Investments in Companies Accused of Violating Iran Sanctions
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/kerry-has-investments-companies-accused-violating-iran-sanctions_690894.html