Vietnam Vets unite to oppose Kerry

Didnt George W. Bush try this against John McCain with another vietnam veteran? Yeah, this is pretty pathetic guy.




I wonder what Jim Rassman would have to say about this bull****.

 

What a standard reply. It's a Bush plot. Guys, it's getting old.

 

Who cares? Of course these are henchmen of the GOP. Heres what they did to John McCain in 2000.



McCain under fire from
fellow Vietnam 'vets'

JOHN McCAIN, the former American prisoner of war challenging George W Bush for the Republican presidential nomination, has found his own record being questioned by the very people he claims to represent: fellow Vietnam veterans.

Families and supporters of American soldiers classified as missing in action (MIAs), have launched a concerted campaign against the Arizona senator's attempt to become president. They claim that he has obstructed efforts to uncover the truth about the 2,054 men whose deaths in Vietnam or neighbouring countries have never been fully confirmed, and that he may even have collaborated with the enemy while a PoW.

The bitterness of the complaints against him is at odds with his claim to speak for all war veterans. He is counting on "vets" to build support in the primary elections beginning in February, especially in South Carolina and California - two crucial states where ex-soldiers comprise 10 per cent of voters. However, opponents across the United States are using internet sites, e-mails and veterans' mailing lists in a drive to debunk Mr McCain's war record and mobilise opinion against him.

Ted Sampley, who served twice in Vietnam and now edits a veterans' newsletter in North Carolina, said: "From the press he's been getting, if I didn't know what I know, I'd be supporting him, too. But those of us who know about him are afraid for him to be president. We'll do all we can to see that he's defeated."

Mr McCain's critics claim that, while a prisoner of the North Vietnamese, he was more co-operative than he needed to be. They say that he voted to curtail senate hearings on missing servicemen, that he is brusque, impatient and rude to relatives of MIAs, and that he was too quick to back President Clinton's decision to normalise relations with Vietnam.

The MIA issue remains acutely sensitive because of suspicions that some Americans may have been left behind - forgotten by the US government. Families of some missing men suspect that a series of administrations have been too fearful of the political and diplomatic fallout should live prisoners be discovered.

Critics believe that prisoners who returned safely, such as Mr McCain, cannot face the possibility that others may have been left behind. A senate select committee inquiry, in which he was involved, concluded that, although there was no proof that any unknown prisoners survived, there was no evidence that all those who did not return had died.

Some of Mr McCain's critics question the extent to which he bowed to the demands of his Communist captors during his six years of imprisonment, and cite the frequency with which he was put up as an interview subject for journalists on propaganda trips to Hanoi.

Mr McCain, who suffered multiple broken bones when his aircraft was shot down, says he was hung up by ropes for four days until, in his desperation to receive medical help, he began offering military information which he judged was either of no consequence or was already publicly available.

Mr Sampley admitted that captured Americans had suffered brutal treatment in Vietnam. But he pointed out that if Mr McCain was elected, it would be the first time that an American president had spent years as a prisoner in the hands of an enemy who "worked with a vengeance" to manipulate PoWs' brains.

Another critic is Carol Hrdlicke, whose husband David, a pilot, was shot down in 1965. She was told by officials that he had died in captivity. The actual date of his death remained in dispute, she says, until the Air Force finally ruled that it had been 1968. Yet in 1994, she was told that her husband had been interviewed by a Russian journalist a full year after that date.

She claimed that, as a senator, Mr McCain had tried to water down legislation designed to strengthen the safeguards against MIAs being declared dead prematurely.

At the senate hearings, Mr McCain is said by MIA families to have reduced one of their number to tears. Dolores Alfond, from Bellevue in Washington state, who chairs the 5,000-strong National Alliance of Families, lost her brother, Major Victor Apodaca, who was declared missing in action in Vietnam in June 1967. She was on the receiving end of Mr McCain's tongue when he accused her of holding out false hopes and impeding discovery of the truth. He had said that he was "sick and tired" of criticisms over PoWs, she maintained.

"Every time our organisation works on legislation regarding MIAs or veterans, McCain has always been there to stop us or throw obstacles in the way."

A group of Mr McCain's fellow prisoners has been mobilised by his campaign to counter the criticisms. Orson Swindle, who spent months with him in captivity, said: "In one form or another, each and every one of us submitted. It's not the same as collaboration. You submit when you reach the end of the rope and can't stand the pain. You collaborate when you change your mind.

"John McCain did not collaborate with the enemy. He was just an extraordinarily tough American in a terrible situation. We all fed them bull**** because it was a way out of the pain. He's an incredibly honest person of great intellect, extraordinary courageousness and an enormous sense of history."

Still deeply embedded in the American psyche, the Vietnam War is featuring heavily in the presidential election campaign as the four leading candidates were all eligible to fight in it.

Mr Bush, the Texas Governor, and Bill Bradley, who is contesting the Democratic nomination, both remained in the US, serving with the National Guard, while Vice-President Al Gore did serve in Vietnam - but worked as an army journalist.


http://www.sweetliberty.org/issues/campaign2k/mccainnam.htm

 

I should have just checked that same website to see its bull****...

http://www.usvetdsp.com/mccainpg.htm


Nice fellas... Yeah that site is truthful and objective...

 

Uhm, maybe you need to check again. It opens into another window.

http://www.vietnamveteransagainstjohnkerry.org/sampbio.htm

Ted Sampley is publisher/writer of the U.S. Veteran Dispatch and has been since 1986. Over those years, millions of copies of the U.S. Veteran Dispatch and other POW/MIA related materials have been given away free to the public, most of which have been critical of the U.S. government's handling of the POW/MIA issue.

Because the U.S. Veteran Dispatch does not sell advertising, the free newspaper and other POW/MIA related materials are paid for with money earned from the sale of military and veteran related pins, patches, t-shirts, POW/MIA bracelets, etc.

Sampley joined the Army in 1963 when he was seventeen years old. He went through Basic Training, Advanced Infantry Training and Airborne School.

In June 1964, he was assigned to the 173rd Airborne Brigade on the island of Okinawa.

On May 5,1965, Sampley was deployed to Vietnam with the 173rd, where he served in a combat unit until April 1966. He participated in combat operations in the Iron Triangle, War Zone D, Ben Cat, the Ho Bo Woods and other areas of South Vietnam.

In 1969, after being trained as a Green Beret, Sampley was reassigned to 5th Special Forces Group, Vietnam.

In Vietnam, Staff Sergeant Sampley served in the B-36 Mike Force, as a company commander of a CIDG company, operating mostly along the Cambodian border.

During that year of combat service, Sampley was awarded four Bronze Stars, the Army Commendation Medal and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry.

In 1970, Sampley was reassigned to the 3rd Special Forces Group at Fort Bragg where he continued his military training.

Sampley's training in the Army included Operations and Intelligence, methods of prisoner of war interrogation, escape and evasion training, guerrilla warfare training, understanding, the Viet Cong infrastructure, High Altitude Low Opening (HALO) parachuting and he had a working knowledge of two languages, Arabic and Japanese.

In Special Forces, (1968) Sampley was one of a handful of American soldiers chosen to attend the British Jungle Warfare School in Malaysia.. Sampley was trained for eight weeks by British, Australian and New Zealand instructors in the "art of jungle warfare," including methods of visually tracking humans in the jungle.

While in Malaysia Sampley was required to wear British uniform because the British did not want to publicize that they were training U.S. soldiers to fight in Vietnam.

From 1971 to 1973,. Sampley worked during his off-duty time as a volunteer for Americans Who Care, a POW/MIA group in Fayetteville, N.C., that was lobbing for the safe return of all U.S. POWs held by the communists in North Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.

After 10 years of service, Sampley left the Army with a Honorable Discharge in 1973.

In 1983, after he became aware that Hanoi had not released all living American POWs in 1973, Sampley became re-involved as a POW/MIA activist demanding for the U.S. government to put more pressure on Hanoi to either release the men or explain what happened to them.

He has led many demonstrations in Washington, D.C demanding that both the U.S. and Vietnamese governments account for the U.S. servicemen known to have been alive in captivity but never released.

In October of 1988, Sampley led a group of activists into communist Laos, where they handed out leaflets offering a reward for missing U.S. servicemen. Two of the group were captured by the communists and held for 41 days. Sampley was detained by Thai authorities for crossing back into Thailand from Laos.

He is publisher/editor/writer of the U.S. Veteran Dispatch. He was appointed chairman of the non-profit Last Firebase Veterans Archives Project in 1988. That group created one of the largest collections of privately held POW/MIA files. The chairmanship of the Last Firebase is a non-paid position.

Since 1986, the Last Firebase has kept a non-stop, manned 24-hour vigil for POW's and MIAs in front of the Lincoln Memorial.

Sampley testified in 1991 before the Senate Select Committee of POW/MIA Affairs.

In December 1992, he published an article in the U.S. Veteran Dispatch headlined McCain, The Manchurian Candidate in which he questioned Sen. John McCain's behavior while a prisoner of the North Vietnamese.

After conducting many hours of research, Sampley found compelling evidence proving that the remains buried in the tomb of the Vietnam War Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery belonged to Air Force Lt. Michael Blassie. It was evidence that Sampley said the Pentagon had deliberately overlooked.

Sampley first made the Unknown Soldier's identity public in the July 1994 issue of the U.S. Veteran Dispatch.

Five years later (1999), the U.S. government under pressure from CBS television finally used a DNA sample and confirmed that the Vietnam War Unknown Soldier was indeed Lt. Blassie.

A military honor guard returned Lt. Blassie's remains to his family in St. Louis, Missouri where he was buried again with full military honors in a national cemetery.

Sampley was named Veteran of the Year by VietNow, a national veteran's organization. He is president of Sampley Enterprises, a for profit corporation in North Carolina.

Sampley can be reached at: usveterandispatch@earthlink.net

 

Notice Ted Sampley in the McCain article as well.

 

So you admit you (mistakenly?) posted a piece of crap website, from a piece of crap creator who questions the patriotism of people who he happens to disagree with , even if they have risked their lives serving their country?

 

Where is the the documentation to support that statement?

 

Has anyone polled Vietnam Vets and seen who they're leaning for?

 

Nice slapdown Troy

FWIW, here's the corresponding "Veterans For Kerry" group

http://www.johnkerry.com/communities/veterans/

basso, keep posting threads. One of these days you'll get it right.

 

You're probably correct in that his accusing McCain of treason probably makes him more of a Bush henchman than a GOP henchman.

 

Well I think we showed one Vietnam vet, Stampley, is for Bush and against Kerry.

I guess Kerry supporters should start a group Viet vets against against Bush.

The reaL question is what makes this guy Stampley newsworthy.

 

does this mean I can start posting links to various "Christians Against Bush" web sites and protray them as being a major force and representive of all Christians ?

 

You would have to title the thread:

Christians Unite to Oppose Bush

 

Likely so.

Also, when I see somebody holding the posts of others to a high standard.........then I hope to see that person post to a high standard........at least in the same thread.