A Veteran's opposition to a Kerry presidency

Today's Chicago Tribune has an article by Neal Thompson, a Vietnam Veteran who is very much opposed to a Kerry presidency. He includes what has become a pretty common complaint among veterans, that Kerry slandered American troops on his return from Vietnam. But Mr. Thompson's complaint goes beyond the Vietnam issue. It's the issue of opportunism verses integrity.

John Kennedy, whom Kerry idolizes, wrote "Profiles in Courage" in 1955.

The book is a tribute to public officials who, in Kennedy's view, had the courage and integrity to act in the public interest knowing they would forfeit their office for so doing, people like Sen. Edmund G. Ross, whose vote against impeachment saved Andrew Johnson's presidency at the cost of his own political career.

Within a few short years, Kennedy, in his own mind, would face just such a test, and he would fail miserably.

According to aide Kenny O'Donnell, Kennedy had concluded by spring 1963 that American involvement in Vietnam was pointless and had to end, telling Sen. Mike Mansfield that he "agreed with Mansfield's thinking on the need for a complete military withdrawal from Vietnam. But I can't do it until 1965--after I'm re-elected."

And Kerry's hero JFK was not alone in putting politics ahead of statesmanship.

Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon followed suit.

As Johnson's recently released White House tapes and other historical materials reveal, domestic politics both drove and limited his conduct of the war. He needed just enough commitment to avoid losing but not so much as to alarm the electorate, lest the Republicans gain in Congress or limit his Great Society programs.

Nixon represents the flip side. He genuinely believed that an independent, non-communist South Vietnam was important but removed troops by the hundreds of thousands whenever the next election cycle demanded further reductions. Clark Clifford, a former secretary of defense, described it all in his autobiography as "a cauldron in which good and able men of high integrity, acting out of solid and well-reasoned motives, went terribly wrong."

"We made an honest mistake," he said.

Nonsense.

There were no "good and able men of high integrity," there were "no solid and well-reasoned motives" and there were no "mistakes."

What we had instead were conscious, carefully considered choices made by dishonest, ambitious men who put their interests first at every crucial juncture. And from everything I've seen, John Kerry is just such a man.

So while I might not be happy with much of what I see today, Kerry is not a man I will trust in the White House. I've seen his kind before and, knowing history, I am determined not to repeat it.

Via Betsy's Page