Vietnam Veterans for Truth visited Southington, Connecticut this past week to raise money for a rally on September 12th in Washington, DC. The story by Jacqueline Manning appeared on the front page of the Southington Observer. "We have known Kerry is a liar for the last 33 years, and we are truly a band of brothers," said Larry Bailey, president of VVT and retired captain of the U.S. Navy.
Last Monday, Bailey, a number of Vietnam veterans and many distinguished guests gathered at the Aqua Turf for a benefit gala to support VVT's upcoming rally on Sept. 12 at the nation's Capital in Washington, DC. At that time, the group will demonstrate its disapproval of Kerry as a potential commander in chief of the United States.
Tickets to the gala were $150 a person, and Bailey stated he was thrilled that the organization raised more than $5000.
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Among the guests in attendance was author Dr. Jerome Corsi, co-author of "Unfit for Command," the current #1 bestseller on Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com.
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One of the honored guests was Bill Lupetti, a Vietnam veteran and photographer who stumbled across a picture of Kerry that is hanging prominently in the American War Protesters section of the War Remnants Museum in Saigon.
"When I first posted the photo on myfamily.com, some people thought it was a fraud. So I took another photo holding up a dated Vietnamese newspaper next to it," he said. Lupetti's photos are featured in "Unfit for Command".
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The keynote speaker for the event was Dexter Lehtinen, a former U.S. attorney who prosecuted Manuel Noriega.
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Lehtinen served as an army paratrooper and was severely injured during the Vietnam War.
"The first time I ever heard of John Kerry, I was lying in a hospital bed with my jaw wired shut and a gaping hole where my cheekbone had been. That was when I heard Kerry's testimony before U.S. Congress that American soldiers were committing these unhuman atrocities in Vietnam, I just lay there in disbelief," Lehtinen said.
"This is not about wounded pride of Vietnam veterans. Kerry served four months before he quit and never once served a tour. That's undisputed. He received three scratches to get out of the army, never spent one day in the hospital and he has the guts to call himself a volunteer," Lehtinen said.
According to Lehtinen, Kerry would not sign the release of his military record, leaving him to wonder what Kerry is hiding.
Prior to his speech, Lehtinen held up a laminated telegram stating the injuries he sustained in the Vietnam War. "Where are yours, Senator Kerry?" he challenged.The Southington Observer is a local small town paper. It doesn't have a web site that I could find. I ran across it in a gas station convenience store as I was passing through. The headline "Vietnam vets against Kerry visit Southington" grabbed my attention, so I bought one.
Clearly, this is an issue that is not going to go away soon. I had been inwardly speculating that we might expect some kind of apology from Kerry in the not to distant future, an apology for the pain his 1971 testimony caused other Vietnam veterans. I think it's unlikely now. It would be too little, too late, and these veterans are not looking for an apology. It would reinforce the Kerry reputation for saying and doing whatever furthers his political ambition of the moment. Finally, it would do nothing to refute his now growing reputation of being dumber than a box of rocks. Vietnam as the crown jewel of the Kerry Presidential campaign represents a strategy of inspirational stupidity.
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