Unfit for Command: Chapter 1
I’ve ignored the introduction which pretty much covers the reason for the writing of the book. It’s all hearsay anyway.
Chapter One – Debating Kerry
Sources of this chapter:
Douglas Brinkley, “Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War,” William Morrow, New York, 2004
Kranish, Mooney & Easton, “John F. Kerry: The Complete Biography by the Boston Globe Reporters Who Know Him Best,” New York: Public Affairs, 2004
I haven’t evaluated these sources myself, but I will try to do so soon.
Basic assertions of this chapter:
Kerry’s June 1971, testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was an attack on soldiers he served with in Vietnam.
Proof:
(Unfit For Command): “He compared those of us who served in Vietnam to the army of Genghis Khan, committing war crimes such as rape and baby killing ‘on a day-to-day basis with full awareness of officers at all levels of command’”
(UFC)… how hard we had tried to avoid civilian casualties under terrible conditions…I remembered the fighter pilots who had been killed or were captured because we used small planes and opted for precision bombing in Hanoi… rather than massive, indiscriminate bombing.
(UFC) If John Kerry had just been another politician punching his ticket in the military, I wouldn’t have cared. But for John Kerry to lie at the expense of his former comrades living and dead, in front of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, just so he could outbid other radicals in the antiwar movement and gain attention was something else. Even his own crew members who now (after long persuasion) support him for president were “pissed”at the time. They ‘knew he was dead wrong,’ and the stomachs ‘turned’ listening to Kerry speak and felt ‘disappointed and betrayed’ (Brinkley)
In a debate on the Dick Cavett show, O’Neill challenged Kerry to list a single war crime committed by their unit, Coastal Division 11. In the debate, Kerry was unable to list a single atrocity that he witnessed.
My Opinion
I am not a warrior myself, but I am married to one, and have several in the family. Till the day he died, my father spoke respectfully of his CO. Even Wife misses the camaraderie of her former life in the Navy. These are relationships that I cannot relate to myself.
However, I sense in this chapter (and the introduction) a deep sense of betrayal that came about through his involvement in the antiwar movement –and most especially his testimony before the Senate. It is clear to me that had Kerry not appeared before the Senate, it is likely that this book would never been written. Nevertheless, Kerry did appear there, and attempted to become a leader in the antiwar movement.
My Questions:
Why did Kerry join the antiwar movement?
Why did Kerry attack not just the war, but the warriors?