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Gordon Cucullu- Contributor

Former Green Beret lieutenant colonel, Gordon Cucullu is now an editorialist, author and a popular speaker. Born into a military family, he lived and served for more than thirteen years in East Asia, including eight years in Korea. For his Special Forces service in Vietnam he was awarded a Bronze Star, Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry, and the Presidential Unit Commendation. After separation from the Army, he worked on Korea and East Asian affairs at both the Pentagon and Department of State as well as an executive for General Electric in Korea. His first major non-fiction work, Separated at Birth: How North Korea became the Evil Twin, is based in large part on his extensive experience in Korea and East Asia as a governmental insider and businessman. [website] [go to Cucullu index]

Truth in Labeling
The former National Security Advisor must be held accountable...
[Gordon Cucullu] 8/10/04

Have you ever noticed that the person who overstates a particular trait is usually lacking that very thing? If someone tells me how smart he is I worry about his intelligence. If she says that she has a great sense of humor, I know not to crack a joke around her. Similarly if someone has to dwell at extraordinary lengths about how tough and strong he is I figure him for a wimp. And if someone spends all of his time telling me that he was really, really tough in the past, that just makes him more of a wimp in the present. Readers, meet John F. Kerry.

In twenty years in the Army, a good portion of it in Special Forces, one meets some strong, tough soldiers. They never dwell endlessly on war stories glorifying their own actions. During the war I never knew of a single soldier who returned to a battlefield to film his exploits. I guess we could have said to the North Vietnamese in the jungles, ‘Hey, fellows, give us a pass on this one, will ya? We’re just out here to shoot a retake.’

So when Kerry announces that he’s going to be ‘really, really strong’ if America is attacked, and is going to be a ‘real tough commander in chief’ my reaction is that talk is cheap. Look for results, not discussion; at past history, not empty promises; and at decisive actions, not hollow words. In order to gain the measure of a man it is necessary to see the man in his entirety. Looking at the whole John Kerry reveals little impressive. Oh, sure, his words sound better and better. Close your eyes during the nomination acceptance speech and at times you might think that you’re listening to a legitimate wartime presidential candidate. But how did he come to be where he is?

Kerry was born into wealth and married into it twice, upgrading each time. Suffering and deprivation were not in his background. When he alludes to childhood pain it has to be from reading French poetry at his Swiss boarding school, because it wasn’t from poverty. One positive thing about his Navy duty is that he didn’t dodge the draft during the Vietnam War as Bill Clinton did. Kerry served and deserves credit for his service. Regarding his wartime exploits, my instinct is suspicion about someone who recommended himself for awards or ‘profiled’ excessively for the camera. Nevertheless, if taken on their face, his awards over a four month period were salutary. So to that point we see a young man who has served his country.

Then out comes Mr. Hyde. It was clear to friends that John Kerry had high political ambitions even as a child. Much of the self-glorification in his Vietnam experiences seems to have been intended to assist in achieving those dreams. So was his ideological flip-flop when shortly after repatriation to the US, he embraced the most rabid, virulent wing of the anti-Vietnam War movement. John Kerry did more than simply oppose the war, he intentionally, cleverly and with the utmost malice aforethought set out to craft a poisonous mythology that eroded all faith, confidence and trust in the American veteran. He characterized Vietnam veterans as drug addicts, alcoholics, psychopathic killers, sociopathic misfits and ignorant losers. Kerry lied about us and he lied consciously and intentionally. He was in league with radical Hollywood lefties Jane Fonda and Tom Hayden. He was a leader of a small but vocal radical splinter group called Vietnam Veterans Against the War.

As leader of the VVAW he appeared often at anti-war rallies, sharing the podium with Fonda and others of her stripe. In Congressional testimony given in 1971 (while many of us were still fighting the war) Kerry trashed American veterans as war criminals worse than Nazis. He won a hero’s place in the North Vietnamese War Criminals Museum where Americans (other than Kerry) are the ‘war criminals.’ Kerry is considered a hero by the regime that killed more than 56,000 Americans whose names grace the Wall in Washington, DC.

John Kerry entered politics and in 1984 won a Senate seat. He has been there even since. Surprised? You have a right to be since he did little or nothing of note other than consistently vote against defense and intelligence bills. Twenty years later, aspiring to a become a war president, Kerry faces the dilemma of trying to convince us that four months service in Vietnam trumps thirty-plus years of anti-military activity as a protestor and an elected official. The only chance for such a lame strategy to succeed is for voters to become willfully amnesiac.

Kerry wants to place America's foreign policy under a UN and European Union veto. He thinks that it is preferable to treat international terrorism as a criminal issue and rely on military force as a last response to direct attack. Sir, we’ve been there, done that, and have holes in the ground in Lower Manhattan to show for it. His Senate votes weakened America’s military and intelligence capability. Now Kerry whines publicly about loss of soldiers in combat but recently voted against providing them proper equipment.

It’s time for some truth in labeling: Kerry is phony tough, celluloid brave and ideologically ultra-liberal. He is unfit for the presidency. CRO

copyright Gordon Cucullu 2004

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