Raped, Murdered, Decapitated

Survivors of My Lai

March 16, 2010, Chuck Palazzo, Quang Ngai, Vietnam -  There are not many events that occurred during the Vietnam War that are more horrible than what took place in the small hamlets of My Lai and My Khe (Son My) on March 16, 1968. 2nd Lt. William Calley, on orders from his Company Commander Captain Ernest Medina, led the troops of 1^st Platoon, Charlie Company, 1^st Battalion, 20^th Infantry Regiment,  11^th Light Infantry Brigade, 23^rd Infantry Division, United States Army, into this peaceful village located approximately 140 kilometers south of Danang and 14 kilometers from Quang Ngai in what was then South Vietnam. 

Quang Ngai had been attacked by the 48^th Battalion of the National Front of the Liberation of South Vietnam (NLF) or what we commonly referred to as the Viet Cong during the Tet Offensive of January 1968. There were U.S. military intelligence reports that these villages had been harboring members of the 48^th after Tet. None were found, however.  Found were innocent men, women, and children. Calley ordered his men to open fire on them from various positions.  The end result?  504 innocent men, women, and children killed. 

Murdered, raped, burned, decapitated – the gruesome list goes on.  Adjectives cannot begin to describe the horror or the injustice.  Their villages and crops destroyed.  Generations affected by the insanity of an event that was covered up by the United States Government for eighteen months before it was finally made public.  Lt. Calley was the only person brought to Court Martial and convicted.  He was tried and convicted of premeditated murder, sentenced to life in prison, only to be released two days later on orders from President Nixon pending an appeal of his sentence. 

Calley’s sentence was later adjusted so that he actually served four and one-half months in a military prison.  Medina was tried, but was acquitted of all charges and later admitted that he lied to his superior officers about murdering civilians.  In total, 26 men were charged, but Calley was the only person convicted.  504 deaths.  504 murders.  4 ½ months in a US military prison.  Calley is now selling jewelry in Georgia and after 40 years, mumbled an apology at a Kiwanis Club meeting last August.

Some of The Victims

One officer who helped stop the carnage, Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson, an American Helicopter Pilot put his own chopper between the dying and escaping innocent Vietnamese to protect them. He ordered the American soldiers to cease fire, and if they did not he would open fire on them.  Thompson challenged Calley directly and rescued several innocent Vietnamese civilians while doing so.  He issued the same orders to his crew – shoot the Americans should they continue to shoot the Vietnamese civilians.  504 innocent Vietnamese civilians had already perished.

US Vets Meeting Vietnam Vets at My Lai

I spent the last two days in My Lai, My Khe and Quang Ngai.  42 years later, life continues, and the rebuilding of families and lives tries to move ahead.  I left Danang yesterday morning with some very close friends who have become my own family here.  They knew more then I the emotional experience I was about to endure.  As we drove down Highway 1, we drove past Chu Lai – I knew from my days here many years ago that we were approaching Quang Ngai.  About 3 hours south of Danang, we arrived at Quang Ngai.  We decided to check into our hotel and drive directly to the Museum at Son My.

When one walks into the main museum entrance, up the stairs, there is a large plaque.  It is a plaque containing each of the deceased’s names and ages.  I was reminded by the museum guide that even though many of the ages indicated 1, there was no way to indicate 5 months or “fetus”.  The horror started to be realized.  All is not fair in love and war.

Descendants of The Victims of My Lai

My hosts, a Vietnamese Quaker and two American Combat Veterans. The work Do, the American and Vietnamese Veterans as well as the Quakers have done in My Lai has been incredible – building houses for the poor, schools for the children. 

Do invited me to lunch at a home in My Lai and of course I accepted.  It was indeed a lunch I will never forget.  I was welcomed by the two other American Veterans, but also by Vietnamese Veterans – men and women.  Veterans of different ranks.  Veterans with different beliefs.  

But Veterans, all of us, who shared one common belief now – to help rebuild each other’s lives and to do so in peace.  I met, laughed and cried with Vietnamese veterans and family members who lost relatives – close relatives – that morning 42 years ago in My Lai. One person lost 15 relatives that day.  They all told me that was then, that was the war. 

This is now, and we must all put it behind us and build a peaceful future for us, our children and for all generations to come.  As I shared in this meal, I felt the sorrow of this land and of these people.  It was on this very path that I had walked, these very steps that I had taken, that lives of the innocents were snuffed out in such a callous and monstrous way 42 years ago.  As much as we all want to put this behind us, I could not shake the feeling of death all around me.  504 unarmed Vietnamese civilians slaughtered on this very spot.  Incredibly, it was the Vietnamese Veterans from these hamlets who were comforting me.

Sitting with The Survivors

Today is the 42^nd anniversary of the massacre.  It was a solemn event.  As I looked around, I saw my friends, my fellow veterans, schoolchildren, local dignitaries.  I noticed several elderly ladies standing together in the heat of the early morning, trying to shade their faces from the sun with their cone hats their only protection. 

I walked towards them as I often do here to just say good morning.  I was quickly told by one of my hosts that these ladies were some of the only survivors of that day – these were the survivors of My Lai.  We found some shade on the steps of the museum that lead to the wall containing the names of those who were murdered. 

They, the surviving victims, now speaking to me, smiling, looking into my eyes, holding my hands, telling me everything is OK now.  I felt the agony as I held their hands, but I also saw and felt the hope that has endured them for 42 years now.

Saying Farewell to The Survivors of My Lai

I am heading back to Danang soon.  My friends are visiting a temple at a nearby mountaintop and I will join them.  As I look north, I still feel the death, the suffering.  I still hear the cries. 

I have experienced too much in my years, but these past couple of days has proved to me that there is always something worse. 

My hope is that society has learned something from this atrocity.  No people, no country should have to endure what the people of My Lai endured.  Murder is not right no matter what it is called or where it occurs. 

Governments that keep silent knowing acts of violence like this occurred are as guilty, if not worse, than the murderers themselves.

“My name is Hector, I got Agent Orange. “ said the homeless Viet Nam veteran to the intake clerk.

There are intake clerks at the Service Centers at the local VA Facilities. One of the jobs of these clerks do is to handle any homeless Veterans claims. The weather was getting colder, so all day, the homeless vets had crowded into the reception room and waited impatiently for their turn.

The Sheet in front of the clerk indicated that the Veteran sitting before him was the 25^th veteran he had to interview that day. Crowded as it was, the room was noisy and smelled of urine, and other offensive smells.

“I’m sorry Hector” the clerk answered, I didn’t get that. Could you lean closer so I can hear you, and say that again?”

Hector did just that much to the sensitivity of the clerk’s nostrils.

The clerk looked down at the intake form in front of him. They had gotten through about half the intake questions. The clerk had established that Hector was a combat Viet Nam veteran, 1967-1968, a survivor of the bloody TET offensive. The clerk had also established that Hector indeed was registered for Veterans Administration Services, because Hector had shown the clerk his ID card,

“That’s me.” Hector proudly showed his VA photo Identification card, pointing at his photo.

“Caucasian”, asked the clerk as he continued with the questions,

“Yes” replied Hector, “but also I’m part Cherokee too.”

Then the next question, which the clerk had seen before and knew was embarrassing to some of the other homeless Vets.

“Are you homeless now Hector.”

“Yes.” Hector said, dropping his eyes.

The clerk continued the questioning, and was now in the medical section of the questionnaire.

“Flu Shot?”

“No Thanks…well maybe…do you have that pig shot?”

“Do you mean swine flu shot? No, sorry, we don’t.”

“That’s ok, I don’t need it.”

“Do you want a hearing test?”

“No.”

“Do you want a blood test for hepatitis, and HIV-AIDS?”

“Nope.”

“Do you want to speak to someone in our mental health clinic?”

“No.” Hector’s eyes nervously drop down to the desk again.

“Podiatry?”

“Yeah, I really need my feet looked at. They are swollen, and the skin is cracked, and my toe nails are real long and yellow.”

“We’ll get you to the podiatry clinic right away.”

“Good, can I get that skin lotion, my feet are cracked so bad, that they bleed?”

“Yeah, talk to them when you get there. What about Substance Abuse?”

“No, I don’t drink or do drugs!”

“Okay,” The clerk said, “TB Test?”

“You got that?” he asked.

“Yes, we have that.”

“I’ll take that,” Hector said, “I’ve been coughing a lot lately. Sometimes I spit up blood”

The clerk started showing discomfort over the odor Hector emitting, and pushed back, asking questions from a little farther distance.

“Do you want help with employment Hector? “

“No.”

“Do you get Social Security Disability, or public assistance?”

“No, I’m all set” Hector answered, “I Got Agent Orange. A Hundred Percent.”

“What was that?” The clerk leaned in ignoring the smell. “I didn’t get that?”

“Agent Orange.” answered Hector, “…I get a check every month for Agent Orange. A hundred percent. They send it to my post office box, since I don’t have a home.”

“Now the clerk understood. That is how homeless Hector was “makin’ it on the mean streets. A monthly disability checks from the VA, because of his diagnosis of Dioxin Poisoning from Viet Nam Service Related Proximity to the herbicide, “Agent Orange”.

The clerk wondered how long it took Hector to get such a disability rating. What kind of struggle did it take Hector so he could subsist on the streets, all by the benefit of his monthly Agent Orange check?

The bottom line for Hector, he is dying.

He told the clerk,

“I need a new kidney. Actually, I need a lot of body parts. But I am not going to get them in time. I got diabetes too. I know I will die before they find the parts I need.”

Hector won’t be the first, or the last, but when Hector does die, maybe it should be noted he died from “friendly fire.”

Hector, as others who served in Nam, was wounded a long time ago, fighting in the Viet Nam, breathing hard, and sucking in the sweet smell of US Administered dioxin defoliant, as it dripped off the jungle canopy. Drinking it from the water, where the dioxin ran off, when it rained.

Regardless of what anyone says there are many good things that came out of Viet Nam war. One was the discovery of the “Golden Hour”, where medical care was given to  severely wounded soldiers within an hour, and  their chances of survival was a lot higher.

On the battlefield in Vietnam, wounded soldiers were transported by heroic pilots to advanced medical care by helicopters manned with a medic who treated the patients en route. This scenario drastically changed the statistics regarding correlations of wartime deaths with battle wounds.

In World War II, four out of every one hundred wounded soldiers, who reached medical care, died. In the Korean War helicopters were introduced to quickly move wounded soldiers to MASH units. This brought the toll down to two deaths for every one hundred wounded soldiers. In Vietnam, medics were added to the helicopters, bringing the death toll to one per hundred wounded soldiers who reached medical care.

Seeing the drastic changes “medevacs” brought about during the Vietnam War, back in the USA, civilian agencies decided it was time to make air ambulance transport available to the rural, and urban communities of America. Critically ill and injured patients living up to 150 miles away from medical emergency care now had significantly increased chances of survival.

Since the early days of air medical transport, these committed individuals have carried on with the notions of reaching new heights and performing the extraordinary when saving lives. By remaining consistently caring and technologically progressive, their extraordinary deeds have become the ordinary, yet without a loss of recognition for their spirit of service and life, family and community-changing accomplishments.

The lesson learned by all is that community-based air ambulance transportation is a vital need. Life Flight, as it is commonly called, is there when called upon to render highly specialized care, and close the gap of time and distance.

More than 40 years of  developement in Life Flight provides us the solid foundation on which to reach even newer heights while performing the ordinary and the extraordinary in lifesaving Emergency Medical Services.

The results of Life Flight choppers are measured in lives saved.

Chuck Palazzo

Danang, Vietnam

The Abandonment of the Hmong by the US Continues

Why has the United States turned its back on some of the bravest and loyal people that stood by our side during the Vietnam War?  The so-called “Secret War”, which began during the early 1960’s, continues to remain secret in many ways – it is becoming more apparent to me, that the United States and especially the CIA has turned its back on The Hmong and they will face continued suppression at best, and possible genocide at worst.  How better to keep a “secret” than to ensure the people that might have knowledge of same, quietly disappear?

The CIA began to recruit and train the indigenous Hmong people in Laos to join the US in fighting the Vietnam War in the early 1960’s.  Over 50% of The Hmong men in Laos were supported by the CIA to join fighting the “Secret War”.  Their primary responsibility was to block the Ho Chi Minh Trail which was the main military supply route from the north to the south of Vietnam.  The Hmong put themselves in great danger but their loyalty to the US never wavered.  They were indeed heroes, saving many Allied forces from capture, imprisonment and death.  From 1967 – 1971, close to 4,000 Hmong soldiers were killed and over 5,000 injured and disabled.  Between 1962 – 1975, over 12,000 Hmong died fighting against the Pathet Lao – what many consider to be the Lao equivalent to The Viet Cong, and who eventually took control of Laos.  Following the US withdrawal from the region in 1975, we abandoned the Hmong.  They were left to escape their country of origin and most fled to Thailand where they have lived in UN refugee camps ever since.  Still others continue to evade capture as they continue to live in the jungles and mountains as they continue to be hunted and apprehended by the local governments. A few have been able to escape and migrate to western countries.

During December, 2009, Thailand forced over 4,700 Hmong refugees back to the regime in Laos.  Several hundred if not more, have been unaccounted for, and the worst is believed to be occurring – Hmong men have been beaten and have been subjected to food deprivation to ensure they sign confessions, presumably regarding their participation during the “Secret War” as well as to intimidate the other members of the Hmong and ensure they remain silent – about the war and certainly about the Lao Government and its officials.  With signed confessions in hand, the Lao officials are probably hoping that this week’s delegation of US and Thai officials, as well as by journalists, will go as planned – remain silent.  In fact, it has been reported that The Hmong who have been forcibly returned to Laos have had hundreds, if not more, removed from the “settlement camps” and scattered throughout Laos to remote prisons.  Keep them silent? How better to keep any information from them from reaching the masses then to remove them from any possible contact with non-Lao officials or journalists?  Perhaps to silence them permanently – which many fear has already begun.  Approximately 8,000 members of The Hmong who have been forcibly repatriated to Laos from 2007 -2009 are missing.  Many of these brave men, women and children attempted to petition the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees at their Bangkok Headquarters for political asylum.  The result?  Forced back to Laos by the Thai Army against their wishes – but certainly favored by the Lao Government, and apparently the US, to keep the silence, silent.

During July, 2009, a US Delegation led by the principal deputy assistant secretary for the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, visited the Hmong in two refugee camps in Thailand.  Nothing was resolved, and to make matters worse, mixed signals were sent to The Hmong People – they had indeed been given the impression that they would be granted asylum and allowed to enter the United States.  What the Assistant Secretary did do, was to meet privately with Thai Military officers and a handful of The Hmong.   He never met with the thousands of Hmong that were in the camps.  Instead, upon his return to the US, he issued a press statement saying the US had no plans for a massive resettlement, but they would consider referrals on a case-by-case basis.  The US delegation demanded an appropriate and transparent screening process to identify those detainees who may have protection concerns.  “Those Lao Hmong who are found to be in need of protection should not be forcibly returned to Laos”, it said.  The repatriation plan could not be enforced easily since it runs against the Hmong’s freewill, notably those who claimed they are close associates of the CIA and fear suppression from the Lao government.  The Lao Military dismissed any such allegations and “guaranteed that no Hmong would be punished upon return to Laos”.

One interesting and alarming issue is this – it is estimated that several hundred of The Hmong who had close ties to the CIA are indeed in several of the many camps now, presumably back in Laos.  The entire Hmong population is being held, however.  Can the US not utilize its records and negotiate on behalf of those few hundred and have they as well as the entire Hmong people freed from Laos, refugee camps, or the jungles and mountains?  There are many who seek asylum in the US for a variety of reasons.  There are no other foreign people who deserve asylum in the US, or a western country of The Hmong’s choice, then the Hmong. In my opinion, The Hmong have indeed, more of a right, as a result of what they did to help their American allies during the Vietnam War.  Let us not forget, that Thailand also participated in the “Secret War”.

In 1993, Vue Mai, a former Hmong soldier who had been recruited by the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok to return to Laos as proof of the repatriation program’s success, disappeared in Vientiane. According to the U.S. Committee for Refugees, he was arrested by Lao security forces and was never seen again.  According to Amnesty International, at least nine Lao protest leaders have disappeared in Laos following their arrest in Vientiane on November 2, 2009.  “Guaranteed that no Hmong would be punished upon return to Laos”.  Interesting comment.  My definition of “guaranteed” is very different.

There are not only those Hmong who have been placed into refugee camps, or perhaps “re-education” camps by now.  There are in fact, many brave Hmong who continue to evade capture.  An investigative reporter met and spoke with several Hmong in the mountains.  The following quote, by a former CIA recruit is very telling.  “I am CIA. In 1970 Mr. Jerry gave me this M79 and told me to shoot enemy,” this Hmong fighter and former “secret war” recruit says in a perfect American accent, as he waves a battered grenade-launcher in the air.”We have lost thousands of troops for America – when the Laos soldiers kill us they feel like they have killed an America soldier. The CIA must come and save us.”  He continues “At least before, we thought we could escape to Thailand but now we have no place to run to,”  as he looks over to a mountain just three miles away. “We can’t keep running, soon we will all die here. Just over that mountain is where the enemy is and as we speak they are hunting us down with dogs – it’s just a matter of time before they attack us again.”

The CIA had the wherewithal and all the resources required, to recruit the Hmong for the “Secret War”.  Nearly 50 years later, they can certainly extract anyone they chose from any mountain top or jungle.  Not doing so for The Hmong, whether it be our CIA to perform extraction missions clandestinely, or the organized removal, with all Government’s involved approval, for those Hmong in refugee camps and elsewhere, by doing nothing is, a disgrace.  The US has clearly turned their backs on The Hmong who remain in Southeast Asia.  What “secrets” remain preventing the US and the UN from performing the necessary humanitarian work and free all Hmong from ongoing persecution?

While we did find ways to move closer in the last two years of my step-father’s  life, after he was diagnosed with Terminal Cancer, there were a few things we had in common. One of them was boxing. We both loved the sport, so I would take him to the ‘fights’ when he asked.

He had never served in War, as I did in Vietnam. But we never really talked about my experiences until one day, when we were on our way to the boxing fights at the city auditorium; we stopped at a diner to have a snack.

All of a sudden the conversation became very serious, when out of the blue he said,

“You know you were wrong to go to Viet Nam!!”

“ What?“ I was shocked, “This is coming from the man that used to tell me that it was an honor to serve my country?”

“You know,” He continued on, not waiting for a response to his last statement, “you’re not the Jimmy I knew before. The Jimmy I knew before died in Viet Nam!”

I first ignored his hypocrisy, but I couldn‘t forgive the cruelty of his statement. I told him something I had felt for a very long time but had never said it out loud.

“Fuck you! You’re an asshole! And they say you’re from the “ greatest generation.” He looked at me in kind of a very strange way.

I went on to tell him that his was the last generation that grew up believing there was a man in the moon – I grew up knowing there had been a man on the moon; His was the last generation that grew up in rural communities untouched by modern technology, unknowing of all that is going on in the world. I grew up in the information age, knowing everything, seeing everything, watching history unfold in front of my well-worn TV eyes.

His was the last generation that grew up having the full American dream intact; mine was the generation who saw the American dream tarnished by exposed lies, the high taxes, Assassinations, Watergate and other political, and business corruption.

Finally, and this was when it got very serious, I told him that his generation was a generation who was able to come home after fighting in a war not only knowing what you did was necessary but everyone around you knew it too. My generation fought in a war we did not understand and when we came home, we were demonstrated against, spit on, yelled at, shunned, and left alone. We were denigrated by being emulated in movies and other media programs as drunks, druggies, mentally unstable killers.

We had no justification, no heroes, no protection of the heart, and no treatment for the one wound no one could see.

We were left on our own to figure it out by ourselves, and many of us, unable to deal with the reality of what we did and what we saw, did the logical thing to survive– the only thing we could do to survive– we buried it. We buried it in the deep place inside where no one could see, no one could touch, and no one could hurt. Some buried it so deep they withdrew from the world around us and have never been able to reenter.

It was one of the most interesting and sad conversations I ever had with my step-father. He argued with me on every point except the last– and when we got to that point, he looked at me and said, quietly, and simply,

“You’re right.” And there was a very long pause after he said that – neither one of us said anything, nor when we both had tears in our eyes. My stepfather tears, I knew of no explanation, maybe because his stepson had been hurt and there was nothing he could do about it.

Moreover, me, I had tears in my eyes because it was the first time I had admitted aloud to someone I too had been wounded in ‘Nam. It caught us both off guard. It was one of the few times that I felt kind of close to my stepfather. I am sure it was because we had shared a deep and significantly personal moment. We never talked about that conversation again, but I remember that moment of sharing, with one whom I had never really shared anything with, my step-father.

Leaving for Nam -

It was a gloomy morning, which may have accounted for my morbid thoughts. Thoughts of today, and the past. I recalled a similar dawn, many years ago, a trip to Buffalo’s airport. We went by cab, Nanci, my wife and my step-dad, which was odd, but my stepfather Ralph insisted on it. He was a cheap person, some would call it thrifty, but I thought of it as cheap. I realize now that he was a poor man, but back then, I was not aware of it as I am now.

My thirty day pre-Viet Nam leave had come to an end, June 1967, I had worked for my brother Ralph‘s roofing and siding business while on leave to raise money for Nanci, and the baby she was carrying. I didn’t know much about roofing and siding, but I was strong, and being in the 101rst Airborne Division, had no fear of heights.

It was time to fly to San Francisco, and southeast Asia. We left my mother at home, crying; too upset that morning to even scramble eggs, never less coming to the airport. My kid brother Paul was sleeping.

Step dad was quiet during the trip, and it was only years later that I thought about what he must have been thinking. I wondered how if he had ever been sent to war, (he wasn’t) what would his father have thought, or how he would of seen him off to war.

We had arrived at the airport, and went into the terminal together. There were many other service men in uniforms, with duffel bags and overnight bags, a lot of mothers and fathers, wives or maybe girl friends, and even kids, probably siblings. There were even sharply dressed Military Police who walked through the terminal. This was an unusual sight just the year before.

The home front during the Viet Nam war is a study of extreme contrasts: sorrow and joy, partings and reunions, patriotism and cynicism, parades, demonstrations, and funerals.

I was flying American Airlines to San Francisco, and I got into the appropriate line, which comprised of mostly soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen, and some civilians, who looked like hippies, and who looked uncomfortable being in the same line.

My step dad wanted to wait but it looked like most of the families had left, so I talked him out of it. Nanci said she would stay and get a cab home. He shook my hand and said, “Come home son.”

For a moment, I thought he was ordering me to leave with him and forget this idiocy of war. Then I realized he meant come home alive. I looked him in the eye and said,

“I will, take care of Mom.”

“Sure. Good luck Jim.” And he was gone. A few minutes later, I caught a glimpse of him watching me. We made eye contact; he turned and was again gone.

I checked in at the ticket counter and Nanci holding my hand walked down to the gate, where I discovered that this is where most of the families had disappeared too. In those days, anyone could go to the departing gates, before 911. I thought that my step-dad might reappear.

Despite the large number of guys my own age from the Buffalo area. I did not see anyone I knew. This is going to be the beginning of a period in my life of looking for familiar faces and imaging them on other people. So I stood there holding Nanci’s hand, alone in our own thoughts, nothing being said but the occasional ‘I love you”. Meanwhile people moved around us stood quietly, talked in low murmurs, or cried softly. I have never seen so many people make so little noise, except at a funeral.

A few MP’s stood at the edge of the crowd looking for signs of problems among the young men who were about to leave for points of embarkation and war.

In retrospect, this whole scene had made me uncomfortable: the MP’s, the mostly unwilling soldiers, the quiet families; the sum total of which was this very un-American feeling of government control and coercion. But it was wartime, though not my father’s generation war, which was as popular as any war could get. And in wartime, even the most benevolent governments get a little pushy.

This was June 1967, and the anti-war movement wasn’t yet in full swing in Buffalo, so therefore there were no protesters or demonstrations at Buffalo’s airport, though there were a bunch of them when we landed in San Francisco, and a lot of them at the Oakland Army Base, urging the soldiers not to go or better yet, to make love, not war.

I looked into Nanci’s eyes, and I saw love that day, that moment, but I also saw fear in her eyes, and maybe my own too. I remember I felt a sadness, a sadness that if I should die, what would happen to Nanci, who would love and protect her and the baby she was carrying inside her, as I do now? This feeling is still there in me, even after all these years, when I have had a heart attack in 1991, or angina, I still ask myself today, aware of my mortality and poor health, who would love and protect her.

The announcer’s voice came on and my flight was boarding. So I told her,

“I love you, take care of both my babies.“

Meaning her and the baby that will be born in December 1967.

“Don’t cry baby, I will be back, so write me every day.”

She looked at me with her blue misty eyes and said.

“I love you too .“

We kissed and held each other tightly, her being brave, not wanting me to leave, and me, scared, but not wanting to show it.

I walked down the ramp afraid to look back, because I knew if I did I would cry, and I had too much pride to make this mistake.

~

Adjacent to Vietnam Veterans Memorial Plaza

12:00 Noon – 1:00 PM: Reading of Names of the 1,741
lost in Vietnam from New York City
1:00 – 2:30 PM : Refreshments & Reunion
2:30 – 4:00 PM : Ceremonial Event

featuring:

Video Presentation: The Legacy

Paul Bucha
Medal of Honor Recipient, U.S. Army, Vietnam

John Rowan
National President, Vietnam Veterans of America

Presentation of proclamation from New York State*
(All Vietnam Veterans in attendance will receive a personal copy)

Recognition of our latest generation of veterans

Presented by the UNITED WAR VETERANS COUNCIL
in partnership with all veterans organizations
and agencies serving our Vietnam Veterans

INDOOR EVENT – RAIN OR SHINE
Indoor paid parking available on
Old Slip (b/w Water & South Streets)
Free For Vietnam Veterans,

Veterans of All eras, and Family members
Please RSVP to 212.693.1476 or
unitedwarveterans@gmail.com

I had hired on with the Donner – Hanna Coke Corporation as Director of Security, my job was to protect a Coke Manufacturing plant. My security officers were well trained in weapons, certified first aid, trained Emergency Medical Technicians, and Firemen.

In 1975, a few years after my service in Vietnam. I received a call one afternoon from one of my company employees saying he had chest pains. He said he was feeling very ill. I and my partner Phillip Taylor, went to the site in the plant, and took him to the hospital in our company ambulance.

A nurse met us at the Emergency room door of Erie County Medical Center and took us immediately into the ER. Over the next couple of hours, the employee was examined by a doctor, given nitro medication, x-ray, and blood tests. A nurse said,

“Officer, He will have to stay and be tested for an hour or so to make sure he didn’t have any heart attack, and depending on what they found, he may likely will have to stay overnight.

I told her, “ Thank you, I‘ll hang around for a while”.

I would of left but my partner decided to take another nurse he knew to the cafeteria for coffee, so I was stuck there till he got back. The Nurse I was speaking too, named Joan, must have noticed I had pipe smoking stuff in my shirt pocket and said I need a smoke.

“ You want to go outside with me and have a smoke?”

“Sure,” she said with a smile, “You seem safe.”

So we went out on a private patio like area reserved for doctors and nurses. We introduced ourselves, her name being Joan, as she pulled a smoke out, and I lit her cigarette, and later my pipe.

As we were smoking and speaking small talk for a few minutes, our conversation was interrupted, when I noticed a Life Flight helicopter approaching from a distance, bringing a critical emergency patient. We both stopped speaking, as the chopper got closer, and started it’s approach to land on the Hospital roof. I noticed Joan smoking like she was in a hurry, then lighting another smoke, becoming very fidgety and agitated. As the chopper settled onto the helipad, on the roof over our heads, I noticed a haze coming over her eyes.

As I stepped around in front of her to see better I recognized the look as the “1000 yard stare”. I had seen “the stare” many times, in Viet Nam, and in other veteran‘s eyes.

After about 5 seconds she noticed me staring. She was embarrassed and started to apologize.

“No need for that”, I said . “I bet you were a nurse in Nam?”

“Is it that noticeable?” She asked.

“Yes, it is, I have seen it before.”

Joan smiled at me, relaxed, leaned against the wall, pulled another smoke out, and I lit it for her as she spoke,

“ I was in Viet Nam in Pleiku. My first part of my tour was at a hospital, in 1967 and 1968. I had done time on the hospital ship USS Good Hope and also time in the Navy hospital in Da Nang. I saw and treated so many maimed bodies and dying soldiers, and it had really gotten to me! I still have nightmares, and flashbacks. The helicopters arriving at the hospitals, the noise of the rotors always preceded the carnage. So now when I am working here, the wop – wop of the blades of the Life Flight helicopter (vintage UH1E, Hueys) at close range always brings back those memories!”

“I know, I have the same memories. Some shrinks call it flashbacks“

“When I got back home“, She confessed, “I didn’t want to do nursing anymore, but my priest talked me back into doing it, and now even though it’s difficult at times, I am glad I did.”

After all these years, I don’t even remember what Joan the nurse looks like but the point of this story is “They served too”. Lets us not forget those wonderful women who done their time in Vietnam. Many a soldier who lay dying, the smile of a combat nurse, the caress of a warm hand, a touch on the cheek or some kind words may have been the last thing they remembered.

See larger image Nurses in Vietnam: The Forgotten Veterans (Hardcover) By (author) Dan Freedman List Price: $16.95 USD New From: $19.95 In Stock Used from: $1.19 In Stock

Please look at the link:

http://www.landmines.org.vn/news/2010_02_07_Acci.html

The Tet Offensive was a military campaign during the Vietnam War that began on January 31, 1968. Forces of the National Liberation Front for South Vietnam (Viet Cong), and the People’s Army of Vietnam (the North Vietnamese army), fought against the forces of the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam), the United States, and their allies. The purpose of the offensive was to strike military and civilian command and control centers throughout South Vietnam and to spark a general uprising among the population that would then topple the Saigon government, thus ending the war in a single blow.

The operations are referred to as the Tet Offensive because they began during the early morning hours of 31 January 1968, Tết Nguyên Đán, the first day of the year on a traditional lunar calendar and the most important Vietnamese holiday. Both North and South Vietnam announced on national radio broadcasts that there would be a two-day cease-fire during the holiday. In Vietnamese, the offensive is called Cuộc Tổng tiến công và nổi dậy (“General Offensive and Uprising”), or Tết Mậu Thân (Tet, year of the monkey).

The NLF launched a wave of attacks on the morning of 31 January in the I and II Corps Tactical Zones of South Vietnam. This early attack did not, however, cause undue alarm or lead to widespread defensive measures. When the main NLF operation began the next morning, the offensive was countrywide in scope and well coordinated, with more than 80,000 NVA and NLF troops striking more than 100 towns and cities, including 36 of 44 provincial capitals, five of the six autonomous cities, 72 of 245 district towns, and the southern capital. The offensive was the largest military operation yet conducted by either side up to that point in the war.

The initial attacks stunned the US and South Vietnamese armies and took them by surprise, but most were quickly contained and beaten back, inflicting massive casualties on NVA and NLF forces. During the Battle of Hue intense fighting lasted for a month and the NLF executed thousands of residents in the Massacre at Hue. Around the US combat base at Khe Sanh fighting continued for two more months. Although the offensive was a military defeat for the NVA and NLF, it had a profound effect on the US government and shocked the American public, which had been led to believe by its political and military leaders that the NVA and NLF were, due to previous defeats, incapable of launching such a massive effort.

Both sides had compelling military reasons for their interest in the region around Khe Sanh. The geography of Indochina made Khe Sanh militarily significant. General Westmoreland felt the critical importance of Khe Sanh was clearly apparent. It would serve as a patrol base for the interdiction of enemy personnel and supplies coming down the Ho Chi Minh Trail from Laos into northern South Vietnam, a base for covert operations to harass the NVA and NLF along the Trail, the location of an airstrip for aerial reconnaissance of the Trail, the western anchor for the defensive line along the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating North and South Vietnam, and a jumping-off point for a land invasion of Laos to cut the Ho Chi Minh Trail. According to Westmoreland, abandoning the US military presence at Khe Sanh would allow the People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN, the North Vietnamese Army or NVA) the ability to carry the fight into the populated coastal regions of Northern South Vietnam. For the NVA and NLF the region around Khe Sanh was the avenue for their entry into northern South Vietnam. From a strategic standpoint, it would clearly be in the best interests of the PAVN to end the American presence at Khe Sanh.

Khe Sanh was located on Route 9 which ran from near the South China Sea at Dong Ha westerly to Savannaket, a market town in Laos along the Mekong River. This old French highway ran just south of and mostly parallel to the Demilitarized Zone. In August, 1967, NVA and NLF forces destroyed many of the bridges on Route 9, blocked the passes, and mined the highway. Khe Sanh was effectively isolated from overland resupply and would remain so for the next nine months. The Marine garrison at the Khe Sanh Combat Base could only be provisioned by air.

In October, 1967, General Giap ordered men and material sent down the Ho Chi Minh Trail and infiltrated across the Laotian-South Vietnam border in the vicinity of Khe Sanh. In response, General Westmoreland ordered the reinforcement of the Marine garrison there. Westmoreland wanted a large Marine force at Khe Sanh in order to entice PAVN troops into a killing zone where massive firepower would destroy them in large numbers. The limiting factor was that this force had to be small enough to be supplied by air. The result was a reinforced Marine regiment of about 6,600 men. On January 21, 1968, the PAVN began rocket, artillery, and mortar attacks on the Khe Sanh Combat Base. US air and artillery assets prevented the enemy from massing his forces in sufficient number to launch effective ground attacks on the base and surrounding hilltop positions. As long as Khe Sanh could be adequately supplied with ammunition, POL (petroleum, oil, lubricants) and food, the Marines could maintain their positions.

Concerns over the ability of the US to successfully defend Khe Sanh were manifest at the highest levels of government. President Lyndon B. Johnson, his national security advisor, the advisor’s military assistant, and the National Security Council staff representative for Vietnam were all kept abreast of the developing situation around Khe Sanh. President Johnson summed up his feelings regarding Khe Sanh while the fighting was in progress: “I don’t want any damn Dinbinphoo.” Both General Earl G. Wheeler, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and General Westmoreland assured the president that preparations for the defense of Khe Sanh were adequate and that the base would be successfully supplied. Support for the defense of Khe Sanh received priority over all other operations in Vietnam.

The job of supplying the Marine base at Khe Sanh fell to various Marine Corps and US Air Force aviation units. This airlift would have been a massive operation even under ideal circumstances. The purely logistical problems were compounded by poor visibility that fell below minimum requirements for airfield operations 40 percent of the time. The PAVN added to the difficulty by directing a heavy volume of antiaircraft and artillery fire at incoming aircraft.

The resupply process suffered a sharp setback on February 10 when PAVN gunners shot up a Marine C-130, fully laden with fuel bladders, while it was attempting a landing at the Khe Sanh airstrip.

As a result of this incident and fire damage sustained by other aircraft already on the ground, C-130 landings were temporarily suspended during February. At the beginning of March this suspension was made permanent. Consequently, during these periods, the Marines were denied the use of the best heavy-lift aviation assets in their inventory. Most supplies thereafter were delivered by parachute. According to the official Marine Corps history of the battle of Khe Sanh, these parachute drops “. . . were sufficient for bulk commodities such as rations and ammunition.” Certain supplies, such as replacement troops, medical evacuations and medical supplies could only be delivered by aircraft that made actual landings on the runway at Khe Sanh.

This official assessment of the success of US supply capabilities regarding rations was overly optimistic. A hot meal was defined as heated C-rations; the Marines at Khe Sanh sometimes went weeks without hot meals. Rations were routinely limited to two meals per man per day. One Marine reported that he went several days with only one C-ration meal per day. A company commander on Hill 861, located about two miles northwest of the combat base, reported his men were forced to go for days without water. Another reported that his water ration was one-half canteen cup of water per day, which had to suffice for drinking, shaving, and brushing teeth.

Water is an extremely difficult commodity to deliver to a besieged garrison. It is heavy, it must be handled in special containers that cannot be used for the delivery of other liquids, and water containers are vulnerable to incoming artillery attacks. One helicopter crew attempting to deliver water to Hill 861 was rattled by PAVN fire, panicked, and released its cargo from a height of two hundred feet. The parched Marines watched the water containers burst apart in mid-air.

Had the NVA and NLF realized the vulnerability of the Marine water supply, they could have forced the abandonment of the combat base. The Marines occupied various hilltop positions surrounding Khe Sanh. These positions, initially supplied from the combat base itself, were later provisioned by helicopters flying from the 3d Marine Division Forward base at Dong Ha. Water for the combat base came from the small Rao Quan River which flowed through hills to the north occupied by the PAVN.

Even though the combat base was not dependent on air-lifted water as the hill positions were, it was, nevertheless, often a scarce commodity. The water point itself was located about 150 meters outside the northern sector of the base perimeter. There was a small hill and tall grass that obscured visual contact with the water point. The water was lifted ninety feet over an 800-foot span by pumps. A dirt dam twenty-five meters wide caused the formation of a reservoir six feet deep. During the extensive rains of September and October, 1967, the dam broke. US Navy EO1 (Equipment Operator First Class) Rulon V. Rees led a detail to repair the dam in the fall of 1967 using old scrapped Marston matting from the airstrip. This detail blasted a crater in the river bed about thirty feet in front of the dam to act as a reservoir in case the river level fell. Marston matting was placed on the face of the dam.

No patrols went out to get the water. It was pumped inside the perimeter and went to a large black rubber water tower container. This reservoir was frequently punctured during the siege, causing temporary lack of water on the base.

Had the PAVN realized how vulnerable the Marines’ water supply was, they could have interdicted it by diverting the Rao Quan River or contaminating it, thereby forcing the Marines to attempt a breakout.  However, General Giap, who achieved victory at Dien Bien Phu in part due to his meticulous battlefield planning, seems to have not realized the vulnerability of the Marines’ water supply. Nor did the local PAVN commander. General Westmoreland did not become aware of the magnitude of the potential water problem until the base was surrounded by the North Vietnamese. By that time, a successful evacuation was not possible.

The concept of an overland evacuation of a reinforced regiment, fighting its way through two or three PAVN divisions that held every tactical advantage, presented a problem of such magnitude that Westmoreland was reluctant to consider it. The Joint Chiefs refused to consider it.

Had the PAVN succeeded in interdicting the combat base’s water supply, 3rd Marine Division commander General R. M. Tompkins is quoted in one source as saying that it would have been impossible to provision Khe Sanh with water in addition to its other resupply requirements. However, in a letter to General Davidson, General Tompkins stated that water could have been added to the provisions already being supplied to support the base. By examining the supply requirements and the logistical capabilities of the Americans it is possible to determine which of these contradictory statements is correct.

III Marine Amphibious Force (III MAF) headquarters established the official supply requirement for Khe Sanh at 235 tons per day. The Americans were hard pressed to meet these requirements. The airstrip was completely closed on various occasions due to the weather or damage sustained from enemy fire. During the month of February alone, the combat base had a deficit of 1,037 tons of supplies actually delivered compared to scheduled deliveries. The air delivery problems were compounded when the use of the large C-130 cargo planes was curtailed due to hostile fire. Passenger requirements were met by the use of C-123 aircraft. The smaller capacity of the C-123’s necessitated a five-fold increase in landings. More landings meant more targets; one aircraft upon returning to Da Nang was found to contain 242 holes before the maintenance personnel gave up counting. In the first month of the siege four major aircraft were lost to hostile fire.

Helicopters were widely used as resupply vehicles. Only helicopters could reach the hilltop positions, whose supply requirements were 32,000 pounds per day. Helicopters were stationed at the combat base at the beginning of the fighting. These aircraft became so vulnerable to hostile fire that they had to be kept constantly in the air whether they had missions to perform or not. Eventually losses became so great that this unit was deployed away from Khe Sanh, as helicopters were being lost at a rate faster than they could be replaced. No less than thirty-three helicopters were destroyed or permanently disabled between the beginning of the siege and the end of March, 1968.

These losses were sustained without the implementation of an additional requirement for water delivery. According to the relevant US Army field manual, the water supply requirement for drinking, personal hygiene, food preparation, laundry, and medical treatment is six pounds of water per man per day. These levels provide enough water to support continuous combat operations for extended periods. The implementation of this requirement would have added 158 tons per day, an additional load of 67% over the supply requirement without water. Unlike ammunition and food rations, which could be palletized and delivered by parachute without the need for special containers, water was difficult to stockpile during the periods when resupply was possible, for use when landings were not permitted due to weather or hostile fire. The official optimism of US commanders regarding resupply at Khe Sanh notwithstanding, the Americans would not have been able to provide the base with water under the existing tactical conditions.

By March the PAVN began withdrawing from the Khe Sanh area, and in April the Marine regiment was replaced, allowing it to withdraw via the newly reopened Route 9. The primary goal of the American forces at Khe Sanh was to destroy large numbers of North Vietnamese soldiers. In this they were successful. Although the official body count of enemy soldiers killed at Khe Sanh was 1,602, the US command placed the total number of North Vietnamese at between 10,000 and 15,000 killed in action. American deaths sustained in the siege itself, plus mobile operations in the Khe Sanh tactical area after the siege, totaled approximately 1,000 KIA. In a war that focused on kill ratios and body counts as a measure of success, Khe Sanh was placed in the win column by the American military.

As with the Americans at Khe Sanh, the French garrisoned Dien Bien Phu as “bait” for the Vietnamese NVA and NLF forces. An American observer there reported that the French base could “withstand any kind of attack the Viet Minh are capable of launching.” When the Viet Minh knocked out the airfield at Dien Bien Phu, resupply became impossible and the French became isolated and vulnerable. On May 7, 1954, after sustaining heavy losses, the French were forced to surrender. The very next day the Indochina phase of the Geneva Conference began. France’s loss at Dien Bien Phu led directly to their withdrawal from Indochina.

Victory in combat, however defined, often hangs by a tenuous thread. Even with the claim of victory by the US at Khe Sanh and during the Tet 1968 fighting in general, the psychological victory of the NVA and NLF during this period led to the beginning of the end for the United States in Vietnam. It was during the 1968 Tet Offensive that opposition in the US to the war in Vietnam, in terms of regarding involvement as a mistake, first rose above 50 percent and exceed the level of support. Approximately one fourth of all the television film reports on the evening news programs in the US during February and March, 1968, were devoted to portraying the situation of the Marines at Khe Sanh. Had the North Vietnamese simply interdicted the water supply of the Marines at the Khe Sanh Combat Base in 1968, thereby forcing the Marines to evacuate and inflicting heavy casualties upon them in the process, the United States could have easily have met a fate similar to that of the French.

Have we learned our lesson?  I doubt it.  Did the North Vietnamese lose the battle and win the war? Absolutely – if it’s only body count that mattered with respect to the battle itself.  As a combat Marine, in and around Khe Sanh, Danang and other locations, it was two years later and I had landed.  I also realized for the first time what a huge mistake the US had made as we touched down on the airstrip. The countdown for my rotation had started the very minute I landed in Danang.

To my brave brothers who were killed or wounded at Khe Sanh– thank you.  To all who were killed, wounded, came back psychologically scarred or, well, and just came back – thank you.  To those of us who are still around and have not succumbed to the diseases that have manifested themselves from the likes of Agent Orange or PTSD – thank you. To those of you who have succumbed – thank you.  To the citizens of Vietnam – thank you for taking me back and allowing me the privilege of trying to do some good.

We were all combatants, formidable combatants.  The memories live on, and the US continues to think it can influence nations that have been at war for generations as a result of religious differences, colonization, invasions, etc.  Innocents are lost on all sides.  Has the US learned anything at all?  Just check how many US and allied troops as well as friendly’s are killed or maimed each day in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan.  Just check how many of us die each day as a result of Agent Orange. No.  We have not learned a thing.

Happy Lunar New Year and Semper Peace!

Chuck

Much of this was taken, with the exception of my obvious comments, from Wikipedia and from an eye witness account and article by Peter Bush.

“VA Issues List of Ships with Agent Orange Exposure-The Department of Veterans Affairs Compensation and Pension (C&P) Service has initiated a program to collect data on Vietnam naval operations for the purpose of providing regional offices with information to assist with development in Haas related disability claims based on herbicide exposure from Navy Veterans.

To date, the Department of Veteran’s Affairs (VA) received verification from various sources showing that a number of offshore “blue water” naval vessels conducted operations on the inland “brown water” rivers and delta areas of Vietnam. The VA also has identified certain vessel types that operated primarily or exclusively on the inland waterways. The ships and dates of inland waterway service are listed on the Compensation & Pension Service Bulletin [PDF]. For your convenience, we also have listed the ships and dates below.

If a Veteran’s service aboard one of these ships can be confirmed through military records during the time frames specified, then exposure to herbicide agents can be presumed without further development.

All vessels of Inshore Fire Support [IFS]
Division 93 during their entire Vietnam tour
USS Carronade (IFS 1)
USS Clarion River (LSMR 409) [Landing Ship,
Medium, Rocket]
USS Francis River (LSMR 525)
USS White River (LSMR 536)

All vessels with the designation LST [Landing
Ship, Tank] during their entire tour
[WWII ships converted to transport supplies on
rivers and serve as barracks for brown water
Mobile Riverine Forces]

All vessels with the designation LCVP [Landing
Craft, Vehicle, Personnel] during their entire
tour

All vessels with the designation PCF [Patrol
Craft, Fast] during their entire tour
[Also called Swift Boats, operating for enemy
interdiction on close coastal waters]

All vessels with the designation PBR [Patrol
Boat, River] during their entire tour
[Also called River Patrol Boats as part of the
Mobile Riverine Forces operating on inland
waterways and featured in the Vietnam film
“Apocalypse Now”]

USS Ingersoll (DD-652) [Destroyer] [Operated
on Saigon River, October 24-25, 1965]

USS Mansfield (DD-728) [Destroyer] [Operated
on Saigon River August 8-19, 1967 and
December 21-24, 1968]

USS Richard E. Kraus (DD-849) [Destroyer]
[Operated on coastal inlet north of Da Nang,
June 2-5, 1966, protecting Marines holding a
bridge]

USS Basilone (DD-824) [Destroyer] [Operated
on Saigon River, May 24-25, 1966]

USS Hamner (DD-718) [Destroyer] [Operated
on Song Lon Tao and Long Song Tao Rivers,
August 15-September 1, 1966]

USS Conway (DD-507) [Destroyer] [Operated
on Saigon River, early August 1966]

USS Fiske (DD-842) [Destroyer] [Operated on
Mekong River, June 16-21, 1966]

USS Black (DD-666) [Destroyer] [Operated on
Saigon River, July 13-19, 1966]

USS Providence (CLG-6) [Cruiser, Light,
Guided Missile] [Operated on Saigon River 3
days during January 1964]

USS Mahan (DLG-11) [Guided Missile Frigate]
[Operated on Saigon River October 24-28, 1964]

USS Okanogan (APA-220) [Attack Transport]
[Operated on Saigon River July 22-23, 29-30,
1968 and August 5-6, 1968]

USS Niagara Falls (AFS-3) [Combat Stores
Ship] [Unloaded supplies on Saigon River and
Cam Rahn Bay, April 22-25, 1968]”

CWO3 Tom Barnes, USCG (Ret.)

The Hmong are an Asian ethnic group of people – primarily from the mountainous areas of Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Burma.  There are many personal accounts that have been told to me, and a very near and dear friend, whose husband met a very untimely demise as a result of his exposure to Agent Orange, was shot down while here during the war.  He survived the crash – and was protected from the VC as well as the NVA because of the loyalty and devotion of the Hmong to him and to the US.  They literally hid him, fed him, protected him, and helped him find his way back to an allied controlled area where he ultimately met up with his unit and safety with US Ground Troops.

In the 1960’s, the CIA started to recruit the Hmong to help the US fight in Vietnam as well as the “secret war” in Laos.  The main reason in my opinion and documented by several historians – their familiarity with the terrain, especially when it came time to block the NVA from heading south via the Ho Chi Minh Trail.  Between 1962 – 1975, about 12,000 Hmong died fighting against the Pathet Lao.  Following the US withdrawal from Vietnam in 1975, the Lao kingdom was overthrown by the communists and the Hmong became targets – literally. 

This began the mass exodus of the Hmong from Laos to Thailand – those who were successful, wound up in UN refugee camps.  Sadly, those who were not part of the exodus to Thailand were sent to re-education camps most of whom died.  Others found their way to the US and several other friendly nations.   An estimated 30,000 Hmong would be killed by Communist forces while trying to reach Thailand. Over 100,000 Hmong people died as a result of the war.

The Hmong apparently were told that they could bravely fight for the US because the United States would always be there to protect them should local communists turn on the Hmong. It was a relationship of trust, but Hmong trust in the US would be sadly misplaced. After taking over Laos in 1975, the Pathet Lao Communists stated that they would wipe out the Hmong.

A Vietnamese broadcast apparently called for genocide against them. From 1976 to 1979, there were credible reports of chemical warfare used against Hmong villages. The world tried to ignore these reports, and some influential voices in the United States tried to discredit the evidence, claiming that the “yellow rain” that had been used to kill Hmong people was just natural bee feces, not a chemical toxin. By the time overwhelming evidence had been gathered to shatter the “bee feces” theory, the media no longer seemed interested in exploring charges of genocide by Communist forces.

On December 27, 2009, Thailand launched an operation to close a refugee camp and send some 4,500 ethnic Hmong back to Laos, despite concerns about their safety.  Thailand blames other countries for the deportation, and we, the friendly US, whom the Hmong did so much for, risked and lost so many of their lives for US forces, “criticized” the Thai Government.  That was as recent as a week ago. 

The Hmong’s fate?  One could only guess. 

Do not forget what they did for us, perhaps many of you reading this have had personal experiences you could share – share them with your congressional and US Representatives, The White House, The UN.  We have a responsibility for these people’s safety – as we promised them we would protect them over 40 years ago.  Another lie from the US Government that the rest of the world just ignores.

Robert L. Howard, 70, one of the Vietnam War’s most highly decorated servicemen who received the Medal of Honor for leading fellow soldiers out of an ambush and fending off more than 250 troops during a two-day siege deep in enemy territory, died Dec. 23 of pancreatic cancer at a hospice in Waco, Tex. He had been living in the San Antonio area since retiring from the Army in 1992 at the rank of colonel.

Col. Robert L. Howard was among the Vietnam War's most highly decorated servicemen. (Congressional Medal Of Honor Society)

In addition to the Medal of Honor — the military’s highest award for valor — Col. Howard received two awards of the Distinguished Service Cross, the Silver Star, the Defense Superior Service Medal, four awards of the Legion of Merit, four Bronze Star Medals and eight Purple Hearts.

Col. Howard, an Army Green Beret, served five tours in Vietnam. During one 13-month period, he was nominated for the Medal of Honor for three separate acts of heroism.

In December 1968, then-Sgt. 1st Class Howard was part of a platoon tasked with going into North Vietnam in search of a fellow Green Beret whose rescue beacon reported him missing in action. While leading the patrol, Sgt. Howard and his lieutenant were blown back by an anti-personnel mine that signaled a 250-man ambush on their platoon. The blast knocked Sgt. Howard unconscious, and the shrapnel wounded his hands and destroyed his rifle.

Read more at Washington Post

Michael R. Taylor, J.D., was appointed Deputy Commissioner for Foods. This was announced on the FDA’s website the day after the earthquake in Haiti. Michael Taylor is a former top executive, lawyer and lobbyist with biotech giant Monsanto Co. He has rotated in and out of law firms, Monsanto, the USDA and FDA.

During his former stint in the FDA during the Clinton administration he helped write the rules to allow rBGH (Bovine Growth Hormone) into the American food system and our children’s milk. Which is perhaps why the FDA staffer who wrote Taylor’s bio seems to have all-but-forgotten his decade-plus of Monsanto work. Michael Taylor and Monsanto are responsible for subjecting this country and many others to the increased risk of breast cancer (7 times greater risk), prostate cancer and colon cancer because of what they did to milk, cheese, yogurt, ice cream with rBGH as well as to all the foods that rely on milk solids and other parts of milk.

As a bi-product of the rBGH fight Michael Taylor then led the ban on labeling of GM products all together. This was labeled “the principal of substantial equivalence” which prohibits any distinction to be made between GM and traditional products. Regardless of any testing or lack there of on the possible effects of GM foods used for human consumption. Even though Memo after memo described toxins, new diseases, nutritional deficiencies, and hard-to-detect allergens. They were adamant that the technology carried “serious health hazards,” and required careful, long-term research, including human studies, before any genetically modified organisms (GMOs) could be safely released into the food supply.

He left the FDA in 1994 and a few years later became Monsanto’s Vice President in charge of lobbying in Washington. As a lobbyist, Taylor argued AGAINST the Delaney Clause, one of the foundations of food safety regulation that prohibits cancer-causing chemicals to be added to food.

Read more at WeAreGreenTV.com

Chuck Palazzo

On his day, I think a fitting read for all – especially when he spoke out at the Riverside Church in New York back in 1967.  What follows are excerpts, mostly from Wikipedia.  I also list the site where the entire speech can be heard as well as read.  Those were tough times for all of us, for many reasons.  Even though some of us won’t admit to it, the racial issue was running rampant – here in Vietnam as well as back in the US.  Dr. King speaks about the war – how wrong the US was.  The killings of innocent lives.  The economic problems that the US was ignoring just to fight yet another war – and of course to keep it well armed and leaving the poor to continue to be poor, and the richer making more money from the war machine.  Sound familiar?  Prophetic?

Starting in 1965, King began to express doubts about the United States’ role in the Vietnam War. In an April 4, 1967 appearance at the New York City Riverside Church—exactly one year before his death—King delivered a speech titled “Beyond Vietnam”.^[80] In the speech, he spoke strongly against the U.S.’s role in the war, insisting that the U.S. was in Vietnam “to occupy it as an American colony”^[81] and calling the U.S. government “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today”.^[82] He also argued that the country needed larger and broader moral changes:

A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say: “This is not just.”^[83]

King also was opposed to the Vietnam War on the grounds that the war took money and resources that could have been spent on social welfare services like the War on Poverty. The United States Congress was spending more and more on the military and less and less on anti-poverty programs at the same time. He summed up this aspect by saying, “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death”.^[83]

Many white southern segregationists vilified King; moreover, this speech soured his relationship with many members of the mainstream media. Life magazine called the speech “demagogic slander that sounded like a script for Radio Hanoi“,^[80] and The Washington Post declared that King had “diminished his usefulness to his cause, his country, his people.”^[84]

King stated that North Vietnam “did not begin to send in any large number of supplies or men until American forces had arrived in the tens of thousands”.^[85] King also criticized the United States’ resistance to North Vietnam’s land reforms.^[86] He accused the United States of having killed a million Vietnamese, “mostly children.”^[87]

The speech was a reflection of King’s evolving political advocacy in his later years, which paralleled the teachings of the progressive Highlander Research and Education Center, with whom King was affiliated.^[88] King began to speak of the need for fundamental changes in the political and economic life of the nation. Towards the time of his murder, King more frequently expressed his opposition to the war and his desire to see a redistribution of resources to correct racial and economic injustice.^[89] Though his public language was guarded, so as to avoid being linked to communism by his political enemies, in private he sometimes spoke of his support for democratic socialism. In one speech, he stated that “something is wrong with capitalism” and claimed, “There must be a better distribution of wealth, and maybe America must move toward a democratic socialism.”^[90]

King had read Marx while at Morehouse, but while he rejected “traditional capitalism,” he also rejected Communism because of its “materialistic interpretation of history” that denied religion, its “ethical relativism,” and its “political totalitarianism.”^[91]

King also stated in his “Beyond Vietnam” speech that “true compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar….it comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring”.^[92] King quoted a United States official, who said that, from Vietnam to South America to Latin America, the country was “on the wrong side of a world revolution.”^[92] King condemned America’s “alliance with the landed gentry of Latin America,” and said that the United States should support “the shirtless and barefoot people” in the Third World rather than suppressing their attempts at revolution.^[93]

King spoke at an Anti-Vietnam demonstration where he also brought up issues of civil rights and the draft.

“I have not urged a mechanical fusion of the civil rights and peace movements. There are people who have come to see the moral imperative of equality, but who cannot yet see the moral imperative of world brotherhood. I would like to see the fervor of the civil-rights movement imbued into the peace movement to instill it with greater strength. And I believe everyone has a duty to be in both the civil-rights and peace movements. But for those who presently choose but one, I would hope they will finally come to see the moral roots common to both.”^[94]

Wikipedia  is the source.

The words above are from Dr. King and some commentary about that famous speech which was held at the Riverside Church in New York on April 4, 1967– in my opinion, a genius of a man, who was ironically assassinated exactly one day from the speech which I quote parts from, above.  How prophetic were his words?  Look at the messes we are in today, messes we have created and continue to be party to – we spend and spend and spend on wars in foreign lands.  We have no reason to be there.  And those are monies that could be used right in the US – to feed the poor, to house the homeless, and yes, to help all of us, the Veterans who bravely fought and paid the ultimate sacrifice, unwillingly and unknowing.

Here is a link to Dr. King’s entire speech from that day.  I urge us all to read it, listed to it and ask ourselves, are we any further along?  I say we are not – I say we are moving in the wrong direction!

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkatimetobreaksilence.htm

By Gordon Duff, Senior Editor &  Staff Writer

Lying about the Vietnam War is a way of life. When some of those who “served” in Vietnam became old enough to gain power, hiding much of the truth of the war was critical to keep questions down. Everything bad in Vietnam was blamed on minorities, “bad eggs” and draftees. This is total hogwash. Vietnam was our most corrupt war in history with a Mafia within our military stealing, not millions, but billions in food, weapons, uniforms, supplies of every kind, often leaving troops in the field without food, weapons, medicine and supplies.

Ships would unload in one port and things would be either sold on the black market in Vietnam or shipped back out for places unknown. The scale was massive. The network that allowed it blackmailed officers through widespread prostitution, payoffs and physical threats. The biggest source of money was drugs, not a few ounces sewn into corpses like the internet rumors tell of but containers of heroin and bundles of cash big enough to fill the trunk of a car. The culprits: Senior non-commissioned officers in the Army and Marines, some arrested but most promoted and retired honorably, some as multi-millionaires.

When there was no turkey dinner on Christmas or Thankstgiving, it had been sold. When boots rotted off the feet of troops in the field, there were no replacments, they had been sold too. When malaria pills were unavailable and thousands got sick, they had been sold. Tens of billions in food, equipment, every kind of consumer good in the world was shipped to Vietnam by a grateful nation for its men in the field. Almost none of it ever reached those it was intended for. Troops ate aging C-Rations, designated for disposal as having “gone bad,” used weapons slated for destruction like the M16E1 and wore uniforms taken off the wounded and dead. While a few thousand fought in Vietnam, thousands more lived like kings, exotic food, luxurious living, boy and girl prostitutes daily, maid service, waxed and polished helicopters and jeeps and a life of total leisure. This is the Vietnam we saw, those of us who served in the Marine, Army, Special Forces, Navy, those of us who fought.

I wait for denials about this, but there are too many of us who know the truth and are willing to talk, including alot of highly decorated vets and retired officers with long records of service who were more than happy to supply endless details of their personal experiences which had an unpleasant consistency. There developed, over the Vietnam War, starting with NCOs transferred to Southeast Asia from Germany, a long history of ties to the American and Corsican Mafia with the ability to distribute heroin on a worldwide basis. That business came into flower after 1965 as club operations in Vietnam became the backdrop for one of the biggest crime sindicates in world history.

Today we have a couple of issues we are ignoring. One, of course, is that senior NCOs are meant to be the “backbone of the Army” but are also capable of manipulating acquistions, shipments, and disbursements of any supply or equipment. Billions went mission in Iraq and nobody has been blamed. We even misplaced 250,000 weapons. How hard is it for a hundred thousand of those to have made it into the hands of terrorists? For every massive cost overrrun, and their were thousands, there is someone inside the Army looking the other way.

The entire War on Terror was one cost overrun, one missing shipment, one “lost” anything after another, on and on forever with nobody being blamed, just spend and spend, ship more and more and let more and more be stolen. With billions and billions spent in Iraq, medicine, fresh water, electricity, schools, everything that was paid for, sometimes paid for twice, seems to have evaporated in a cloud of corruption. The only thing successfully built in Iraq over 5 years was fat bank accounts in Switzerland.

Complicating this even more is the fact that our military is, again, operating in the center of the world drug production and trafficking. They have access to, not only production but worldwide banking and the ability to ship narcotics around the world in aircraft designated for supply our secret prisons with terrorist suspects meant for torture. This cloak of secrecy has created a cloak of silence around the $50 billion dollar, at wholesale, vastly higher at retail, narcotics business run out of, not only Afghanistan but Iraq, Pakistan and India.

With the CIA and its funding front thru the State Department, the USAID and their endless contractors managing projects overseen by no one, all theoretically fronts for “secret spy business” it doesn’t take much of an imagination to figure out that “monkey business” is much more likely, especially with secrecy to hide behind, mercenary enforcers and the full logistical capabilities of the United States at your disposal.

It would be easy to blame our tens of thousands of military contractor/mercenary companies, who are, undoubtedly, a major part of the drug trafficking and also “enforcement” and finance. But, who are these companies? Surprisingly, they are many of the same NCOs that were involved in Vietnam, risen from the dead, the Vietnam “oldsters” or the younger generation, now retired also, all senior NCOs, using their lower level management expertise to make millions often hiring security personnel from the poorest and most backward countries on earth but also being seen under highly suspicious circumstances in the banking capitals of Dubai, Mauritius, Zurich and Geneva.

With 700 billion slated for the military by President Obama next year and a running war in Afghanistan and Pakistan in areas that should have no American security personnel, no Taliban, no reason for violence at all, I wonder how much of what is going on under the guise of terrorism is a gang war between drug cartels that include traditional warlords of Afghanistan but also Americans and key players from many other nations including Israel, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Iraq, Iran and Russia.

How do we guarantee resupply or air support when the supplies may be sold and the air support may be carrying opium? How do we manage our secret rendition system when our bagged and tagged terror suspects are sitting on bales of heroin?

How do we make decisions as a democracy when billions of dollars of drug money may be flooding into Washinton DC? How much does it cost to buy Congress or the Pentagon? What has been bought already? With year after year of one scandal after another and no serious effort to investigate anything, assuming that something has been amiss and that many were bought and paid for years ago is obvious.

This week, Forbes Magazine named Monsanto its Company of the Year.  Can you believe it? 

Forbes – sure, a conservative, capitalist magazine – but nominating and approving Monsanto?  A killer that was and continues to be, responsible for  MILLIONS of deaths, MILLIONS of humans affected with disease as a result of being sprayed and exposed, MILLIONS of offspring whose health (and most of the time, untimely deaths), all caused by the evil poison known as Agent Orange.

They still produce Round-up, a watered down version of Agent Orange. However, the French Courts have found in favor of those who brought suit against them – Monsanto was accused and convicted in the French Courts about the make-up and what actually Round-up is and does – they were convicted of lying to the courts – perjury.  Their sentence?  A fine – a pittance compared with the BILLIONS of dollars in revenue they achieve each year.  But that recent series of court cases in France is indeed significant – Round-up sales have dropped  since the court’s decision, and this might just be a start – because Monsanto did in fact earn less than their forecasted revenues in 09 as a result in a drop in sales of Round-up.  

Monsanto guilty in ‘false ad’ row

There CEO did in fact receive less in bonus compensation as a result of much of this being revealed – but he still earned millions of dollars!

Monsanto CEO Grant sees bonus shrink in ‘09

Today, Monsanto is viewed by many, as a savior in terms of world hunger – because of its creation of genetically engineered seeds.  Two very important facts:

1. GE seeds are in fact NOT better than natural seeds and are, some believe are, even worse – in terms of the environment, human lives, spread of new diseases and humanity in general.
2. It has been revealed by the AP as well as other trusted sources, that Monsanto has and continues to use strong arm tactics in forcing farmers to buy and use their seeds.…and a third, contributed by my fellow writer, Vietnam Combat Vet, and Marine: Gordon D.

Three Approved GMO’s Linked to Organ Damage

This is a short video about the lie of what Monsanto and others preach about GE crops:

The GE seed issue is certainly a serious one – but brothers and sisters, let us never forget Vietnam, Cambodia, Canada, Korea and other countries where Agent Orange was sprayed in both war and peacetime.  Let us not forget all human tolls it has taken – and continues to take.  The lives that have been devastated, the lives removed.  The profits and GE seeds and eventual crops that wind up on your supermarket shelves have all been brought to you buy the profits Monsanto received as a result of the US Government paying them hundreds of millions of dollars for the poison we all despise: Agent Orange.

More about Monsanto, the food industry in general, and the devastation and lies they and others like them are propagating, in this wonderful piece called “Food, Inc.”

This may or may not be available free of charge, depending on what country you reside in, but it IS available to all from Pirate Bay.  Remember, you will need a torrent program to download it.   Email me if you need further instructions.

I urge you all – please login to Forbes, create an account, and comment about this truly wrong winner this year.  Monsanto and its executives belong behind bars – not recipients of Forbes’ Company of the Year Award!  

Not a single word about their involvement with the US Government during the Vietnam War.  Not one mention of all the death and destruction they have and continue to be responsible for.  This is the true corporate world – its finest for its shareholders and executives, but its worst for all of us who were exposed to, suffer from, and pass on the devastation we know as Agent Orange.  Genetic alteration to seeds?  What about the genetic alteration, eventual disease, disability and death from Agent Orange?

Peg Mullen: Cornfield Protest

By Sara Corbett The New York Times

Peg Mullen was at her sewing machine making a new set of drapes when the men showed up with their message. It was February 1970 in Black Hawk County, Iowa — a bright Saturday morning on the empty rural road where she lived. A fresh layer of snow sat on the cornfields; the sky seemed perversely clear. Gene, her husband, a gentle, white-haired man who farmed by day and worked nights at a nearby John Deere factory, was doing his weekend chores outside when the two men walked up the drive. One sergeant, one local priest. Both silent. Gene knew, but he didn’t know. The question, when he asked it, was almost inaudible: “Is my boy dead?”

It was Peg who read the official note, while Gene beat the walls, while he yelled. He made a motion to throw a chair through a picture window, but thought better of it. Finally, he sat at the kitchen table, put his head down and sobbed. The oldest of their five children — Michael — had been killed two nights earlier on a hilltop near a village in Vietnam called Tu Chanh, a victim of what the government called “friendly fire,” his heart pierced by shrapnel from a misdirected howitzer blast fired by an American artillery unit nearby. All this happened in the dark, in the jungle, at 2:50 a.m. Michael, who was 25 and previously a graduate student in biochemistry, was asleep in a foxhole.

Peg Mullen hadn’t liked the Vietnam War from the start, but she was also a churchgoing Iowa farm wife busy raising children, cattle, hogs, corn and soybeans in what she called a “conservative community in the heartland of America.” She knew virtually nothing of the antiwar protests that were happening on the East and West Coasts. Her opposition was, until this point, relatively quiet. She would later chastise herself for the obedient way she allowed her son to be drafted and sent to war.

C. D. B. Bryan (who died this month) wrote in “Friendly Fire,” his book about Michael’s death, that Peg’s grief was not a teary grief. It was an “arid furied Medean grief, one in which anguish is indistinguishable from rage.”

Read more at The New York Times

Where is Dick Cheney’s shame? And where is the shame of the people who are supposed to be covering him?

Dick Cheney is walking around demanding that we place our troops in harm’s way like a veteran who begged for combat, then won the Congressional Medal of Honor for his service. The way he’s strutting around, lecturing America and saber-rattling for war, one would never know that when the nation called for him to serve, he ran like a weasel on high potency steroids to avoid military service – and the mainstream media is just as gutless as he is for not pointing that out.

What’s passing for the press in this country has proven without a doubt, that they’ve literally degenerated into a group of glorified ambulance chasers. They’ve been staked out under Tiger woods’ toilet seat for the last week trying to get an exclusive on Tiger’s sex life.  At the same time, they’re completely ignoring the most pertinent news in the nation – a draft dodger and former CEO of a major military/industrial corporation pressuring the president to rush our troops into harm’s way.

Why isn’t the media holding Dick Cheney accountable for his deplorable hypocrisy? Why aren’t they holding Cheney accountable for anything? I can think of several questions that the media should demand that Cheney answer every time he sticks his head out of his undisclosed rat hole.

What were the "other priorities" that he claimed was more important than America when he sought, and received, five (5) deferments from battle when it was his turn to fight? What hardships were those deferments based on? Were they more important than the hardships in the lives of men who responded to the nation’s call, then fought and died? Who approved Cheney’s deferments, and were they valid?

Was it just a coincident that his daughter and fellow chicken hawk, Liz Cheney, was born virtually nine months to the day after the selective service declared that married men would be called for duty, but married men with children would remain deferred? The rules of deferment was changed on Oct. 26, 1965. Liz was born on July 28, 1966 – nine months and two days later. Cheney got his final deferment Jan. 26, 1966 – because his wife was pregnant. Now there’s some sexual prowess worth looking into.

In addition, considering the nation’s sacrifice in both lives and treasure, isn’t it worth investigating who was involved and what was discussed in Cheney’s "secret meeting" prior to the Bush administration taking us to war in Iraq? Who decided to award no-bid contracts before going into Iraq? And who decided what corporations would receive no-bid contracts, and what criteria was that decision based upon? And here’s a question that just begs to be asked – didn’t they consider it a conflict of interest that Halliburton, the corporation that Vice President headed before entering office, was awarded the largest no-bid contract in Iraq?

The mainstream media also seemed to have been out to lunch regarding the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame. Isn’t that treason? So why was it handled so casually by the press? Revealing the identity of a CIA agent is the very height of treasonous irresponsibility for any citizen, and the fact that it could be done by the Vice President of the United States is simply unfathomable. When that incident took place it should have alerted every citizen of this country that instability reined in the Bush administration and virtually anything was possible – oh, but sounding that alarm is the job of a responsible and diligent fourth estate is it?

We have a very serious problem in this country when citizens have to depend on late-night comedians to put the shenanigans of our government into perspective. Renowned newsman Edward R. Murrow once said that "A citizenry of sheep begets a government of wolves." I wonder what he’d say about a press filled with ostriches with their head in the sand?

Murrow would immediately recognize that even the most informed citizen relies on the press to sound the alarm when government goes astray. The founding fathers depended on that as an important element of keeping America free. That’s exactly why the freedom of the press was incorporated into the nation’s founding documents. But what passes for the press today has gotten so caught up in the economic, egocentrism, and self-service of our political environment, that they’ve become next to useless on the issues that really count. They seem to be afraid of angering a demagogue by asking him the obvious question.

Even though our troops were dying under the nation’s mandate to capture the people responsible for 9/11, Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.) alleges that the Bush administration purposely allowed Osama Bin Laden to get away so they’d have an excuse to invade Iraq. The congressman said:

 "That was done by the previous administration intentionally let Bin Laden get away. If they would capture al Qaeda, there would be no justification for an invasion in Iraq," He went on to say, "There’s no question that the leader of the military operations of the U.S. called back our military – called them back from going after the head of al Qaeda."

So why isn’t all hell breaking loose in the press? Why isn’t that all we can hear about on every channel, and the headline of every newspaper? In other words, why isn’t it being given the Michael Jackson treatment? Instead, all we can hear on every channel is how many women tiger Woods is allegedly sleeping with, and whether his wife went after him with a putter or a nine iron.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m just as nosey as anyone else about whether or not a billionaire who’s the most recognized sports figure in the world can get a girlfriend. But I prefer my national news not being preempted by such frivolity. I can wait to get that information on the Wendy Williams Show (How you doooin’, girl?) – and I’m virtually certain that most Americans agree. Well . . . maybe not, but that’s grist for another mill.

Edward R. Murrow brought an end to the grip that Sen. Joe McCarthy’s hypocrisy had on the nation with just one commentary, and one commentary by Walter Cronkite essentially spelled the beginning of the end of the Vietnam conflict. These journalists provided a valuable service to the American people. But the electronic commentators now on the air are so self-aggrandizing and prop-laden that they lack the dignity and clot – and the few true journalists left are treated like field hands.

While CNN does make an effort to maintain some semblance of journalistic standards as far as they go, they are just as guilty as the rest of the networks of failing to pursue issues of vital importance to the nation. And I wouldn’t even mention Fox in a news context, since they’re clearly nothing more than a public relations firm for the Republican Party, but they’re significant because their appeal to the very worst within us is what’s responsible for dragging down the journalistic standards of the electronic news media as a whole.

A perfect example of that can be seen in the programing of MSNBC. The network has great talent on their staff, but they’ve lost credibility by allowing themselves to be reduced to spitball fights with Fox in order to gain ratings.

Take Keith Olbermann, for example. He’s a great talent, but his talent doesn’t come close to matching the size of his ego. When I watch Olbermann I get the feeling that the news is secondary to showing how witty he can be. On the surface Keith’s antics may seem harmless enough, until one tries to imagine either Murrow or Cronkite throwing copy at an imaginary window, or quoting people in the news in cartoon-like voices. It’s only then that one begins to recognize how far downhill we’ve come.

Okay, maybe it’s just fun and games, but when you play games with serious issues like a politician blatantly lying to the American people about healthcare, or the meaning of torture, or about a competing network purposely misleading the American people, you leave the impression that the offense can’t be all that serious, otherwise, you wouldn’t be joking about it. So they contribute to the perception that lying and corruption is nothing to become alarmed about – it’s just the way the game is played.

So in that regard, their behavior is just as irresponsible and damaging to our society as Fox News.

 

---

About the Author:  Eric L. Wattree, www.wattree.blogspot.com. Religious bigotry: It’s not that I hate everyone who doesn’t look, think, and act like me – it’s just that God does.

I was informed by a fellow writer and Marine brother about what’s happening with the lobbyists in Iowa, the US Senate battle in that state, and the lobbyist’s relationship with Monsanto – to some, Monsanto is a gift from heaven, promising and it seems, delivering to a degree on that promise, that they have a solution for world famine and genetically sound seeds that will reject its own devised weed killer – dioxin.

     Here is the official statement from Bob Krause, Democratic Candidate for US Senate, questioning his Democratic opponent, Roxanne Conlin, for accepting high level organizational work from Jerry Crawford, a federally registered lobbyist for Monsanto.  His statement follows:

 "I respect Roxanne’s campaign announcement statement that she will not accept federal political action committee money. But is she reconsidering her campaign promise to avoid being overly influenced by special interests? Does taking regular high-level campaign advice and guidance from someone of the stature of Jerry Crawford constitute an in-kind campaign contribution?"

"If so, is she placing by her side as a close advisor someone that farmers may question — especially on anti-trust matters — relating to the price of genetically modified Monsanto seed as well as on environmental matters relating to genetic contamination of non-Monsanto seed with patented Monsanto seed?"

"Her announcement was very forthright when she said  “I will not accept financial contributions from political action committees or lobbyists. If she is serious about this, the general intent is to limit as much as is possible the influence of lobbyists as compared to the average citizen. Influence comes from two sources — access and money. In this case, access through high level connections is just as valuable as money."

"A key organizer and close advisor for the Conlin campaign, prominent Des Moines attorney Jerry Crawford of Des Moines, is a federally registered lobbyist with Monsanto for the purposes of lobbying the federal government. According  to the Iowa Independent, ‘the Crawford, Quilty & Mauro law firm in Des Moines filed lobbying registration papers with both the U.S. House and Senate on Nov. 10, in the areas of competition/antitrust, environmental law, regulations and policies.’"

"Anti-trust lobbying is especially important for Monsanto since it is one of the largest bio-genetics firms in the world with gross sales this year of $12 billion. It controls 80 percent of all corn and more than 90 percent of all soybeans in Iowa that are grown from genetically modified seeds on which Monsanto holds a government patent. With this dominance, Monsanto can easily control prices."

"This federally registered lobbyist appears possibly to be leveraging his friendships with U. S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and Roxanne Conlin for financial gain. While this is a common practice in Washington today, it will make it difficult for Conlin to claim that she will not listen to other federal lobbyists before the average citizen. When a lobbyist for one of the largest bio-genetics firms in the world is the one that Conlin calls for political advice the first thing in the morning, farmers will wonder if they will carry the same weight."

"A friend prophetically wrote last summer in Blog for Iowa, ‘One asks what do … Monsanto … and other political action committees, business associations and corporations want with their donation besides access and favorable attention to advance their agendas?’"

"If we are to be serious about being the party that speaks for those without moneyed representation, then we need to begin to practice what we preach. I challenge Jerry Crawford to drop his federal lobbying contracts if he is to continue to be an active advisor to the Conlin campaign. If he does not do so, I challenge Roxanne Conlin to quit accepting campaign support and advice from Mr. Crawford."

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Thursday, December 10, 2009

Contact: Keith Dinsmore
573-230-5360
keith@krauseforiowa.com

I’m a guy from New York – and certainly not the agriculture area of New York unless you consider the Botanical Gardens in the Bronx, agriculture.  I am a former Combat Marine, researcher and activist for all war crimes the US committed during the Vietnam War, especially Agent Orange and its primary ingredient, Dioxin. 

I for one will never forget nor give up the fight for justice – finding Monsanto and Dow and the other chemical companies guilty of participating in war crimes and violating the Geneva Convention – amongst other things.  Nor will I give up the fight against my own US Government for committing war crimes against the Vietnamese as well as our own US Vets, our allies and our offspring – we die every day and the US government, Monsanto, and all the rest, refuse to help – the companies settled to get off  close to scott free, and our US of A has never and, in my opinion, will never admit to being party to this ongoing crime and atrocity.  Hell, our own Admiral in charge of all Naval forces during the war finally admitted this was wrong – sadly, his own son died as a result of being exposed to AO.

I’d like to reference two interesting articles/blogs and also offer a link to the very recent study in and around Danang – the levels of dioxin remain ludicrously high, and all the US has done has been a commitment to grant the VN $6mil in cleanup funds – a pittance!

http://blogs.eciad.ca/environmental-ethics/2009/11/30/monsanto-is-a-monster/

http://www.organicconsumers.org/monsanto/agentorange032102.cfm

http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/mound-city-money/st-louis-companies/2009/12/monsanto-ceo-grant-sees-bonus-shrink-in-09/

The French, amongst other things, have found Monsanto guilt of lying and have fined them – they are hitting them in their wallets.  Round-up sales have dropped dramatically as a result of all of us revealing that the same poison we use to kill weeds in our backyards is the same as what was contained in Agent Orange: Dioxin. Why has the US done nothing? If we do, we will be admitting to committing a war crime.  As our brothers, sisters, offspring die, we won’t admit to our crime.

We are indeed making some progress, some baby steps, but certainly not enough.  Don’t forget Vietnam; don’t forget Agent Orange – for all those who were affected, are affected and will be affected!

What can you do?  Right now, ensure Roxanne Conlin is NOT elected to the US Senate – she, weather she realizes it or not, and I believe she does realize it, is part of the killing machine known as Monsanto!

I leave you with this recent quote from another colleague:

"    In central Indiana, two sisters struggle through another day, afflicted by a painful condition in which their brains are wedged against their spinal cords. They are in their 30s, but their bodies are slowly shutting down. Thousands of miles away, amid the rice paddies of Vietnam, a father holds down his 19-year-old daughter as she writhes in pain from a seizure brought on by fluid in her skull, which has been drained four times in the past four years.

    "The doctors said that they were sorry, but they could not cure her," the father says. "They told me I should take her home and that she would pass away very soon." These women come from different cultures, from nations separated by more than 8,300 miles. Their fathers fought on opposite sides of the Vietnam War, but they are linked by the stubborn legacy of Agent Orange and other defoliants sprayed by the U.S. military decades ago.

The fact that light’s still being shed on a topic as important as this – it’s needed. The story has to keep on being told, and while war is war – how can you not as a U.S. government who decries human rights violations – never stand up and take responsibility for the lives that have been torn apart because of a war that should never have been waged in the first place – along with the chemicals used to fight it?"

Semper peace!
Chuck

I remember being twenty one in August of 65, the week of my birthday, and standing alone on a hill near Chu Lai, looking out over the only road and admiring the low angle textures of the light on the South China Sea. The gulls circling above the villager’s fishing boats, pulled high on the beach beyond reach of the tides, the last of the fishermen in the distance walking in twos, returning to their homes for the night.

I stood there alone with the breeze slowly drying my sweat soaked uniform, alone with the taste and smell of the ocean and its limitless life, alone with the eternal sound of the surf as it stretched its fingers toward the ancient boats.

Off to my left, up the coast a few hundred yards was a mess area, tents and equipment sandbagged against the madness of the day, and a bit nearer to me, two large walk in coolers.

I could hear the low humming sound of their generators almost hidden below the steady music of the sea.

From my right on the road below I heard the sound of a six by coming up from the south. It passed in front of me and I could see the sweat stained faces of the two Marines in the front seat, and as it went by to my left I could see others in the back.

The truck slowed and pulled to a stop near the walk-ins and several Marines unloaded from the rear as the driver and shotgun got down. The Marines gathered at the rear of the six by and began to unload their cargo. I stood quietly as if knowing that some great change was about to occur, I felt a tension in their movements as they opened the truck and removed three body bags that they carried, almost gently, to the nearest walk in and placed them inside.

Returning to the truck they turned back to the south. As they drove by, the shotgun looked up at me standing alone on the hill and a nod of recognition passed between us, as if in silent acknowledgment of the strange and terrible thing we had shared.

Then, they were gone and the surf sound and life smell of the sea returned on the breeze. I stood alone there and watched as the sun dropped low in the hills and I wept.

More than forty years now separate me from that day, yet I remember every detail of that small fragment of my life with more clarity than anything I have ever known, and sometimes when I am alone I return to that place and that time, and I weep. Alone