VIETNAM VETERANS FOR ACADEMIC REFORM
The University of Kansas Student Auxiliary
V.V.A.R.: Leading the student revolt on campus against speech codes, political correctness, multiculturalism, gender feminism, dormitory re-education, lying about Vietnam, and other instruments of academic oppression.
Leonard Magruder - Founder/President
Former professor of psychology - Suffolk College, N.Y.
Member: National Association of Scholars
CONTACT: Magruder44@aol.com - Phone: 785-312-9303
KERRY COVER-UP: STUDENT GROUP AT UNIV. OF KANSAS EXPANDS APPEAL TO WORLD MEDIA TO BREAK AMERICAN MEDIA COVER-UP OF VIETNAM VET REJECTION OF KERRY AS COMMANDER -IN-CHIEF
By Len Magruder
May 20, 2004
The following material is about a cover-up by the American mainstream media of the fact that a majority of Vietnam veterans believe Kerry would make a very weak Commander-in-Chief. Because this could mean great danger for the world, and in hopes that foreign media will help us expose this cover-up, we are sending all press releases on this issue to newspapers around the world. Many of these have offices in the National Press Building in Washington, D.C. We are expanding on the first list by adding the following newspapers:
Globe and Mail – Canada South Africa Times – South Africa
National Post Star – Canada Australian – Australia
Free Press –Canada Deccan Herald – India
Jornada – Mexico India Today – India
Estado de Sao Paulo – Brazil Diario Los Ande s – Argentina
Middle East Times – Egypt Japan Times – Japan
London Telegraph – England Athens News – Greece
Guardian – England Australian – Australia
The European – all Europe
On April 21, 2004, Leonard Magruder, President of Vietnam Veterans for Academic Reform, the student auxiliary at the University of Kansas, sent out the first of five press releases on this issue:
Press Release: April 21, 2004
MAINSTREAM MEDIA COVERING UP VIETNAM VET REJECTION OF KERRY AS COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF
SPECIAL TO:
(INITIAL LIST)
Berliner Morgananpost – Germany Jerusalem Post - Israel
Republica – Italy Islamabad News - Pakistan
Izvestia – Russia Jazirah - Saudi Arabia
Moscow Times – Russia Hindustan - India
Diario del Mundo – Spain China Daily - China
London Times – England Nacional - Mexico
Globe and Mail – Canada Citizen - Canada
COMMENTARY: FIRST PRESS RELEASE
The national or mainstream media is gambling with national security when it hides the fact that most Vietnam veterans are opposed to the idea of Kerry as Commander-in-Chief. In one of our recent articles we reported on what anecdotal data we had seen on this subject to that date as follows:
“In the wintersoldier.com poll, it is running 96% against Kerry. In The Wall Street Journal letters section, 66% against. In a San Diego newspaper an editor reports “100 to 1” against, a South Carolina media poll reports 66% against. Talk show host Hewitt reports of his callers, “the vast majority hold Kerry in contempt because of his actions,” and view his antiwar activities as “profoundly wrong and disqualifiying for the presidency.” Last Saturday, Mr. Magruder decided to send out an appeal to all the Vietnam veterans on the V.V.A.R. mailing list, some two hundred or so, to send him estimates of opinions in the groups of Vietnam veterans they know. Here are the results from that request, broken down into two groups: group results with data, group results with no data.
“(Data has been added to over the weeks. What is posted here are the up-to-the-date results)
“GROUPS WITH DATA
§ 6 Vietnam vets this weekend at HS reunion, all oppose Kerry. Dan Haney - 602nd Air Commando Sq. A1 pilot ‘67
§ Out of 45 Vietnam veterans... all say pooh on JFK...100%. powmiavets
§ Our heli-vets pol shows 160 against and 6 for Kerry. Ron Leonard, 25th Aviation Battalion
§ I know about 650 Vietnam vets and their attitude toward about Kerry is 100% negative. Dan Decker, TSgt. USAF (ret.)
§ I know thousands of vets. I would say the opinion is about 98% against Kerry. Tony Cartlidge-Vietnam Combat Marine, 1968
§ Of 27 Vietnam Veterans I know, including myself, not one is willing to vote for John Kerry. Charles Banto, USMC 1958-1974, 2 tours in Vietnam
§ Out of 25 guys, 85%-95% against Kerry. Mike- mleonardos
§ 240 vets, mostly Vietnam, 85% against Kerry. Tony Newcomb, Cpt.U.S.Army (ret.)
§ Of the more than 2500 veterans of all ranks who responded, 59 took umbrage with what I had to say (against Kerry). Mark A. Smith, former POW, Vietnam, Holder, Distinguished Service Cross
§ An ongoing poll, with names and comments at 11thcavnam.com is running 16 for Bush, 4 for Kerry (80% for Bush.)
§ 12 Vietnam vets, all of whom are against John Kerry. Vietnam vet, Tom Taylor
“GROUPS WITH NO DATA
§ Our group is virtually united in distrust/dislike of Kerry. Philip Topps, Cpt. Inf.(ret), 1st Inf. Div., ‘69-’70
§ Every vet we know is opposed to Kerry. Chuck and Mary Schantag, P.O.W. Network
§ Can’t say I know a vet who is for him. Storrs Warinner, F-4 pilot, Ubon, ‘67-’68
§ Rangers are 100% against Kerry. NOATLMUS44 - President
§ I am anti-Kerry, as are most of my friends who are Vietnam veterans. Stud 369
§ I share the distrust I hear from my veteran colleagues. Peter McHugh, CW4 USA, ‘67-’68, ‘71-’72
§ I would say 90% of the military here (power plant) are against Kerry. P.Rein”
This was followed two weeks later with a second press release on the subject. It included an update on the data and essentially the same commentary as the first.
Press Release: May 3, 2004
STUDENT GROUP IN SECOND APPEAL TO WORLD MEDIA AS AMERICAN MEDIA CONTINUES TO SHOVE KERRY DOWN AMERICA’S THROAT
A week later we sent out a third press release on the subject. By this time there had been two mentions of the issue in secondary media, and a startling public rejection of Kerry by his own comrades-in-arms.This also was covered- up by the mainstream media, except for a brief effort to discredit the rejection by CBS.
Press Release: May 9, 2004
STORY OF VIETNAM VETERAN OPPOSITION TO KERRY BREAKS THROUGH MASSIVE MEDIA BETRAYAL OF PUBLIC TRUST AND ASSAULT ON ELECTORAL PROCESS.
“Leonard Magruder, president of Vietnam Veterans for Academic Reform said today that a poll he has been putting together from vet groups all over the country, showing strong opposition by Vietnam veterans to Kerry, had received national attention in Insight Magazine and on Geoff Metcalf national radio program even as the rest of the media engaged in a massive cover-up of this and additional evidence.
“Although the samples in the Magruder poll are fairly small, collectively the trend is very clear and dramatic. It now appears that at least 75% of all Vietnam vets are opposed to Kerry. Failure to report on this opinion, coming from those best in a position to help the public judge Kerry’s fitness to be Commander-in-Chief, constitutes an extreme attack by the media on the electoral process.
“The Magruder finding was strongly reinforced Tuesday night when a group of veterans representing 200 who had served with Kerry in Vietnam gathered from all over the U.S., under the leadership of Admiral Roy Hoffman (ret.) for a press conference in Washington, D.C., and publicly denounced Kerry as “unfit to be Commander-in-Chief.” NBC, ABC, and the Associated Press all refused to tell the American people about the conference. Dan Rather of CBS Evening News mentioned the event briefly but lied about it, calling it a ‘Republican plot,’ and saying that its spokesman, John O’Neill, who exposed Kerry’s lies in a debate in 1971 on the Dick Cavett Show, had been handpicked on that occasion ‘by Richard Nixon.’ This was in keeping with a long history of CBS lies about Vietnam, most notably its lies about the Tet Offensive in 1968 and its lies about General Westmoreland in its film, The Uncounted Enemy.This election may well hinge on whether the media informs the public about how veterans feel about Kerry, or are they again, like they did in the case of the Tet Offensive, going to rob the American people of the ability to make critical judgments about their most vital security interests in a time of war?”
On May 16, 2004, a fourth press release went out, this time directly attacking Dan Rather and CBS.
Press Release: May 16, 2004
MAGRUDER TO DAN RATHER (CBS): “WE’RE TURNING OFF CBS NEWS. SWIFT BOAT VETERANS FOR TRUTH, AND ALL OTHERS, WILL BE HEARD. A BIG STORY, YOU CAN’T HIDE IT. VIETNAM VETS OVERWHELMINGLY REJECT KERRY AS COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF.”
“We are giving away a nineteen-page monograph, with photos, to PROTEST the attack on Vietnam veterans by CBS Evening News on Tuesday, May 5, 2004 (‘Republican plot,’ ‘handpicked by Nixon’). IN ADDITION WE URGE YOU TO JOIN US IN TURNING OFF CBS EVENING NEWS.
“Compiled not long ago as a history of our battles with other CBS ‘dirty tricks’ from 1971 to 1986, the monograph is an account involving the media, the university, and the Vietnam veteran during the first years of our organization Vietnam Veterans for Academic Reform. To receive a free copy of this monograph, please send your name and mailing address to Magruder44@aol.com, or you can go to www.v-v-a-r.org and read the monograph, Vietnam and the Media, online. In addition, we have sent out additional copies of our film How the Campus Lied About Vietnam, to Vietnam vet groups, hoping they can show it in connection with a discussion by vets about Kerry on local Public Access TV.
COMMENTARY:
“Kerry now goes around the country presenting himself as a ‘moral hero’ for his dissent during the war years. But that won’t do. Like those in the ‘peace’ movement, ‘who cloaked themselves in an aura of great moral purpose,’ the truth is that Kerry, like them, also gave ‘aid and comfort to the enemy’ (-General George Patton Jr.), marched under the flag of the Viet Cong, consorted with Hanoi in Paris, and certainly turned his back on the American soldier when he charged them with endless atrocities. But the thing to be really worried about is what we documented in our last article and summarized by saying, ‘There are simply too many signs of sympathy for the left in this history.’ Jay Nordlinger in an article in the latest National Review found the same signs. In ‘Back in Sandinista Days,’ he tells of Kerry’s infamous trip to Nicaragua in April 1985, to meet with Communist Commandante Ortega, arranged by the Institute for Policy Studies, a well-known hard-left group. Congress was all set to vote $14 million to help the anti-Communist rebels, the Contras. Said Kerry at the time, ‘We should not subvert our values by funding terrorism.’ In other words, he saw the Nicaraguan freedom fighters as ‘terrorists.’
“One GOP aide from the period described Kerry’s people as ‘drooling fanatics,’ much more rabid than fellow liberals Dodd or Kennedy, and promoting ‘the most bizarre conspiracy theories around.’ Said the GOP aide, ‘This was a truly fruity network of goofballs and semi-subversive people. They weren’t liberals, they had a shockingly hostile attitude towards the United States - our military, our intelligence community, our policies.’
“It all fits together. You can see the beginnings of it in his ’71 testimony, and the creepy, anarchistic people he hung out with in Vietnam Veterans Against the War, many of them fake veterans. Another Latin-American specialist said, ‘Kerry allied himself with all the leftist-chic causes going and he was virulently anti-Reagan.’ A disdain for American power has always been part and parcel of his attitude.
“Kerry thought the Viet Cong were ‘freedom fighters.’ He thought the Sandinistas were ‘freedom fighters.’ If he treats the terrorists as if they are ‘freedom fighters,’ they will eat him, and us, alive. Dan Rather and company must stop covering for Kerry and start asking him the same tough questions they ask Bush. We urge all Vietnam vets to turn off CBS Evening News until he does. The nation needs to see Kerry as he really is, a typically befuddled leftist, not as the ‘hero of Vietnam dissent’ the media is trying to project. We cannot survive another betrayal by the media as happened in the case of Vietnam.
“On May 4, 2004, at a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., Swift Boat Veterans for Truth announced that 220 out of 229 Swift boat veterans contacted (96%) had signed an open letter that challenged Senator Kerry’s fitness to serve as America’s Commander-in-Chief. A substantial number of those who had served directly with Kerry signed the letter. Other signers included the entire chain of command above Lt. John Kerry in Vietnam, including Admiral Roy Hoffman, (ret.) who said, ‘I do not believe John Kerry is fit to be Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. armed forces.’
“In the letter they charged that in his ’71 testimony before Congress he had ‘grossly and knowingly distorted the conduct of the American soldiers ...of that war’ and believe that he has ‘withheld material facts’ as to his conduct. ‘We believe that you continue this conduct today, albeit by changing from an anti-war to a “war hero” status... you have deceived the public and in the process have betrayed honorable men…Your conduct is such as to raise substantive concerns as to your honesty and your ability to serve...as Commander-in-Chief of the military services. It is vital that the American public have as much information as possible about candidates for President of the United States.’
“Is it possible to have a more powerful and credible testimony than this? By military men, men who served with him, trying to warn the nation? Is this not a front page story?
“Then why did Swift Boat Veterans for Truth say in their press release of May 19th, ‘The major media has intentionally avoided reporting on our news releases.’ That is exactly what Vietnam Veterans for Academic Reform has experienced in trying to raise this issue. And that is why we are appealing to the world media.
“Thousands of Vietnam vets will get this article.We urge you to go to your local newspaper and TV station and discuss this matter with them. Don’t let Dan Rather get away with this. Remember the Tet Offensive!”
THIS JUST IN! - should confirm all of the above.
Press Release
“Washington, D.C. You might assume Sen. John Kerry owns the Vietnam veteran vote, but a new veterans group claims that is dead wrong. The group, Vietnam Vets for the Truth, says Vietnam veterans are OVERWHEMINGLY opposed to Sen. Kerry. They plan to hold a giant rally in Washington, D.C., to make that point on the West Front of the U.S. Capital at 2:00 p.m. September 12, 2004.” They call their rally, “Kerry Lied...While Good Men Died.”
How is Dan Rather going to explain this away?
This article may be reproduced in any form.
Founder/President, V.V.A.R.
Phone: 785-312-9303
Return to Magruder Articles Index
Website design and management courtesy of Annette R. Hall. Hosted by www.i-served.com.