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Via email:
Every time I hear about John Kerry's "famous" question about the last to die for a mistake, I recall the attached, captured VC propaganda leaflet, found by members of my unit on highway QL-1 in Vietnam dating sometime prior to October 1969 (my unit left the Duc Pho area, referenced in the leaflet, by that date).Besides plagiarizing the propaganda masters, who knows how much "original" Kerry was impressed on to him by the VC and NVA in Paris during his two (or was it three) visits with them in the early 1970's?
John Boyle
19th Engineer Battalion (C)(A)
RVN
11/66 - 2/68
Here's the front of that leaflet John sent along, and here's the reverse, with the referenced phrase.
Here's the post he was responding to.
For those not familiar with the referenced Kerry comment from his 1971 testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, I've prepared some "illustrated sound bites" from that event below.
The full transcript can be read here.
Update: Here's the homepage for the Vietnam-era 19th Combat Engineer Battalion. It includes a section memorializing the 100+ members of that organization who fell there.
The last? SP4 Frederick Lee Fields - who died 30 November 1970 trying to save another while conducting convoy operations in preperation for departure from Vietnam:
A deuce-and-a-half with a trailer went through the ford too fast and the trailer created a wake which washed LT Spiegel into the river and quickly downstream. Fields jumped in to help his LT. Spiegel grabbed onto an overhanging branch of a tree and was pulled to safety. Fred Fields was lost downstream.
Charlie Rangel on Face the Nation:
A senior House Democrat said Sunday he will introduce legislation to reinstate the military draft, asserting that current troop levels are insufficient to sustain possible challenges against Iran, North Korea and Iraq.Well folks, don't say I didn't warn ya...
But really, he's not serious is he? I mean, he couldn't possibly be...
Update: And in case you missed it, homosexuality won't get you out of serving in the brave new world:
Two leading House Democrats said yesterday that they intend to reverse the 13-year-old "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays and lesbians in the military when Congress comes under Democratic control in January.
Jules Crittenden reflects on a question asked by John Kerry decades ago:
The last man to die as a result of the decision to abandon Vietnam may not be dead yet.Gotta put that one in the "wish I'd said that" category - along with the rest of his post, and the Herald column that follows.
Meanwhile, over at the Washington Post, Walter Pincus offers congressional Democrats a Vietnam-era strategy for losing the war:
Now that they'll soon be back in control, congressional Democrats are looking to play a role in shaping U.S. policy on the Iraq war. If they want a precedent to follow, there's a good one -- from the Vietnam War era.Much more at both links, and I can't add anything that tops Jules' quote above.I witnessed this precedent up close nearly four decades ago, when I worked on Capitol Hill for Sen. J. William Fulbright (D-Ark.), then chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. In 1969, Congress's ruling Democrats began to offer amendments to funding bills -- often approved with Republican votes -- to limit President Richard M. Nixon's military alternatives in Southeast Asia. Although the Hatfield-McGovern amendment to cut off money for the war was defeated in August 1970, it accelerated Nixon's steps toward Vietnamization of the fighting. And three years later, with withdrawal of U.S. forces having begun, Congress voted to cut off all funding for "offensive" military action, sealing the deal.