http://townhall.com/opinion/columns/larryelder/2006/05/04/196170.html
Senator Ted Kennedy -- "Peace Criminal"?
May 4, 2006
by Larry Elder ( bio | archive | contact )
"If we got out," asked Tim Russert on NBC's "Meet the Press" recently,
"and there was a civil war, chaos, and you saw al Qaeda moving in -- in
record numbers -- would you go back in?"
Russert's guest, Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., replied, "Well, first of
all, I heard the same kinds of suggestions at the time of the end of the
Vietnam War. The 'Great Bloodbath,' we're going to have over 100,000
people that were going to be murdered and killed at that time. And for
those of us who were strongly opposed to the war, [we] heard those same
kinds of arguments."
The normally persistent Russert never challenged Kennedy's incredible
assertion. Yet the bloodbath some predicted would occur -- if we
withdrew from Vietnam -- did happen.
America lost the Vietnam War, not on the battlefield, but on the home
front of public support. Anti-war activists and the liberal media helped
turn public opinion sharply against the war. Although our soldiers won
every major battle in the field, public opinion turned against a war
increasingly perceived as "unwinnable." Our withdrawal, however, gave
the Vietnamese armies under Ho Chi Minh free rein to overrun South
Vietnam -- raping, pillaging, plundering, impoverishing, imprisoning,
torturing and slaughtering hundreds of thousands of people.
The withdrawal of American troops from Vietnam also strengthened the
hand of the communist Khmer Rouge in neighboring Cambodia. Their leader,
Pol Pot, embarked on a bloody ethnic cleansing campaign. While the exact
number of Cambodians slaughtered can never be fully known, most estimate
those killed from a low of 1 million to a high of 3 million.
A million or so "boat people" fled Vietnam in flimsy watercraft on the
South China Sea. Thousands of Vietnamese died in "re-education camps."
I received the following e-mail from a listener who watched the
Kennedy/Russert interview: "Has the Senator ever heard of the movie,
'The Killing Fields'??? During the late 70s and early 80s my ex-husband
used to teach political science at a local community college. Every year
we would host a Christmas party for his students, many of whom were
refugees from Vietnam and Cambodia. I spent a lot of time visiting with
these kids and their stories were heartbreaking. I remember one young
man in particular. His father had been sent to a 'reeducation camp'
after the US withdrew. The last time he saw his father, he told the
young man to get out of the country anyway possible. He became one of
the boat people and somehow made it to the United States. He was
obviously happy to be here, but the sadness in his eyes when he spoke of
his father was truly haunting. He had no idea if his father was dead or
alive. Maybe someone needs to give the Senator a refresher course on the
history of Southeast Asia!"
In July 1986, The Wall Street Journal wrote, "South Vietnam was
eventually conquered by the North, and Cambodia was taken over by the
communist Khmer Rouge, who in trying to recreate a primitive communist
agricultural society slaughtered from 1 million to 3 million Cambodians.
If we take 2 million as the best estimate, then in four years the
government of this small nation of 7 million alone killed 64 percent
more people than died in the 10-year Vietnam War. Overall, the best
estimate of those killed by the victorious communists in Vietnam, Laos
and Cambodia is 2,270,000. . . . "
Kennedy's blase re-write of Indochina's bloody history following our
military pullout there is not unlike Sen. John Kerry's, D-Mass., 1971
slam against the soldiers in Vietnam. When testifying before a Senate
committee, Kerry said, " . . . [W]e had an investigation at which over
150 honorably discharged and many very highly decorated veterans
testified to war crimes committed in Southeast Asia, not isolated
incidents but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis with the full
awareness of officers at all levels of command. . . . They told the
stories at times they had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads,
taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the
power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed
villages in a fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs
for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the country side of
South Vietnam . . . "
Kennedy's revisionist history and Kerry's attack on the honor of those
who served in Vietnam demonstrate why many Americans refuse to trust
Democrats with national security. They called Reagan a war-monger,
criticized the military buildup that hastened the demise of the Soviet
Union, insisted that SDI wouldn't and couldn't work, and now call Bush a
war criminal.
Our effort in Iraq requires commitment and steadfastness. As with
Vietnam, the American-led coalition cannot lose in the battlefield.
Despite the insurgency, the Iraqi people went to the polls and voted,
and now attempt to assemble a government. Bush's detractors compare the
Iraq War "quagmire" to Vietnam. If they truly believe that, why aren't
they worried about . . . "what next"?
Larry Elder is an accomplished attorney, radio personality, syndicated
columnist, best-selling author and host of daytime television's The
Larry Elder Show
--
Fred Stone
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