POSTED BY TERRY DU BOSE
Ok, folks, just trying to do my part for VetSpeak... but I am nervous about this one. I agreed to be a part of a live, one hour long TV show, The Heartland with John Kasich" on FOX News tomorrow evening (April 22, 2005, 8:00 PM Eastern, 7:00 PM Central). I am anxious because I know how FOX News is, but I think we have to be willing to go there, if we are going to make a difference.
A not-so-Swift person, Steve Gardner, will be on the same show. He is the only not-so-Swift liar on John Kerry’s boat that did not support Kerry. He has also been caught in a lot of double-talk about John’s military service and metals… a real Minister of Misinformation.
I expressed caution about Fox News, saying that I own two copies of "OutFoxed", and am worried about it. I asked if O'Reilly would be part of it, and was assured that O'Reilly would not participate, and that it will be unedited, live. I was assured that Kasich would have a shouting match. We don't have cable so I have never seen Heartland, and am not familiar with John Kasich.
If anyone can give me any advice or cautions about what to expect and how Heartland works, I would appreciate it. I can now say that you brothers & sisters provided me with a wealth of information to debunk the not-so-Swift Liars... thanks, and good on you.So here we go, in to the breach… the “belly of the monster” as the Windbinder and Che say. Peace, Terry
2:54 PM
2 comments:
I guess by now it is becoming quite obvious to you how much support you have in this effort from the folks back home...I love it that everyone is on message! One of the most powerful tools of the activist right...it is their one shining quality. The inability to maintain that quality for sustained periods of time in the VVAW of The Days, was ultimately our downfall to the WSOites...or commies, as I call them. And I calls 'em as I sees 'em. So, where was I going with this? Oh, Yeah...in short; we will all be there with you when you are in what is indeed "enemy territory"...or, as I like to think of it; the Heart Of The Beast... Your strongest weapon is your calm demeanor and unruffled delivery of obviously well researched facts...that, and their arrogance. The audience at home will pick up on that, and even if they don't agree totally with the message; they will see a true representation of a contradiction to the NSSVs claims about who we as VVAW were, and about who we are now. Credibility! That heaped on with the arrogance of their (NSSVs) statements will plant the seed of doubt that could eventually bloom into beautiful flowers of consciousness, for some viewers. Blows against the Empire! At least, that's my take on it all. Actually, that wasn't all that short afterall, huh? Anyway...
To respond to the questions you wrote in your last E-mail, I will take them separately, below...
1. "Bill what more can you tell me about Jane's negotiations for POW release."
Truthfully, I don't recall a lot of the details of it all, and am not certain as to the actual sequence of events. What I remember, and have no documentation of, at least that I am aware of at this time, is that Jane worked with VVAW in my earliest days of activity. I first met her at what was then San Fernando Valley State, where I was attending college on the GI Bill. The LA VVAW was all around her in a security mode, a fact that would later become a mainstay issue in the remake of their relationship, upcoming in the near future.
There were speeches, and a very large crowd. It was at that, and a result of that rally, that I decided to form an on-campus chapter of VVAW...what would become known as the CSUN (Cal State Univ Northridge) Chapter. I met with the LA folks and Jane in an informal setting, after-action, and came to know her from there.
By the time that I had any real knowledge of where she fit in to everything, she and VVAW had made an agreement to disagree on a few issues, and she went on to form the Indo-China Peace Campaign. Headquartered in Santa Monica, Ca. As Regional Coordinator, I represented VVAW in a LA wide loose coalition of anti-war...and everything else...organizations. Jane represented IPC, and we worked on many actions and committees, as a result.
Somewhere in all of that it became known in our circles that she had been invited to North Vietnam, ostensibly to discuss the forever on-going Paris Peace Talks, as had been many other celebrities and political dignitaries of the time, whenever things got real bogged down around certain issues...round table, or square? There was much discussion of all of this, and while I never discussed it with her personally, the feedback that came back via meetings and social groupings were that she had decided to go because she had managed to up the ante to the point where she might be able to bring home some POWs. This, as a token of North Vietnam's willingness to make concessions on a point that the Nixon gangsters could make no headway on, and demonstrate that North Vietnam was, indeed willing to negotiate; just, not with the gangster regime of Nixon. They wanted to communicate their message of a desire for an end to the hostilities directly to the American people. We all thought; what better way, what better person? POWs were very topical at the time, and the Nixon bunch were in denial on the subject. If Jane busted a couple of them out, while Nixon and Kissinger couldn't, or wouldn't; well...that could be a very powerful blow to the power elite...so, we all cheered her on! The possibility of bringing home some POWs was at the heart of her taking the plunge into international politics. That not having been in the deal, she never would have went. But, that's just my opinion.
Priorities changed and I didn't see Jane again until the earliest work done on making Coming Home. VVAW in SoCal, never being short on distractions or challenges, was off into struggles at Wounded Knee, and having to deal with fact that several members of VVAW, up in Northern California, were also hard corps SLA members. And there was Gary Lawton, and the Panthers, La Raza; all with their own agendas of appealing issues. Not to mention WSO and the pigs. The story that I remember from these times once it had faded in intensity, was that Jane was able to secure the release of two POWs. One was a George Somenthingorother, I believe. And he wrote a book shedding a very different light on the treatment of POWs by the VC and NVA than was commonly thought to be the case, by all parties, at the time. His book was used as a fundraiser and political education tool by the entire movement in Southern California. I cannot recall any knowledge of the other fellow. But their stories were never brought to the front burner by the press, and the true details of what actually happened are lost to time, kept alive with tales around the campfire...and answering questions such as yours to someone that you can trust to see the answers when they respond. I wish that I could give you cold facts and stats and catalogued references n' stuff. But, that's my recollections on this topic. Hope I didn't bore you, or waste any of your valuable time. It's just that once I get cranking I start having associated memories that call out to be captured on paper somehow, in my efforts to make sense of it all.
2. "Also do you, or anyone here, know anything about the story that a POW gave her some folded papers that she supposedly turned over to her escort? Something tells me that may come up..."
Yes! In fact, I was watching a Hanitty & Colmes (sp) thing the other night where they had a debate going about the lowlife that spit on Fonda. One of the panelists was what the footnote on screen called FOX Political Analyst...I'm thinking analist would be more like it...his name was Col Somethingorother Hunt. He was an attack dog! He was dancing like a ballerina over the fact that this idiot had spit on Jane...although he didn't condone it; no, no, no... This guy was bouncing in his seat, literally frothing as he hammered one theme, despite what anyone else would attempt to address...in the end, even the host was freaking out at some of his rhetoric, and his obvious venom...that theme being; that all else aside that Fonda "Did"; the AA Gun Flicks (which I never saw until years after the movement when some herein unidentified Vietnam Vets were using it to bash her, and sell urinal screen targets with her face superimposed on the bull's-eye), et al; it was what she had done to the POWs when she was there. This story is one of those propaganda tools used to demonstrate what a lowlife slut she was. It is a story that has a life of it's own on the internet, and in the mediums of the far right, but has no basis in fact. If you say it enough, it will become true (the Not-So-Swift-Vets battlecry!). It is claimed that during her time spent visiting the POWs at the Hanoi Hilton, some of them gave her notes to smuggle out and deliver to their loved ones. According to the Sleazes, at the end of the visit she turned the notes over to the Prison Officials, and that torture ensued on the prisoners after her departure, as a result of this traitorous action. So, Myth & Reality; In our world it was common knowledge that she risked great personal danger in taking those notes and smuggling them out, and it was, in fact, common knowledge amongst the SoCal movement that she had delivered a number of such messages to POW families upon her return, in addition to winning the release of a couple of POWs. Some of those very same family members joined in the antiwar movement as speakers at rallies throughout SoCal...and other places as well, I am sure. Once again; they are framing their argument with a distorted representation of our History. There are no documents that I can point to, in order bolster what I have written. But, likewise, there is nothing to document the contrary. I know that, because Truth is Truth and cannot be changed; only distorted. But there are many souls out there from those times who share these Truths to be self evident, and will ultimately join us in this quest we have taken upon ourselves. But, I am positive that, most definitely, this will be a grenade that they attempt to roll under your chair. Deflect it back at them with your foot, don't dive on it...
I hope that all of this will be of some help to you, Brother, and won't clutter up your mind at this critical point just before Jump Off. As to it being "enemy territory"; personally, I'm not worried, I've seen you at work... :-)
Semper Fi!
In response to btxusa...
When someone in the crowd says that the protests prolonged the war, I say; No, actually the Nixon creature and his band of cronies prolonged the war. There is plenty of documentation of this...why it's right in Robert McNamara's memoirs, and hundreds of other tomes, right and left. They could have had essentially the same truce in 1969 as they finally settled for in 1973, Ref. http://www.answers.com/topic/paris-peace-accords,(How many lives were lost during this period?) but they opted to continue down the primrose path of self destruction. It's hard to understand how the Not-So-Swift-Vets and their ilk, have missed the fact that documented history supports our arguments, not their's. The next time they throw one of those hand grenades like "Aid & Comfort To The enemy" under someones chair, it would seem that the show stopper would be to say "Please refer me to what document or source you obtained the information from as it doesn't sound like anything that I know to be the objective and documentable truth about the situation, and I would like to research it before I respond...now can we move the conversation to more pertinant and well documented points and issues?"
And, finally; we shouldn't be allowing them to "Frame" the argument (Thanks, Scott)by, say, putting us in the role of defending Jane Fonda...although I have no problem with doing so...it's just that the real argument is their sleaze tactics that negatively impact people's lives, and history; that they use for personal and political gain, as hatchet men for the Bush bunch...Plumbers, if you will; remember them? Same school, same party, same money, same despicable tactics.
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