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Unfit for Command by John E. O’Neill and Jerome R. Corsi, Ph.D.

Reviewed by Theresa Fritz Camoriano

 On May 4, 2004, about 200 Swift Boat veterans, including John Kerry’s former commander Grant Hibbard, presented an open letter saying that John Kerry had “misrepresented his service in Vietnam and lied about his claims of atrocities committed as a matter of policy by his unit and the American military.  (Over 250 Swift Boat veterans have now signed the letter.) The letter labeled Kerry a liar and a fraud, unfit to be the commander in chief of the United States Armed Forces.” The letter concludes with the following statement:

“Senator Kerry, we were there. We know the truth. We have been silent long enough. The stakes are too great, not only for America in general but, most importantly, for those who have followed us into service in Iraq and Afghanistan. We call upon you to provide a full, accurate accounting of your conduct in Vietnam.”

 The signers include Kerry’s entire chain of command -- every officer Kerry served under in Vietnam, “fifteen of the twenty-three officers who served with him in An Thoi (where he claims to have been a hero), and a substantial majority of those who were with him during military operations.”  On July 1, 2004, eleven of the twenty Swift Boat officers whose photos are being used by the Kerry campaign wrote to Kerry demanding that he stop using their photos in his ads, because it implies that they support him, while they do not. 

 When so many veterans, having personal experience with a candidate for President of the United States, and having nothing to gain, are willing to stick their necks out in order to stand up and speak out against him, one would think the media would take notice.  However, the information we have received from the mainstream press is very skimpy and very slanted against the veterans.  If you want to find out what the Swift Boat veterans are saying and why they are saying it, you need to read their book or at least check out their website.

The book describes each of the incidents that led to Kerry’s medals, including testimony from people who were there and saw what really happened.  According to the witnesses, Kerry’s “injuries” were very minor and were not the result of enemy fire.  Instead, they resulted from Kerry’s own carelessness in handling weapons.  According to the book, the awards were based on Kerry’s own self-serving reports, which were not true.  The Swift Boat Veterans maintain that Kerry was a coward, who turned tail and ran when he should have stayed to defend his fellow Swifties.  They describe him as a whiner and as unreliable and indicate that several officers refused to serve with him and were happy to send him back home early to be the only Swift Boat member who returned short of his full one-year tour of duty under the three injuries and you’re out rule.  The book includes a photograph of Kerry in an “exhibit dedicated to the world heroes whom the Vietnamese Communists credited with helping with the ‘resistance’.”  It describes actions that were taken by Kerry during the war that involved the slaughter of innocent civilians, including children, and the unnecessary destruction of all the farm animals and homes in a village.  This leads one to believe that, when Kerry told Meet The Press on April 18, 1971 that he personally had committed atrocities, he was telling the truth.

The book also points out several other instances, besides the situations in which he was awarded medals, in which Kerry has lied about his military record, for example claiming that an incident in Cambodia that was a turning point in his life was “seared” into his memory, when, in fact, he was not in Cambodia. 

In addition to providing details about Kerry’s service record, the book investigates Kerry’s involvement with the anti-war movement, including his meeting with North Vietnamese Communists and his cooperating with them while he was still in the Naval Reserves. Kerry gave many anti-American speeches.  In 1971, Kerry gave a speech praising Ho Chi Minh, the founder of Vietnamese Communism, calling him the George Washington of Vietnam. 

Kerry was a leader of the Vietnam Veterans Against The War (VVAW), which included many frauds who claimed to be veterans and were not or who claimed to have served in Vietnam but did not.  The group members claimed to have witnessed and participated in many atrocities during the war, which did not occur.  They also promoted violence against the U.S. government, including the murder of senators.  Kerry claimed not to have attended a meeting of the VVAW in Kansas City where such violence was discussed , but FBI documents and eye witness reports indicate that he was there.  The book also indicates that Kerry continues to support the Vietnamese Communists to the present day, for example killing the Vietnam Human Rights Act just days before the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.  The bill was reintroduced in 2003 in an effort to protect religious freedom and other freedoms in Vietnam, and again, Kerry “took active steps to block the bill’s passage in the Senate.”  Kerry's support of the Vietnam Communists is not without its rewards.  When Vietnam decided to build a port, one of its first contracts was with Kerry's cousin.

A parallel between the Vietnam war and the current war in Iraq that struck me while reading the book was that Kerry’s VVAW used the real war crime of the My Lai massacre as a springboard for accusing the U.S. of promoting and committing widespread atrocities in Vietnam, just as Kerry’s allies now are using the Abu Ghraib prison incident as a springboard for accusing the U.S. of promoting and committing widespread atrocities in Iraq.  Kerry testified that Vietnam was a pointless war and that we could pull out without harming the local people, just as we are now hearing that Iraq is a pointless war, and we can pull out without harming the local people.  However, when we did pull out of Vietnam, millions of people were slaughtered.    

Read this book critically and with skepticism, as you should read everything, but by all means read it.    

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