Gunner wrote:
Vietnam veteran Larry J. O'Daniel has today challenged former fellow
officer and veteran, John Forbes Kerry to come clean with charges
Kerry has made in the past. O'Daniel, a decorated combat veteran and
present Director of the National Vietnam and Gulf War Veterans
Coalition, served in the legendary Phoenix Program and says that the
issue is one that the Senator himself has brought on.

"His attempt to denigrate the service of our incumbent President
while this legacy of his hangs on says much about the real issue of
this election - Leadership and Character. The Senator from
Massachusetts lacks both."

"Senator John Forbes Kerry is attempting to be our generation's
Vietnam War hero, much the same way his avowed idol, John F. Kennedy
was of that generation. Kerry falls short in many ways. His attempt
to ride into the White House on the strength of medals for bravery
is not enough. As a former officer who served as a combat advisor
and participant in a Special Operations program, I know a little bit
about integrity, courage, and character. Kerry lacks what it takes
to be Commander in Chief."

"If nominated, Kerry would be an extreme embarrassment to his party.
On the surface, he seems to be the exact type of rival needed to run
against a popular President with a military background, albeit not
in combat. A popular President who proved his courage jockeying
supersonic aircraft. On the surface, Kerry would seem to be able to
cut into the military vote that has become increasingly one party
over the past 30 years."

"This senator, a JFK from Massachusetts, like the first JFK, is a
Naval Officer. However, he has a record which speaks volumes about
his current abilities and views. Kerry will both exploit his war
record and run from it. His checkerboard past explains his actions
today. He has been critical of the way the current war on terrorism
has been waged. Inevitably, his criticism is always preceded by
media notices of Kerry, decorated Vietnam war veteran. However,
thirty three years ago, Kerry charged decorated war veterans with
unspeakable crimes. Those charges were false and the Senator knew
them to be false."

Before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in April 1971, Kerry
asserted he represented veterans, honorably discharged and very
highly decorated, who participated in war crimes. These crimes were
not isolated incidents, he charged, but crimes committed on a day -
to - day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of
command. Crimes that this country made them do. I remind the Senator
that former GRU Colonel Stanislav Lunev said, the GRU funded every
major anti-Vietnam organization. The Soviet Union spent twice as
much money on this effort than they did in supplying weapons to
Vietnam. Kerry helped the GRU with their efforts. Their goal was to
make the military service in Vietnam a mark of shame. With his help,
they succeeded.

Kerry asserted these veterans personally raped women, cut off ears,
cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human
genitals and turned on the power. They cut off limbs; blew up
bodies; randomly shot at civilians; razed villages like Ghenghis
Khan; shot livestock for fun; poisoned food; and ravaged the
Vietnamese countryside. From his personal experience, Kerry asserted
that the Vietnamese only wanted to work in rice paddies without our
helicopters strafing and napalming them and their villages. Our men
died while our allies refused to help and fight. Kerry said we
rationalized destroying villages in order to save them; accepted a
My Lai; enforced free fire zones by shooting anything that moves.
Our GIs falsified body counts while leaders glorified body counts.
In a well orchestrated political move, he asked, how do you ask a
man to be the last man to die for a mistake? The well rehearsed
veteran began his career that day.

A problem arises. Kerry's testimony was false. These charges were
investigated then and since. My challenge as a veteran of one of the
main programs Kerry and his colleagues used for the basis of these
charges, the Phoenix Program - Prove them or apologize.

Kerry's widely covered charges largely paralleled that of another
highly decorated veteran, LTC Anthony Herbert. Some of the
unsubstantiated and uncorroborated accusations of Kerry were almost
identical to specific charges leveled by Herbert. Both charged war
crimes were ignored, uninvestigated, part of the routine. We'll get
to Herbert in just a second.

The prominence of Kerry and his cohorts, Jane Fonda and group,
allowed phonies and wannabes then and now to make false allegations
slandering real veterans of real programs, like mine of Phoenix. For
example:

- Elton Mazione, claiming Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW)
credentials, Kerry's original organization, along with his friends,
John Laboon, Eddie Swetz, and Kenneth Van Lesser. They claimed to
kill children and remove body parts as part of the notorious Phoenix
program. They were neither in Phoenix nor in Vietnam.

- Kerry's VVAW leader friend from 1971, Al Hubbard, lied about being
an officer, Vietnam Veteran, and sustaining war injuries. Michael
Harbert, another VVAW crony of Kerry, lied about his Vietnam service.

- Yoshia K. Chee claimed Phoenix operatives routinely resorted to
the most hideous forms of torture, threw people out of helicopters,
and decapitated prisoners. He was a phony.

- Mike Beamon, an alleged SEAL and Phoenix assassin, was never in the
military.

The Senator's own VVAW and similar groups relied upon people like:

K. Barton Osborn, a Vietnam veteran and testifier of atrocities to
Congress. He told of prisoners being thrown out of helicopters, a
woman starved to death, a prisoner being killed by a six inch dowel
pushed through his ear. Osborn was not in Phoenix, refused to name
names, and provided no documentation.

Lieutenants Francis Reitemeyer and Michael J. Cohn. Both sought
conscientious objector status because of Phoenix. Reitemeyer
testified to being assigned to Phoenix as an adviser and maintain a
kill quota of fifty bodies a month. They became famous as My Lai hit
the news. Neither served in Vietnam, or in Phoenix. Reitemeyer later
denied receiving any assassination training. Both were students at
Ft. Holabird when I underwent my intelligence training there.

Many relied upon the specific charges of Herbert, which were
publicly aired in this same time frame as that of Senator Kerry, in
order to prove their charges. Herbert was highly decorated,
apparently corroborating the Senator's charges. Despite highly
specific unit naming charges of some 21 war crimes, the facts of a
subsequent investigation contradict both Herbert and Kerry. Overall,
this contemporaneous investigation lasted seven months.
Investigators located and interviewed 333 personnel located in 31
different states, and six different foreign countries, including
Vietnam. Out of the 21 incidents involved in the initial charges by
Herbert, only seven charges had sufficient substance to merit action
or further investigation. Two of the seven had already been acted
upon with justice administered. One ended with an article 15
punishment and one with a general court martial.

Two more of the seven involved Vietnamese versus Vietnamese offenses,
outside the scope of American jurisprudence and not necessarily
proven. The remaining three, at the time of the DA writing, November
5, 1971, were then pending further action by officers exercising
general court martial jurisdiction. In other words, it was being
further investigated to see if it warranted charges being filed.
This shows atrocities and allegations of atrocities were neither
condoned nor swept under the rug.

The Senator allegedly knew from personal experience of atrocities
being committed and condoned by officers at all levels of command.
He was obligated to report those atrocities. There is no known
record of any such report from the Senator. My Lai was not condoned,
it was prosecuted. Fellow anti-war activist Daniel Ellsberg, who
likewise served in the war zone, belied atrocity charges being more
pronounced in Vietnam versus previous wars. The Senator used trumped
up allegations from phonies, wannabes, stretchers of the truth to
sully the valor, service, and integrity of his fellow veterans to
climb a political ladder of success. When sentiments changed, he
embraced those same veterans becoming an alleged champion of the
Vietnam era. He likewise used phonies to slander some 2000 specific
veterans of the Phoenix program like myself. He has never proven one
charge.

When challenged last year to repudiate his previous testimony, after
I faxed to his office for review, a spokesman there abruptly
terminated the call saying if Senator Kerry testified to it, he
stands by it. The Senator recently condoned the alleged atrocities,
war crimes, committed by a fellow Democratic Senator and Vietnam
Veteran, Robert Kerrey. He said the operation should not be
investigated because it allegedly happened all the time in Vietnam.
Further, on the Sam Donaldson show, Kerry short shirted the program,
Phoenix, under which the atrocity allegedly occurred, saying he
personally helped conduct similar anti-infrastructure operations,
ferrying SEALs. This, apparently is part of the source of the
Senator's alleged first hand knowledge he testified to before.

The Senator, as a former officer, knows his obligations were to avoid
participating in war crimes and reporting them when knowledge of them
occurred. Instead, the Senator broad brushed veterans of the war as
crazed killers forced to be that because of governmental policy. As
a US Senator, when faced head on with an allegation that a member of
his party, his Senatorial Fraternity, Robert Kerrey helped cut a
civilian's throat and possibly commanded an operation that killed
over 20 civilians without provocation, the Senator Kerry reverted to
the 1971 allegations that everyone did it. He ignored the formalized
eyewitness allegation by a veteran of that operation who belatedly
lived up to a responsibility to report a crime. Murder in a war zone
has no time limits for investigation nor prosecution.

The Senator, knows the charge is that Kerrey was on a Phoenix
mission, like those he self proclaimed participated in, because the
Senator and Sam Donaldson discussed that specific aspect on
Donaldson's show. As I watched the Senator's response from that
show, he implied personal knowledge of those Phoenix missions,
although he clearly ducked any involvement with Phoenix. No proud
Vietnam warrior emerged in that interview.

My challenge is clear. Make the specific charges, times, dates,
persons, programs, units involved, of war crimes as outlined in your
1971 testimony. Be specific on your own knowledge of these war
crimes. Clear the air about Phoenix, your participation, knowledge,
even suspicions. Support the investigation of the war crime
allegations of your former colleague. Do not allow his status of
being a fellow privileged fraternity member from doing your sworn
duty, either now as a Senator, or from that era, where as an officer
and gentleman, you claimed personal knowledge of atrocities.

Now for a short time, I want to get personal on those 1971 charges.
I served in Vietnam from January 1969 to January 1970. I served in
two different Provinces, Go Cong and An Xuyen and three different
districts, Hoa Tan, Thoi Binh, and Song Ong Doc. I also served short
stints in the Province headquarters to acquaint myself with each new
duty post. My perspective of Phoenix is a little broader than most
officers.

Concerning your allegations, they are as false as can be. In
December 1968, we were told of the two LTs who chose conscientious
objector status supposedly because of Phoenix. Each of us were given
an opportunity to do likewise if we so chose. None did as none of us
had heard any order, any teaching, any reason to suspect that
Phoenix was an assassination program. I received my orders to
Vietnam at Holabird, having previously been chosen for that duty at
Fort Benning prior to finishing Infantry School.

I received orders for Phoenix in Vietnam. I was to go out in the
field with my counterparts as an infantry adviser and engage in
frequent ground combat. In addition, I was to be an intelligence
analyst. Finally, many of us tripled up as Deputy District Senior
Advisers as troops were to come home and advisory teams shrank in
size.

We never received orders for assassination. To the contrary, we
received orders that Phoenix was to be like every other program and
civilians respected, the military justice system followed, and
Geneva Conventions adhered to strictly. We were to report any
violations and if our counterparts participated, we were to cease
and attempt to cause our counterparts to cease. We further received
an invitation that if after being chosen for Phoenix, we had
reservations about our participation in this police activity, we
could opt out of the program with no recriminations.

I enforced free fire zones in both Provinces. Before any targets were
engaged by the pilots with whom I flew, they had to have my
permission as I represented the Vietnamese government in their eyes.
That meant I identified the targets as military, even if it was free
fire. This I did on several occasions. Sometimes, the other side
cooperated and fired first, making my job a lot easier.

I never heard of nor participated in any of the crimes you
described. In IV Corps, for the better part of the year I served and
until the end of the war, the adviser represented the bulk of
Americans present. Contrary to your statement, I spent time in
lonely outposts and on ambushes with my counterparts, sometimes
being the lone American present. My life was literally in their
hands and they never let me down. I utilized Kit Carson Scouts, or
former VC as guides. Throughout the war, there is not one recorded
instance of these Vietnamese turning on us. A friend of mine, Kiet
Van Nguyen earned the Navy Cross, the second highest decoration (had
he been an American he would have received the Medal of Honor) for
rescuing an American pilot downed near the DMZ. His exploits were
part of the movie Bat
21. None of your phonies got to know the Vietnamese personally like
those of us who advised them and relied upon them for our support.

Many of us in Phoenix taught English to young students, helped in
Civic Action projects, and mentored Vietnamese up and coming
officers. We learned about their culture from our counterparts who
were ten and twenty years our senior. I remember the beginnings of
the charges against Phoenix as I began my tour of duty. I remember
your charges that Market Time did not work after I returned. I knew
you lied because Market Time forces were part of the Americans I
cooperated with. They opened up the interior water lanes so that
Vietnamese farmers could get their produce to market without having
to be extorted by Viet Cong terrorists. I patiently waited 30 plus
years to issue this challenge to you at the right time. This is that
time.

Finally, concerning the service of our President. Since when is
honorable service in any branch under any condition subject to your
approval? In my family, there were five male cousins, all on active
duty at the same time. Three of us served in Vietnam at the same
time. The other two were Vietnam deferred because of the sole
surviving son provisions. Other members of my family served both in
wartime and peacetime. We are all veterans. National Guard service
is a necessary service and someone has to fill the slot. Reserve
time is necessary and someone has to fill the slot. All is
honorable. Of the 8.7 million who served in the Vietnam era, are you
trying to say that 6.0 million had less than honorable service
because they did not serve in country? And in your Navy and Coast
Guard, are you depreciating the value of the 600,000 who never came
ashore but who saved our skins time in and time out with well placed
naval gun fire for those of us on shore? Is that what your concept
of service is?

I flew on armed aerial recon with Navy Seawolves and in the back
seat of an OV-1 Birddog with a pilot who loved to show off his
aerial acrobatics. I skimmed at tree top level full speed with our
Huey pilots taking me to some meeting or back and forth between my
posts. I know the thrill of flying at subsonic speeds. I know how my
stomach turned when the bird dog pilot banked quickly to shoot
rocket rounds in support of troops engaged in ground combat below.
So I can appreciate the guts it takes to be a jet jockey and I thank
God I was never one. Never would I question the President's courage
even if he only flew stateside. He had his job and I had mine.

Once again my challenge to you, if you are up to it either morally or
otherwise.

Either itemize those incidents you claim to have knowledge of or
apologize to the veterans of Vietnam whose reputations, valor, and
integrity you sullied then and now and renounce those charges you
then and now refuse to itemize. I make this challenge as a veteran
of Vietnam, Phoenix, and as a former fellow officer colleague. Duty
- Honor - Country - These are our obligations. You are at a fork in
a path. Integrity or disgrace. Your choice.

Larry J. O'Daniel


Former CPT MI awarded Combat Infantryman Badge, Vietnam Gallantry
Cross with Bronze Star, Vietnam Unit Awards for Gallantry and Civic
Action. Current Director National Vietnam and Gulf War Vetrans.


I think Kerry is going to have to be held accountable for his testimony.
It's unfortunate that it didn't happen before he locked up the nomination.
It's amazing that these two candidates are the best our system has to offer.