An open letter to Senator John F. Kerry

My wife had rotator cuff surgery earlier this year, and the recovery
is terribly painful. Then, she developed a staph-epi infection, and
they had to cut the same scar open and operate on her again. Just
thinking about the pain and anxiety of facing that painful surgery a
second time in the same wound, makes me cringe. That experience, however
pales in comparison to what I am going through right now, in my heart.

The old hurts are surfacing and the feelings of betrayal by fellow
citizens, and their leader stirring them up, are breaking my heart
again. I am being cut in the same scar. How did we who served in
Vietnam suddenly become cold-blooded killers, torturers, and rapists,
of the ilk of the Nazi SS or the Taliban? Most of us were American
soldiers who grew up idolizing John Wayne, Roy Rogers, and all the
other heroes. That was why I volunteered. But for political expediency,
John Kerry has rewritten history, again. After spending only four months
in the country of Vietnam, John Kerry testified before Congress in 1971
with these exact words about incidents he supposedly witnessed or heard
about from other vets:
³They 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, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and
generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam."

I was a green beret officer who volunteered for duty in Vietnam and
fought in the thick of it in 1968 and 1969 on a Special Forces A-team
on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, just for starters. We were the elite. We saw
the most action. Everybody in the world knows that. But we did not just
kill people, we built a church, a school, treated illnesses, passed out
soap, food, and clothing, and had fun and loving interaction with the
indigenous people of Vietnam, just like our boys did in Normandy,
Baghdad, Saigon, and everywhere American soldiers ever served. We
all gave away our candy bars and rations to kids. Our hearts to
oppressed people all over the globe.

My children and grandchildren could read your words, and think those
horrendous things about me, Mr. Kerry. You are a bold-faced,
unprincipled liar, and a disgrace, and you have dishonored me and all
my fellow Vietnam veterans. Sure, there were a couple bad-apples, but
I saw none, and I saw it all, and if I did, as an army officer, it was
my obligation to stop it, or at the very least report it. Why is there
not a single record anywhere of you ever reporting any incidents like
this or having the perpetrators arrested? The answer is simple. You are
a liar. Your medals and mine are not a free pass for lifetime,
Senator Kerry, to bypass character, integrity, and morality. I earn my
green beret over and over daily in all aspects of my life.

Eight National Guard green berets, and other National Guard soldiers,
have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, and you totally dishonored
their widows and families by lumping National Guard service in with
being a draft-dodger, conscientious objector, and deserter, just so
you can try to sabotage the patriotism of our President who proudly
served as an Air National Guard jet pilot. I have a son earning his
green beret at Fort Bragg right now, and his wife serves honorably in
the Air National Guard, just like President Bush did, and I am as proud
of her as I am my son. I volunteered for Vietnam and have no problem
whatsoever with President Bush being our Commander-In-Chief. In fact,
I am proud of him as our leader.

John Kerry, you personally derailed the Vietnam Human Rights Bill,
HR2883, in 2001, after it had passed the House by a 411 to 1 vote, and
thousands of pro-American Montagnard tribespeople in Vietnam died since
then who could have been saved, by you. Earlier, as Chair of the Senate
Select Committee on MIA/POW Affairs, you personally quashed the efforts
of any and all veterans to report sightings of living POW¹s, when you
held those reins in Congress You have fought tooth and nail to push for
the US to normalize relations with Vietnam for years. Why, Mr. Kerry?
Simple, your first cousin C. Stewart Forbes, CEO, of Colliers
International, recently signed a contract with Hanoi, worth BILLIONS
of dollars for Collier¹s International to become the exclusive real
estate representative for the country of Vietnam.

"Hanoi John," now that it works for you, you beat your chest about your
Vietnam service, but to me, you are a phony, opportunistic, hypocrite.
You are one of those politicians that is like a fertilizer machine: all
that comes out of you is horse manure, and you are spreading it
everywhere.

Medals do not make a man. Morals do.

Don Bendell
Canon City, Colorado

Don Bendell served as an officer in four Special Forces Groups, is a
best-selling author with over 1,500,000 books in print, a 1995 inductee
into the International Karate Hall of Fame, and owns karate schools
in southern Colorado.

Don or Shirley Bendell
BENDELL ENTERPRISES, INC.
PO Box 276, Canon City, CO 81215-0276
(719) 269-3929
Please visit our website: www.donbendell.com or visit
our other website at www.bendellkarate.com