Vietnam Veterans Against John Kerry and Vietnamese-American Organizations Coalition Announce Plans For A Protest Demonstration Against John Kerry
Where: New York City, 373 Park Avenue South (between 26the and 27the Streets) across from Kerry’s campaign headquarters
Date: February 28, 2004
Time: 12:00 noon
Coalition spokesman:
Jerry Kiley, New York spokesman and demonstration coordinator can be reached at 845-947-3058.
Mike Benge, a US POW in Vietnam for 5 years is available for interviews at 703- 698-8256
Peter Nguyen, General Council of the Vietnamese Community of NY, will be available for interviews at 718-892-9500
Vietnam Veterans Against John Kerry (V.V.A.J.K) has formed a national coalition with Vietnamese Americans for Human Rights in Vietnam. V
“We represent hundreds of thousand of American veterans who do not want to see John Kerry any where near the Oval Office,” said Ted Sampley, founder of V.V.A.J.K, and a U.S. Army Green Beret and veteran of two combat tours in Vietnam.
Said Sampley, “I have personally dealt with John Kerry on the issue of US POWs left behind in Vietnam. Kerry is not truthful and is not worthy of the support of US veterans. Many Vietnam vets have been duped into thinking Kerry is their friend. He is not. To us, he is ‘Hanoi John'”
Dan Tran, a NASA engineer and president of the Vietnam Human Rights Project, said, “John Kerry aided and abetted the communist government in Hanoi and has hindered any human rights progress in Vietnam.”
Mike Benge, former civilian Viet Nam POW says, “John Kerry has fought harder for the Vietnamese communists than he fought against them in Vietnam.
“In the Senate, Kerry almost single handedly prevented a Vietnam Human Rights (and religious freedom) Bill from coming to a vote. Mean while the Vietnamese communists continue to wage a war of repression against our former South Vietnamese allies and a war of genocide against the Montagnard ethnic minorities in the Central Highlands of Vietnam.”
Chau Nguyen, President of the Vietnamese Community in NY said, Pastors, Priests, and Buddhist Monks are being held against their will and many are beaten close to death on a regular basis”
When Kerry returned from military service in Vietnam he became a national leader and spokesperson of Vietnam Veterans Against the War. In this role, Hanoi John campaigned against the efforts of the United States to contain the spread of communism throughout Southeast Asia. Under Kerry’s leadership, VVAW members marched in demonstrations under the flags of the Viet Cong enemy and displayed pictures of Ho Chi Minh. They mocked the uniform of
United States soldiers by wearing tattered fatigues, many marked with pro-communist graffiti.
In congressional testimony Hanoi John called the U.S. involvement in Vietnam “a genocide against the Vietnamese people” and referred to his former comrades as “war criminals.” The false image and social stigma portraying Vietnam vets as “drug-addicted baby killers and mindless drones” can be traced directly to John Kerry and his VVAW.
“It’s one thing,” said New York Vietnam veteran Jerry Kiley, “to oppose a war for moral reasons, but it’s dishonorable to take that extra step and support the enemy. That’s what John Kerry did.”
Dan Tran, speaking as a member of Vietnamese Americans Against John Kerry said, “On behalf of tens of thousands of Vietnamese-Americans, we are determined to demonstrate against Senator Kerry all across this nation”
The Coalition plans nationwide demonstrations against Kerry beginning with
the New York primary.