"Memory Lane with John & Jane"

John Kerry and Jane Fonda political cartoon.

 Feb. 11, 2004...
According to NewsMax.com, Democratic candidate John Kerry is caught on film at a 1970 Vietnam War protest in Valley Forge, PA, with “Hanoi” Jane Fonda.

The ensuing NewsMax.com article covers much ground on the event photographed and none of it is the kind of stuff a fella wanting to be President would like to have publicized. But the photo is particularly damning. And history has proven well that one photo can be a career’s undoing.

It was a photo of Michael Dukakis, grinning inside a tank (helmet and all) that squashed his presidential bid, it was a televised image of Richard Nixon all sweaty and sick looking that put the kabosh to his 1960 presidential bid, and it was a photo of Gary Hart with Donna Rice seated on his lap and the boat “Monkey Business” in the background that sunk his presidential bid

What can one photo do? Obviously, a lot.

So, it would be wise to take a look at this photo that’s surfaced of Kerry with the lovely “Hanoi” Jane Fonda. Let’s get to know this John Kerry. With all the scrutiny being applied to President Bush’s national guard service during the Vietnam War, it would be prudent to scrutinize this part of Kerry’s life as well. As for the medals and bravery while fighting in the War, Kerry is to be honored most certainly. But what about John Kerry’s actions after he returned from Vietnam?

Michael Moore has called President Bush a traitor. Al Gore has said that Bush has “betrayed his country.” But what about John Kerry – after Vietnam? Read some of these excerpts from the NewsMax.com article:

"Scores of newspaper articles about the march" exist, according to Kerry biographer Douglas Brinkley.

Dubbed "Operation RAW" (Rapid American Withdrawal), the September 1970 march featured Fonda, Kerry and a motley band of anti-war vets in an 86-mile trek from Morristown, N.J., and Valley Forge, Pa. – two Revolutionary War sites.

Douglas Brinkley's biography "Tour of Duty" chronicles Kerry's exploits at Valley Forge, where he reportedly followed Fonda onto the back of that pick-up truck to deliver his own diatribe against the war in Vietnam.

"We are here because we above all others have earned the right to criticize the war on Southeast Asia," Kerry shouted into the microphone, as Fonda and the crowd cheered wildly.

"By the time [Kerry] hopped off that pick-up truck to thunderous applause," writes Brinkley, "he was the new leader of the VVAW by popular default."

The Massachusetts Democrat's speech also cemented his alliance with Fonda, and the two traveled to Detroit to organize a January 1971 event they called the "Winter Soldier Investigation."

At a Detroit motel, Kerry and Fonda assembled a myriad of disgruntled witnesses claiming to be Vietnam vets, each with his own story of American atrocities.

According to Jug Burkett, whose landmark Vietnam war history "Stolen Valor" chronicles some of Kerry's anti-war misadventures, Fonda played a key role at the Detroit event.

"There's no doubt that Jane Fonda financed the Winter Soldier hearings," Burkett told NewsMax on Monday.

He said that several of the witnesses who testified at the protest's "hearings" later turned out to be complete impostors.

The event prompted "Hanoi Jane" to "adopt" Kerry's group "as her leading cause," writes Brinkley. It was at Kerry's Winter Soldier protest that the anti-American actress met her future husband, Students for a Democratic Society radical Tom Hayden.

The next year Fonda was off to Hanoi, where she mounted an anti-aircraft battery and pretended to shoot down American pilots.

Of Kerry, Burkett told NewsMax, "Any Vietnam veteran who knows what Kerry did after he came home from Vietnam is definitely not a fan of John Kerry."

The Washington Times is also carrying a report on the photo of Kerry attending the Vietnam War demonstration with Jane Fonda:

A photograph of John Kerry together with Jane Fonda at an anti-Vietnam War rally in 1970 in Pennsylvania has surfaced on the Internet, angering veterans who say his association with her 34 years ago is a slap in the faces of Vietnam War veterans.

Kerry campaign spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter responded, "John Kerry and Jane Fonda were just acquaintances," Ms. Cutter said. "What's important to understand here is two things: He met her before she went to Vietnam, and he did not approve of her very controversial trip."

But those reading and understanding the full extent of Kerry’s actions during his anti-Vietnam War protesting can see through Ms. Cutter’s slick statement. Glossing over Kerry’s own culpability is an insult to the American people and an outrage to folks watching this election year process. John Kerry is not above scrutiny… and his favorite “Do you know who I AM?” retort (spoken to mere plebian citizens, away from the media’s listening ears), seems the implication in Ms. Cutter’s response. This is not a time for hautiness, Senator Kerry. It is a time for answers – real answers.

There is much more covered in the article, which can be read in its entirety by clicking on one of the above links. But let us contemplate for now the favorite campaign trail taunt of John Kerry: “Bring it on!!” Kerry has been bashing Bush for days over the media’s whoopla about his military service during Vietnam. Let’s take a look at Kerry’s Vietnam years, too – ALL of them. As Paul Harvey would say, let’s look at the REST of the story of John Kerry and the Vietnam Years.

Yes, Senator Kerry, let’s bring it on.