Political Combat Over War

Ronald Brownstein (Washington Outlook, Feb. 16) doesn’t get it. The difference between John Kerry’s and George W. Bush’s “Vietnam-era credentials” is not just what they did but what their deeds reveal about their characters. As a young man, Kerry volunteered to risk his life in what he was told by his president was the defense of his country. After experiencing brutal combat in Vietnam and being severely wounded, he realized that he and his comrades had been ordered to war under a banner of lies. With the same courage and integrity that led him to enlist, he came home to tell his countrymen that the war was a cruel, tragic mistake.

George W. Bush, on the other hand, while bravely supporting the Vietnam War from the safety of Texas, used his family connections to avoid combat by getting into the National Guard, where he gallantly, if intermittently, served until he got an early release to go to Harvard. Thirty years later, Bush is behaving with the same kind of character that he displayed during the Vietnam War. The only difference is that he is now the president, who, from the safety of the White House, orders another generation of young Americans to kill and die under another banner of lies.

Marvin A. Gluck

Topanga

Brownstein quotes from a letter by the president’s reelection campaign. Retired Col. William Campenni, who served with Bush in the Texas Air National Guard, implied that he and Bush had done more than Kerry to defend the nation. “We were answering 3 a.m. scrambles for who-knows-what inbound threat over ... the shark-filled Gulf of Mexico,” he wrote.

Gee, what threat was out there? North Vietnamese fighter jets? Or did they expect an attack by the Mexican or Brazilian air force? As for the sharks, I have flown over shark-infested waters many times and never gave it a thought. But then, I did not have a parachute on those commercial planes anyway -- at least the sharks would not eat me alive. One thing is for sure: Nobody dared to attack Texas when Bush was flying patrol over El Paso.

Bruno Schmidt

Calabasas

I am a combat-wounded Vietnam veteran. All combat veterans look back on our experience with a multitude of views and opinions. My problem with Kerry’s conduct on his return from Vietnam is not that he was opposed to our presence there but that his conduct was “over the top,” particularly his unsubstantiated allegations of hideous war crimes by his fellow Americans. Not only did his actions and words hurt those still in combat and held as POWs, he gave fuel to the antiwar groups, which turned their anger and violence toward returning veterans, making our life a living hell.

I think it is most hypocritical for Kerry to now display the medals he once publicly threw away, and embrace as his “band of brothers” his fellow veterans he so viciously maligned (Feb. 17). His outstanding service in Vietnam as a naval officer is offset by his subsequent shameful conduct, making the combined package a wash. Sen. Kerry, I’m not your brother. Vietnam was a long, long time ago! Why don’t both sides just let go of it?

Terry Schauer

Sherman Oaks

Re “What Did Bush Do in the Guard?” Feb. 15: Can’t your staff reporters find anything better to write about than hash and rehash what we’ve already heard constantly for the past two weeks? And talk about biased reporting: Your article says about Bush “ ... widely known as the drifting and carousing son of a famous father ... has sent U.S. troops to fight and die.... “ as opposed to Kerry, “... a genuine war hero, who came home from a real war as a highly decorated Navy swift-boat commander.”

Georgianna L. Troin

Rancho Palos Verdes

Whatever Bush did or didn’t do in the guard is irrelevant, except for the fact that he got special treatment. What the American people should judge him on is the fact that although he was for the war in Vietnam, he wasn’t for fighting for his country. I can respect a conscientious objector who fled to Canada or who otherwise escaped combat on those grounds, but not a man who was wholeheartedly behind a war but hid from fighting it. How disgusting that he asks so much more from others than he would ask from himself for his ill-conceived and badly executed war now. The word “coward” can’t help but leap to mind.

Karen J. Pordum

Marina del Rey

As a U.S. Army veteran, what I find most disturbing about Bush’s service in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War are not his mysterious disappearances, his easy entry and promotions, his suspension from flight status or his lack of recollections. It’s his discharge eight months early after he “worked something out.” He could have transferred to a new base close to his college and continued his service.

Today, as commander in chief, he issues a stop-loss order that halts retirements and discharges from the military because of his wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. To me, that is the ultimate in obscene hypocrisy.

Mark Gracyk

Lemon Grove, Calif.

If the American public really cared about the military service records of presidential candidates, then the draft dodger Bill Clinton would never have won against George H.W. Bush and Robert Dole. At least Bush Jr. wore the uniform of his country.

John Elfmont

Torrance

Bush supported the war in Vietnam but used his family’s influence to avoid fighting in it. Kerry questioned the war but volunteered to risk his life for his country. End of story.

William D. Wolff

Los Angeles