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According to a report by Insight Magazine, since the US granted normal trade relations with Vietnam in 2001, its record of human rights violations began to spiral upward. House-church Christians have been arrested for practicing their faith. Gatherings to worship and witnessing are a crime in Vietnam.

The Communist Party of Vietnam confiscated Bibles, books, houses, and lands, and closed hundreds of churches, leaving only two closely-monitored denominations open as a front to convince the diplomats and foreign media that there is "freedom" in Vietnam. In the meantime, Vietnamese clergy and laymen are imprisoned with false charges.

Extreme tortures such as injecting with lethal drugs, beating to the point of death, and electric shocks are frequently used. Starvation, brainwashing and strenuous labor are all too common in these so-called "reeducation camps".

Hanoi especially targets tribal minorities such as the Montagnards who live in the Central Highlands. The Montagnard Christians are persistently forced to sign agreements to recant their faith. Because of the harsh persecution and their desire to worship freely and just live a normal life, these believers gathered for a prayer vigil during Easter weekend in April 2004.

Armed Vietnamese troops attacked and murdered hundreds of Montagnards. Some fled and still hid in the jungle near Cambodia borders, knowing well that if they are taken back to Vietnam, they will face either prison or deaths.

Making things worse, Vietnam recently issued a new religious ordinance effective in November 15. There is, however, nothing "new" about the hostile attitude of the Vietnam government toward Christianity.

According to this regulation, registered groups will need specific permission to conduct religious activities in designated buildings approved by the government. The state is entitled to ban and monitor any beliefs, and prisoners are not allowed to practice their faith.

The Montagnard people were among America's most reliable indigenous ground forces during the Vietnam War. They fought against the North Vietnamese -- first for the French, then for the Green Berets, with loyalty and distinction for thirty years. One out of two Montagnards who fought with our forces were killed in combat.

They were called the 'Montagnards' by the French, meaning 'mountain people' and the name stuck with them. US troops usually called them the 'Yards' and we loved them.

They call themselves the 'Degas' but the Communists call them ‘Moi’ or 'savages'. The Dega people have lived in the Central Highlands for more than a thousand years.

The communist government of Vietnam, since its victory in 1975, has forced thousands into 'resettlement' and 'reeducation camps'. More than a million Montagnards witnessed America's final, panicked withdrawal. Although the general population of Vietnam has doubled since 1975, the Montagnard population has been cut in half.

In 2001 the Vietnam Human Rights Act was introduced in Congress. It tied future U.S. aid to Vietnam to the Hanoi government improving its abysmal human rights record, including persecution of the Montagnards.

It passed the House 410 to 1. But in the Senate, Senator John Kerry locked the bill up in committee and refused to allow it to go the floor for debate and a vote. In effect, Kerry killed the human rights bill, and with it, uncounted more of our most loyal former allies.

(Oh, no! Not another Kerry-Vietnam story! Sorry. I am sick of them too. But this is too important -- there is too much at stake here. )

At the time, Kerry said the measure would not improve human rights but instead would weaken Vietnamese human rights activists and strengthen the hard-liners who oppose U.S. involvement in Vietnam.

That was only one in a litany of betrayals that are John Kerry's legacy to Vietnam and to the American veterans who sacrificed their lives to prevent Vietnam from becoming what it has.

It begins with Kerry's 'medals'. Two and a half million people served in Vietnam. Many received purple hearts. A few received 3 -- and one and only one received 3 without spending a day in the hospital. One out of 2.5 million. Plus a Silver Star for shooting a fleeing Vietnamese teenager and a Bronze Star for pulling a man into a boat.

Upon returning to the States, John Kerry personally described his decorations 'meaningless,' (which, if the Swiftees are telling the truth, explains why they meant so little to him back then)

Then Kerry renounced them and threw them over the White House fence. He denounced his service as meaningless, or worse, criminal, and denounced his comrades-in-arms -- and still in combat -- as war criminals and murderers.

His efforts on behalf of the North Vietnamese victory are recognized, along with those of Jane Fonda, in a North Vietnamese War Museum. Kerry rode his antiwarrior fame into the Senate, where he continued to lobby on behalf of the North Vietnamese government, insisting on heading the POW/MIA Committee that effectively whitewashed Hanoi and ignored thousands of pieces of evidence pointing to the existence of American POW's still held by the North Vietnamese.

Including a previously secret September 1972 Soviet document purported to be a Russian translation of a contemporary North Vietnamese document. It stated that Hanoi in September 1972 held 1,205 US prisoners, a figure exceeding by 614 the number the Communists repatriated six months later.

When one includes the other US troops taken prisoner after September 1972, the discrepancy grows to some 700. Not since April 1973, at the end of the US prisoner return called Operation Homecoming, has a missing US serviceman emerged alive from captivity in North Vietnam. (Except enemy collaborator Robert Garwood in 1979. He was later convicted of desertion)

John Kerry's record of betrayal of our former allies (not to mention our veterans) is well-documented and unassailable. Relating historical facts is not the same thing as character assassination, despite the panicked efforts of the Left to confuse the message with the messenger.

Several weeks back, CBS ran a smear story against George Bush, using forged documents to support allegations that Bush didn't complete his National Guard Service. Despite the irrelevancy of the subject, the complete collapse of the evidence, the parade of 'experts' who claimed they were misquoted or misrepresented, CBS stood behind the story for three weeks.

Tom Brokaw from NBC and Peter Jennings from ABC issued statements of solidarity with Rather and joined him in condemning those who called it a partisan setup and expressing confidence in Rather's vindication.

An investigation was ordered, and the findings were suddenly and mysteriously spiked by CBS executives until after the election.

Next week, the Sinclair Broadcasting Group plans to air a documentary called "Stolen Honor" documenting John Kerry's post Vietnam record. This is NOT a smear, unless it is also NOT true. And since the documentary will use actual history, including John Kerry's own words, together with eyewitness testimony (and not forged documents signed by dead men), it will be difficult to argue that it isn't.

Sinclair invited Senator Kerry to join in a panel discussion about the content of the documentary but the Kerry campaign refused. 18 Democratic Senators petitioned the FCC to block the Sinclair Broadcasting Group from airing it. Liberals around the country are screaming ‘unfair’ while conservatives are decrying DNC efforts at 'censorship'.

Who is right?

Since the liberal left, from John Kerry on down, are fighting tooth and nail to suppress the documentary, one has to ask oneself why? Is it because Kerry is now embarrassed about his antiwar record that he continues to claim he is proud of? Or is it because he realizes that his antiwar activities will threaten his current political ambitions? In either case, it is revealing about the true character of the man himself.

(He IS running for president. Character SHOULD count)

If John Kerry was proud of his anti-war protest participation why would a documentary spotlighting that very period of his life be so outrageous?

On the other hand, if the documentary accurately depicts the conduct that earned John Kerry a place in the Vietnam Hall of Fame, smeared the honor of an entire generation, resulted in the Communist victory that has cost so many Vietnamese Christians their lives in the years since, resulted in the abandonment of our most loyal allies, and highlights a Senate career dedicated to supporting our former enemy, isn’t that relevant information to have when choosing a wartime president?

At LEAST as relevant as whether or not George Bush made all six of his last National Guard meetings?

This is AMERICA. There has been no effort to 'censor' the onslaught of anti-Bush rhetoric -- and most of IT is built around innuendo, suggestion, misinformation, forgeries and outright lies.

That isn't a partisan assessment. One has to DIG to find 'evidence' of Bush's duplicity -- and even then, it takes a predisposition to believe it in order to swallow it.

Like, how could Bush know in advance, what NOBODY else knew about Saddam's weapons programs in order to lie about them? Nobody has explained that to me yet. What about you?

The Kerry documentary is about what actually happened, using hard facts, testimony and contemporary statements made by John Kerry himself.

And the Kerry campaign has made the perception that Iraq is a 'Vietnam-style quagmire' a central plank in their campaign platform.

It is not a smear to demonstrate from history how John Kerry would solve the 'quagmire' problem. And, for the soldiers fighting in Iraq now being set up as the next generation's 'war criminals', and for our Iraqi allies betting their lives they won't be the next Montagnards, finding out AFTER the election will be too late.

As the 19th century philosopher Santayana wisely observed; "Those who fail to learn the lessons of the past are doomed to repeat them."

We owe them -- and ourselves as a nation -- a better legacy.

Excerpted from the Omega Letter Daily Intelligence Digest, Vol: 37 Issue: 17

Additional Resources:
Omega Letter Special Report: "How To Conquer America"

Insight Magazine "Persecution in Vietnam" by Sukalaya Kenworthy

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