[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 88 (Wednesday, June 23, 2004)]
[House]
[Pages H4768-H4769]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           JOHN KERRY SHOULD APOLOGIZE FOR VIETNAM TESTIMONY

  (Mr. PITTS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, this week, the Vietnamese Government has 
weighed in on the Iraqi prison scandal, but the official Communist 
Vietnamese news agency is not citing the Geneva Conventions or the 
U.N.; it is citing

[[Page H4769]]

testimony given by John Kerry in 1971 in condemning our troops.
  Mr. Kerry testified that American soldiers from top to bottom 
committed human rights violations, ``cutting off ears, murder, rape, 
destruction,'' et cetera. The problem is, he relied on reports by a 
group of supposed Vietnam veterans who were not what they seemed. They 
claimed to be former Vietnam veterans. They were not. They were frauds. 
They were out only to discredit the military and our country.
  But John Kerry never repudiated or apologized for his statements. 
Instead, he has excused his behavior to youth. Now his misleading, 
inaccurate, hateful words are being used by a government with an 
atrocious human rights record against the United States.
  That was a difficult time in our history. Passion and tensions were 
high. Whatever one's opinion of Vietnam, our troops suffered because of 
this kind of false witness to their efforts in Vietnam; and as a 
Vietnam veteran, I think Mr. Kerry should apologize once and for all 
and disavow those statements as false before other nations decide to 
use them.

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