by Wayne Boettcher
Posted: 03/14/2008

In 1971, extremists met in Detroit to form the "Winter Soldier Investigation" where alleged veterans would give testimony about supposed numerous atrocities by American troops in Vietnam. The title is based on a Thomas Paine quote about how the "summer soldier" and the "sunshine patriot" would "shrink from the service of his country" in a crisis. But these "winter" soldiers were supposedly exhibiting more courage than unnamed "summer" soldiers because of this testimony.

Many stories were spewed out by the unkempt, wild looking crowd, who said things like "..if we had a village where we'd lost people because of booby traps, we'd call in napalm and it just burns down the village and the people." Other fantastic accounts were related and dutifully filmed for a movie which was recently re-released. Events such as these helped promulgate the image of the crazed Vietnam Veteran, driven insane by the atrocities "they" made him commit.

But did the Pentagon really want our military forces to commit atrocities against civilians and enemy soldiers in Vietnam? Concerned about the "Winter Soldier" claims, official Army CID investigators tried to follow up on them. However, the claimants either retracted their statements, refused to cooperate, couldn't be found, or provided so little real evidence that no crime could be determined. Only one case was found to have any credibility at all, and it was already being investigated. Recently these Army records were uncovered and are available at the premiere "Winter Soldier" debunking website, WinterSoldier.com.

And were all the men testifying actual Vietnam Veterans? In the '80's, one veteran named B.G. Burkett who served in Vietnam had become suspicious of freaked out looking "veterans" with strange war stories that didn't make sense. Concerned that news media constantly gravitated to them rather than well-dressed, normal appearing Vietnam Veterans at veteran events, he began looking up military records. Soon he found that there were many "posers" who never actually served in Vietnam in spite of their claims and ragged fatigues. In fact, only a few were even veterans at all!

Burkett became highly skilled and well known for exposing these frauds, from homeless sign holder to famous Hollywood actor. Soon he collaborated with journalist Glenna Whitley to write the famous book "Stolen Valor" which inspired the recent "Stolen Valor Act" law. For the book, B. G. Burkett also investigated the "Winter Soldier" event, which he said was "packed with pretenders and liars."

Participating in holding this fraudulent affair were many extremist groups and radicals including John Kerry, who used his veteran status to lend credence to the accusatory mock trial of uncouth untruth. A few months later, many "anti-war" groups joined to have a march in Washington DC and Kerry gave his famous, provably false statement accusing US Vietnam serving troops of atrocities in Congress. When I asked an expert why this wasn't perjury, he explained that John Kerry was conveniently not sworn in at the time. Later, however, Kerry was elected as a US Senator and even ran for President.

Many thought that propaganda shows such as these could never happen in today's world, because, while liberal news media might promulgate war atrocity hoaxes by disgruntled veterans and veteran pretenders, talk radio shows and the internet would soon disprove them. The shame of being exposed would keep liberals liars from ever trying this again, many think. The problem with that theory is this: It's based on people like this having some sort of shame!

In fact they don't seem to have any, and probably don't care if they are exposed. As long as some people consider their claims (and a number of individuals will believe anything) their purpose of discrediting American war conduct will have some effect. And in fact a new "Winter Soldier" hoax is planned for March 13-16, 2008, called "Winter Soldier II."

Who are these people, anyway? Patriotic veterans who believe in the America way of life? Hardly. Radical holdouts from the previous "Winter Soldier" sponsor group Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) are helping a new radical group, Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) as they have their own marches, fake testimony, press conferences and such. While the new crowd is much smaller (less fakers, probably) their hoax may still have an effect thanks to veteran status.

While serving in our Armed Forces is laudable, it doesn't automatically grant someone the right to lie unchallenged about troop atrocities. If anything, the betrayal is much worse than when a clueless Communist college coed claims crimes are committed. Across the nation and especially in Washington DC, troop support events are being held to counter "Winter Soldier II" and left-wing "anti-war" protests.

Let's get active in our communities, find a local troop support rally (or start one if necessary) and call your friends and neighbors to show up and let our troops know we don't believe the lies. We can do a lot to help our troops on the home front. Let's publicly challenge the lies and stand up for our troops - and America!

Wayne Boettcher is the head of AmericanProtest.net

Related Links:

WinterSoldier.com
http://www.wintersoldier.com
Stolen Valor
http://www.stolenvalor.com
DiscoverTheNetworks.org Report on VVAW
http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/groupProfile.asp?grpid=6351
DiscoverTheNetworks.org Report on IVAW
http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/groupProfile.asp?grpid=7305
Video - Confronting John Kerry about Winter Soldier II - Young America's Foundation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1ItPN9_79U
Iraq Veterans Against the War use walk along Lancaster Avenue to get their word out. - by Jeff Cobb
http://tinyurl.com/2h3fax