Did you catch the Cavett Show?

Monday night after teaching, I came home and, armed with a glass of wine, turned on the television. On C-Span, I found this fascinating broadcast of the Dick Cavett Show from June 30, 1971. This piqued my interest for two reasons. First, I was one day old on June 30, 1971. Second, the guests were two spokesmen for Vietnam Veterans' groups: John O'Neill for Vietnam Veterans for a Just Peace, and one John Kerry for Vietnam Veterans Against the War.

Kerry sounded more Bostonian-Harvard than ever, much more so than the Americanese he speaks today. O'Neill, looking rather like Tom Wolfe in a white linen suit, backed the Nixon policy of Vietnamization and warned ominously that if the US abruptly pulled out and cut ties with South Vietnam, a bloodbath would ensue as the North descended on its vulnerable pro-American enemy. Kerry discounted the worry, seeing no evidence the North would do such a thing, urging withdrawl ASAP.

Two things struck me. Kerry was appallingly wrong on the result of an American pullout, ignoring the history of North Vietnamese actions back to the 1950s (200,000 died in mass executions of political enemies from 1954 to 1956, to say nothing of the terrorism in the South from 1956 on). One wonders if Kerry was ashamed of his naivete looking on events like the Killing Fields between 1975 and 1980. Somehow I doubt it. Does it disturb anyone (he asks rhetorically) that John Kerry, extrapolating military and diplomatic facts from a four month tour of duty, shamefully misjudged the Vietnam War and the historical precedents hinting at what would happen after US and RSV defeat? Based on such enormous misjudgments and ignorance of history, why should we trust him today as he accuses President Bush of being wrong on Iraq?

Where is John O'Neill today? Apparently he is an attorney living in Texas and keeps out of contemporary politics. In fact, he distanced himself from politics after the fall of Saigon in 1975, disgusted at that result. But this man needs to speak out. A profile of O'Neill, perhaps titled "The Other Vietnam Vet," would be enormously useful in clearing the air about the War and Kerry's take. He spoke out in 1971 to discredit Kerry the first time, and he needs to speak out in 2004 to discredit Kerry's perspective again. The stakes are high.

Frank Luntz and his merry pollsters should study the repercussions of a new Bush ad that shows clips of Kerry's Vietnam statements on the Cavett Show, and then juxtaposes clips of the Killing Fields and statistics of the dead under dictatorial communist Vietnam.

John Kerry: Wrong on Vietnam, Wrong on Iraq, Wrong for America

Oh yeah.