> murdered a wounded child?
>
O'Neill continues: "Kerry's boat moved slightly
downstream and was struck by a rocket-propelled
grenade. . . .A young Viet Cong in a loincloth popped
out of a hole, clutching a grenade launcher, which may
or may not have been loaded. . . Tom Belodeau, a
forward gunner, shot the Viet Cong with an M-60
machine gun in the leg as he fled. . . . Kerry and
Medeiros (who had many troops in their boat) took off,
perhaps with others, and followed the young Viet Cong
and shot him in the back, behind a lean to."
O'Neill concludes "Whether Kerry's dispatching of a
fleeing, wounded, armed or unarmed teenage enemy was
in accordance with the customs of war, it is very
clear that many Vietnam veterans and most Swiftees do
not consider this action to be the stuff of which
medals of any kind are awarded; nor would it even be a
good story if told in the cold details of reality.
There is no indication that Kerry ever reported that
the Viet Cong was wounded and fleeing when dispatched.
Likewise, the citation simply ignores the presence of
the soldiers and advisors who actually 'captured the
enemy weapons' and routed the Viet Cong. . . . [and]
that Kerry attacked a 'numerically superior force in
the face of intense fire' is simply false. There was
little or no fire after Kerry followed the plan. . . .
The lone, wounded, fleeing young Viet Cong in a
loincloth was hardly a force superior to the heavily
armed Swift Boat and its crew and the soldiers carried aboard."
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