Connecticut Attorney General Blumenthal and Vietnam lie

 

At a ceremony honoring veterans and senior citizens who sent presents to soldiers overseas, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut rose and spoke of an earlier time in his life or maybe someone else's life.

"We have learned something important since the days that I served in Vietnam," Mr. Blumenthal said to the group gathered in Norwalk in March 2008. "And you exemplify it. Whatever we think about the war, whatever we call it — Afghanistan or Iraq — we owe our military men and women unconditional support."

There was one problem: Mr. Blumenthal, a Democrat now running for the United States Senate, never served in Vietnam, he never stepped foot onto Vietnamese soil. He obtained at least five military deferments from 1965 to 1970 and took repeated steps that enabled him to avoid going to war, according to records. (I would like it to be noted, if you don't want to go to war, and you can legally get out of going, go for it, however if you don't have the stones to fight don't lie about years later, excuse me I'm sorry, don't misspeak about it later). Now back to the deferments they allowed Mr. Blumenthal to complete his studies at Harvard; pursue a graduate fellowship in England; serve as a special assistant to The Washington Post's publisher, Katharine Graham; and ultimately take a job in the Nixon White House. Mr. Blumenthal seems like a smart man, a man who would remember being under fire.

Mr. Blumenthal in his "apology" stated: "Now on a few occasions I have misspoken about my service, and I regret that, and I take full responsibility," Blumenthal said. (It's real easy to forget if you have been shot at or not) Now here is the kicker, in his closing remarks he said "But I will not allow anyone to take a few misplaced words and impugn my record of service to our country." This has not been a few misplaced words: In 2003, he addressed a rally in Bridgeport, where about 100 military families gathered to express support for American troops overseas. "When we returned, we saw nothing like this," Mr. Blumenthal said. "Let us do better by this generation of men and women."

The New Haven Register on July 20, 2006, described him as "a veteran of the Vietnam War," and on April 6, 2007, said that the attorney general had "served in the Marines in Vietnam." On May 26, 2009, The Connecticut Post, a Bridgeport newspaper that is the state's third-largest daily, described Mr. Blumenthal as "a Vietnam veteran." The Shelton Weekly reported on May 23, 2008, that Mr. Blumenthal "was met with applause when he spoke about his experience as a Marine sergeant in Vietnam."

And the idea that he served in Vietnam has become such an accepted part of his public biography that when a national outlet, Slate magazine, produced a profile of Mr. Blumenthal in 2000, it said he had "enlisted in the Marines rather than duck the Vietnam draft."

It does not appear that Mr. Blumenthal ever sought to correct those mistakes.

Where should Richard Blumenthal start apologizing?

Lets start with the 2,594,000 young Americans who actually did serve in Vietnam, rather than claiming, as Blumenthal did, that "I served in Vietnam''

Unquestionably to the 58,220 American war dead and the 1,741 American troops who disappeared in Vietnam and whose remains were never found.

And to the 153,303 Americans who were wounded in Vietnam, many of whom came home to struggle with disability and depression for the rest of their lives.

I'm Sorry Mr. Blumenthal. Being in a war is a searing experience; it is not something that is easily misspoken about. Combat veterans know when they've been under fire. People who don't go to combat know they missed that experience. You fought or you didn't, and the difference is not ever erased, even if 40 years have passed.