An activist against global jihad who also helped lead the effort during the 2004 presidential campaign to expose John Kerry's war record is asking Congress members if they are willing to trust the man who more than 40 years ago assured the Senate that pulling out of Vietnam posed a minimal threat to the people left behind.
Obama's chief negotiator in the P5+1 nuclear agreement with Iran – the current secretary of state – not only falsely testified to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1971 that U.S. soldiers were regularly torturing civilians, he essentially insisted the Vietnamese people saw little difference between living under communism and in free state, charged Jeffrey M. Epstein, who helped lead the group Vietnam Vets for Truth a decade ago, in an open letter to Congress this week.
Epstein points out that Kerry estimated in this 1971 testimony there might be 2,000 or 3,000 people who would feel threatened enough to leave Vietnam if the communists took over, because they would be specifically targeted for assassination.
"Well, we all know how well that worked out," wrote Epstein, the founder of the counter-jihad activist group America's Truth Forum.
When North Vietnam took over South Vietnam in 1975, an estimated 1.5 to 2 million people risked drowning or starvation by setting out in a boat or makeshift watercraft. More than a quarter million were lost at sea, and others were known to have been murdered, raped and tortured by pirates. The communists then took over Laos, Cambodia and Thailand, where millions more were murdered.
"Before casting your votes, please consider whether Kerry is someone that you would trust with the lives of America's children," Epstein wrote.
As it reconvenes this week after the summer recess, Congress is preparing to vote on the controversial agreement with Iran, which is opposed by a majority of Americans, according to opinion polls. A Pew Research Center survey announced Tuesday found only 21 percent of Americans in favor of the deal.
In 2004, Epstein's group publicized a photo of Kerry displayed in a Ho Chi Minh City museum honoring Vietnam war protesters. The display showed Kerry being greeted by the general secretary of the Communist Party, Comrade Do Muoi.
Epstein’s group said at the time that the exhibit refuted Kerry’s insistence his anti-war protests did not render support to the enemy in time of war.
“The Vietnamese communists clearly feel that the American anti-war protesters were a very important force in undermining support in the United States for American war efforts, a force that contributed materially to ultimate communist victory in 1975,” the group said.
Vietnam Vets for the Truth was established to organize a rally on Capitol Hill in 2004 publicizing “Kerry’s lies” during the “Winter Soldier” hearings in the U.S. Senate in 1971.
Epstein also had a role in the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth effort against Kerry during the 2004 campaign, which is widely regarded as a decisive factor in Kerry's loss to President George W. Bush.
In his letter to Congress this week, Epstein says he is writing simply as "a patriotic citizen who's driven by an inner burning passion to make certain that future generations of Americans enjoy the same rights and opportunities that have been cherished since the founding of our beloved nation."
He warns Congress members that "the outcome of your efforts will determine whether a sworn enemy of the United States, the terrorist Republic of Iran, will be granted a nuclear arsenal."
Epstein says "history will not look favorably" upon Congress members "who chose party loyalty and/or political expediency over national security, betrayal over honor, deceit over honesty and self-interest over integrity."