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The Life of John Kerry Part II: From Vietnam Hero to Nixon's
Nightmare As An Antiwar Veteran, From Iran-Contra Investigator
To A Run For The Presidency
A Profile of Wesley Clark: From Little Rock To Four-Star
General To Presidential Candidate
“You Don't Have To Be A Slave To Some Of These TelevisionStations
That Kind Of Distort The News” – Tim Robbins On
Media and War
8:01-8:06 Headlines
8:06-8:07 One Minute Music Break
8:07-8:20 The Life of John Kerry Part II: From Vietnam
Hero to Nixon's Nightmare As An Antiwar Veteran, From Iran-Contra
Investigator To A Run For The Presidency
INTRO: The second part of our look at the life of the Massachusetts
senator and Democratic presidential candidate with Michael
Kranish, reporter for the Boston Globe, who co-authored an
extensive seven part series on John Kerry for the Globe.
Senator John Kerry is keeping up the momentum coming off
his back-to-back wins in Iowa and New Hampshire. He picked
up key endorsements in Missouri and South Carolina - two of
the seven states with the most delegates up for grabs this
coming Tuesday.
In Missouri two former senators, Jean Carnahan and Thomas
Eagleton endorsed his campaign and in South Carolina Kerry
gained the support of Rep. James Clyburn, the state's top
African American officeholder and a former backer of Rep.
Richard Gephardt, who quit the race for the presidential nomination
after the Iowa caucuses.
Today, Part II of our look at the Massachusetts Senator John
Kerry. Yesterday we spoke about Kerry’s formative years.
His father was a foreign-service officer and his mother was
a member of the aristocratic Forbes family. He attended Swiss
boarding school while his father was stationed in Berlin and
was later sent to boarding school in St. Paul's in New Hampshire
when he was 13 years old.
He later attended Yale University where he was inducted into
the university’s secret Skull and Bones society - an
exclusive club in which just 15 Yale men are chosen each year.
President Bush is also a member of Skull and Bones.
After graduating Yale in 1966, John Kerry volunteered for
the Navy. In Vietnam he served as the captain of a small "swift
boat," ferrying troops up the rivers of the Mekong Delta.
He was awarded with multiple honors in the war, including
three Purple Hearts, a Bronze Star, and a Silver Star for
chasing down an enemy combatant with a rocket launcher. He
retuned from the war to join the growing antiwar movement,
leading protests with Vietnam Veterans Against the War –
becoming Nixon’s worst nightmare as an antiwar veteran.
Kerry testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
where he notably said, "How do you ask a man to be the
last man to die in Vietnam? How do you ask a man to be the
last man to die for a mistake?"
- Michael Kranish, reporter for the Boston Globe. He co-authored
a seven part series on Senator John Kerry for the Globe.
He is recently back from New Hampshire where he was covering
the Democratic primary. He joins us on the phone from Washington
DC.
Link: www.boston.com/globe/nation/packages/kerry
8:20-8:21 One Minute Music Break
8:21-8:30 John Kerry Part II CONT’D
8:30-8:40 A Profile of Wesley Clark: From Little
Rock To Four-Star General To Presidential Candidate
INTRO: We examine the life of Gen. Wesley Clark, the former
Supreme Allied Commander of NATO and the man who led the 78-day
bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999 and the first four-star general
in history to run for President as a Democrat.
Reporter Michael Kranish of the Boston Globe wrote a two-part
series profiling Wesley Clark. This is an excerpt:
‘During more than three decades in the Army, Clark
rose to the rank of four-star general and Supreme Allied Commander
of NATO. He was mostly in a classroom, or a war room, or serving
as a commander at posts ranging from Colorado to Texas to
Germany. He was not on the battlefield during the first Gulf
War, although he trained troops for that conflict.
‘Clark draws passion from both supporters and detractors
in the military. He is either the most brilliant man they
have ever known, or the most arrogant, or both. He is "the
greatest thing since sex, or you detest him," in the
colorful observance of Rick Brown, an admirer and superior
officer in Vietnam.
‘"Generically, the Army has a large number of
people who don't like smart folks, or [people] perceived to
be smarter than they," said Lionel Ingram, a West Point
friend who was also among the brightest in his class. "They
don't like people who are successful. The Army does have to
some degree, among some people, an anti-intellectual bias."
‘As Clark pursues the presidency of the United States
- the first elective office he has sought - he is without
a voting record, and his political leanings have ranged from
being a Nixon-supporting hawk to a Clinton-like internationalist
and opponent of the Iraq war who earlier said he "probably"
would have voted to give President Bush the authority to go
to war. From the age of 14, Clark's ambition was to be a US
general; his four stars attest to his success, just as his
sudden retirement in 2000 reveals the way fellow officers
maneuvered - some say conspired - to oust him.’
8:41-8:58 “You Don't Have To Be A Slave To
Some Of These TelevisionStations That Kind Of Distort The
News” – Tim Robbins On Media and War
INTRO: Actor, writer, director and activist Tim Robbins
joins us in our firehouse studios to talk about “Embedded,”
a satirical play about U.S. media coverage of the Iraq war.
Robbins recently received a Golden Globe and an Academy Award
nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in
“Mystic River.”
Bull Durham. Jacob's Ladder. Bob Roberts. Short Cuts. The
Hudsucker Proxy. The Shawshank Redemption. Dead Man Walking.
Cradle Will Rock.
These are just some of the films that have made Tim Robbins
one of the biggest stars in Hollywood over the past decade.
His latest performance in “Mystic River” earned
him a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting
Actor.
Robbins, and his longtime partner Susan Sarandon, have become
two of the leading Hollywood figures in the antiwar movement.
They have both been vocal in their opposition to the U.S.
invasion and occupation of Iraq and the corporate media’s
coverage of the war.
Robbins latest project is writing and directing a play entitled
“Embedded” about journalists and U.S. military
personnel during the invasion of an oil-rich rogue state named
Gomorrah ruled by a "butcher of Babylon." One review
says the play “skewers cynical embedded journalists,
scheming government officials, a show-tune singing colonel,
and the media's insatiable desire for heroes."
The production is from The Actors' Gang, a company Robbins
runs in Los Angeles and where Embedded opened last November.
It opens in New York on Feb. 24 at the Public Theater.
- Tim Robbins, actor and activist. His latest performance
in “Mystic River” earned him a Golden Globe
and an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. His latest
project is play "Embedded," about U.S. media coverage
of the Iraq war. He is directing the play but not acting
in it. “Embedded” opens Feb. 24 at the Public
Theater in New York.
8:58-8:59 Outro and Credits
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Mike Burke, Sharif Abdel Kouddous,
Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press, Jeremy Scahill and Parvez Sharma.
Mike Di Filippo is our engineer.
Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Joe Murgio, John Randolph,
Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Eric Rweyemamu,
Jenny Filipazzo and Isis Phillips.
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