So, I guess you think in less than half a tour on a boat, Kerry was witness to all this? Or do you think he listened to rumors and spouted it as fact?
Do you think all the soldiers in the 10 years we were there did this?
No, but it did happen and it happened much more than we will ever know.
What you list were very isolated and rare instances, but Kerry painted it as if it was commonplace. To do so was an extreme disservice to the good men who served there.
There were many instances, most of which we will never know about.
I am pretty sure I am safe in saying, Kerry didn't witness any of these types of incidents.
Kerry was there representing a group and relaying testimony.
"...I am not here as John Kerry. I am here as one member of the group of 1,000 which is a small representation of a very much larger group of veterans in this country, and were it possible for all of them to sit at this table they would be here and have the same kind of testimony...."
"I would like to talk, representing all those veterans, and say that several months ago in Detroit, we had an investigation at which over 150 honorably discharged and many very highly decorated veterans testified to war crimes committed in Southeast Asia, not isolated incidents but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command...."
Here, try googling this...Vietnam War Crimes Working Group Files. They detail 320 alleged incidents that were substantiated by United States Army investigators — not including the 1968 My Lai Massacre. Most of the alleged incidents happened from '67 to '72, so we're looking at 5 incidents a month, for 5 years. I wouldn't call that "very isolated and rare instances", I'd call that way to many.