Secretary of State John F. Kerry has returned to Vietnam. No, it’s not to negotiate or leverage some sort of accords which would strengthen the defense of our country. Oh, no. It’s much more important than that. Sec. Kerry has returned to the scene of his “heroism” to address the “problem of Climate Change”.

Yahoo News reports that

It is the first time that Kerry has returned to the Mekong since 1968 when he served as a young U.S. naval officer in Vietnam battling Viet Cong guerillas in a conflict that earned him three Purple Hearts, a Silver Star and a Bronze Star.

“It is obviously amazing for me to be here today,” Kerry told students gathered on the banks of the Cai Nuoc river. “Decades ago, on these very waters, I was one of many who witnessed the difficult period in our shared history,” he said.

“Today on these waters I am bearing witness to how far our nations have come together and we are talking about the future. That is the way it ought to be,” he said. “As our shared journey continues, our eyes are firmly fixed on the future and not on the past.”

Dressed in casual khaki-green trousers, a blue-checked shirt and wearing sunglasses, Kerry is surrounded by aides and other officials on the boat but he is mostly quiet and introspective.

“It hasn’t changed all that much,” Kerry remarks at one point during the tour. The familiar smell of burning firewood in the air coming from villages takes him back to his time on the river.

At the small riverside community of Kien Vang, translated roughly as “the golden ant”, Kerry stops to take a walk, visiting a small convenience store where he buys candy for the local children. There he pets a dog and is reminded of a mutt he adopted while serving in Vietnam he named “VC” – short for Viet Cong.

Here he also inquires from Dang Kieu Nhan, deputy director of the Mekong Delta Development Research Institute, about water levels and how possible changes in water flows on the river will affect villagers.

His concern is not only the effects of climate change on the Mekong but also plans by China to build four more dams along the Mekong to generate power for its rising economy, projects that will have a disastrous downstream impact on Cambodia and Vietnam, according to environmental specialists.

In addition Laos is also proposing to build hydropower plants on the Mekong, while Cambodia has plants for two dams on the river.

Across the canal, Kerry addresses these developments in a speech to the students, while also pledging $17 million to a program to address the impact from potential climate changes.

“No one country has the right to deprive another country of the livelihood and eco-system and its capacity for life itself that comes with that river,” Kerry says.

“That river is a global asset, a treasure that belongs to the region, and so it is vital that we avoid dramatic changes in the water flow and sediment levels. Already we are seeing fisheries are experiencing threats to the fish stocks as a consequence of the changes taking place,” he adds.

Kerry says he will raise the issue when he next visits China “so that we can work together on it in an effective way.”

While the Main Stream Media and the rest of the Liberals are portraying Sec. Kerry as some sore of conquering hero returning to the scene of his past triumphs, there is a part of Kerry’s “Vietnam Experience” that they avoid talking about. And for good reason.

On September 19, 2005, Fox News  reported

John Kerry’s opposition to the Vietnam War led him to many places, including Paris, where he met with the North Vietnamese in 1970. Kerry said then, and says now, that the meeting was a part of an effort to learn more about U.S. POWs. But some question the propriety of a commissioned Naval officer meeting with the enemy at a time of war.

When Kerry testified before the Senate in 1971, he pushed for an immediate, unilateral withdrawal of U.S. forces. If that happened, he said he knew the North Vietnamese would return all U.S. POWs.

“I have been to Paris. I have talked with both delegations at the peace talks, that is to say the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the Provisional Revolutionary Government,” Kerry said.

Kerry referred to an eight-point withdrawal plan that was offered to the U.S. by Madame Nguyen Thi Binh, then-foreign minister of the Provisional Revolutionary Government. While on his honeymoon in Paris with his first wife Julia Thorne, Kerry met with Madame Binh at a meeting that included members of both delegations to the peace talks, according to Kerry spokesman Michael Meehan.

Explaining Kerry’s trip, Meehan said in a statement, “Senator Kerry had no role whatsoever in the Paris peace talks or negotiations. He did not engage in any negotiations and did not attend any session of the talks. Prior to his Senate testimony, he went to Paris on a private trip, where he had one brief meeting with Madame Binh and others. In an effort to find facts, he learned the status of the peace talks from their point of view and about any progress in resolving the conflict, particularly as it related to the fate of the POWs.”

Kerry’s meeting with Binh occurred while he remained a commissioned officer with the U.S. Navy. Kerry was, by then, a member of the Navy Reserve and not on active duty.

“We’ve had presidents who have served in the military. We’ve had presidents who have never served in the military. But we’ve never had an American president who met with the enemy in a time of war while a naval officer in reserve status. Inconceivable,” said John O’Neill, a key member of the anti-Kerry Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (search).

Some critics have suggested Kerry’s meeting might have violated the Uniform Code of Military Justice (search), which prohibits members of the armed services from meeting with the enemy at a time of war. Meehan told FOX News the code of military justice did not apply to inactive reserve officers and that Kerry “did nothing wrong.” Meehan also said that Kerry met with the North Vietnamese only once.

But historian Gerald Nicosia has written that Kerry met with the North Vietnamese twice.

Citing redacted FBI files, Nicosia said, “The files record that Kerry made a second trip to Paris that summer to learn how the North Vietnamese might release prisoners.”

Nicosia told FOX News that the FBI files contained a newspaper clipping about a speech Kerry gave in August 1971 saying that he had just returned from a Paris meeting with the North Vietnamese. Nicosia told FOX he discussed the article with Kerry’s authorized biographer, Douglas Brinkley, who told him that Kerry had confirmed he’d met with the Vietnamese in 1970 and 1971.

How Obama and Congress could have put this Lightweight in such a powerful position, boggles the mind. Of course, this same bunch thought that an ex-First Lady, with no Foreign Policy experience, in the form of Hillary Clinton, would make an excellent Secretary of State, too.

With a track record behind both of them consisting of Arab Spring, Benghazigate, the Syria Fiasco, and now, the Internationally -panned Iranian Agreement, as far as the position of Secretary of State is concerned, we’ve gone from Tokyo Rose to a combination of Benedict Arnold and Pee Wee Herman.

Kerry didn’t return to the scene of his war victories, He just went there to visit his “buds”.

Until He Comes,

KJ