Medal of Honor Recipient Colonel Bud Day Takes On Anti-War Activists

The recent anti-war rally was a first for many protestors.  Others, like folk singer Joan Baez, simply dusted off their peace shirts for their latest march on Washington.  And 30 years after garnering the nick-name “Hanoi Jane,” Jane Fonda is back to take a stand against the War in Iraq.

Recently, Colonel George E. “Bud” Day, the nation’s most highly decorated soldier since General Douglas MacArthur, joined the Center for Individual Freedom’s Senior Vice President and Corporate Counsel Renee Giachino to discuss Jane Fonda’s “Peace Tour” and how the actions of some activists continue to undermine U.S. foreign policy.

What follows are excerpts from the interview for the program “Your Turn — Meeting Nonsense with Common Sense” that aired on WEBY 1330 AM, Northwest Florida’s Talk Radio.

GIACHINO:  It is now my pleasure to welcome to the program Colonel George E. “Bud” Day.  Colonel Day is the Director and President of the Vietnam Veterans Legacy Foundation.  He is a military veteran of World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War, and he is the most highly decorated living Air Force combat veteran in the United States.

Colonel Day was shot down over North Vietnam on August 26, 1967, and he spent more than five years as a Prisoner of War.  In addition, Colonel Day was the only POW to escape from prison in North Vietnam, only to be recaptured by the North Vietnamese in the South.  He is also credited with living through the first “no chute” bailout from a burning jet fighter over England in 1955.  Colonel Day has received nearly 70 military decorations and awards, more than 50 of which are for combat valor, the most notable being the Medal of Honor.

It is our extreme pleasure to have you on the program Colonel Day.

DAY:  Good afternoon.

GIACHINO:  Am I correct that you are in Ft.WaltonBeach?

DAY:  Yes, I am.

GIACHINO:  That’s wonderful.  It is so nice to have someone in your company here in the area — in Northwest Florida.

Please tell us about the Vietnam Veterans Legacy Foundation.

DAY:  The Legacy Foundation was created by a group of Vietnam combat veterans and POWs with the specific idea of turning around the image of the Vietnam veteran that had been created by Jane Fonda, John Kerry — some of those left-wing people who portrayed our group as a bunch of baby killers and dope addicts.  We were tired of that and decided that it was time for us to take a stand on that issue.

GIACHINO:  What are some of the activities and events that you have planned?

DAY:  We are just recently organized and we are in the process of collecting a significant amount of data — both the false and the true — in order to put together some databases that can be used for news articles and editorials, for some sort of documentary that will set the record straight.  As it stands now, we looked at several archives of Vietnam material and we are collating that and putting it together and trying to sort out what is the most useful and how to get at it.

We have also set up a Vietnam veterans page where they can go to VVLF to see what is current with veterans’ news and see if they are interested in joining.

GIACHINO:  What is the website?  Is it www.vvlf.org?

DAY:  Yes, it is vvlf.org.

GIACHINO:  So people who want to learn more about the Vietnam Veterans Legacy Foundation and how they can help, or if they want more information, they can visit the website at www.vvlf.org.

You talked about the Internet and putting together databases and using the Internet as one of the mediums to try to get out this information that the public needs to hear.  Do you have any plans to do independent films or documentaries to spread the word, as well?

DAY:  Yes, we have already worked with Carlton Sherwood who produced the film “A Stolen Honor” that was used in the 2004 election.  That documentary is still available and we are looking at the idea of expanding that whole theme a little bit.  Right now the Left is bringing back out a film that was done by Kerry and his supporters called “Winter Soldier” and they have given that a little play in theaters, and we are looking at trying to get the Lincoln Center and others who have agreed to use the left-wing stuff to let us put on “Stolen Honor” with some POW veteran speakers.

So we will be hopefully expanding that film or at least creating something new but very similar.

GIACHINO:  It is my understanding that the organization does plan to be a national repository for Vietnam related materials and information and records.  Are you looking for other Vietnam veterans to send you other information?  Are you looking for copies of letters that were sent home?  How are you going about collecting all of this information?

DAY:  To be straightforward with you, we are still doing baby steps.  The website gets a huge amount of hits.  Some who pursue that a little further, obviously we would be glad to get anything that we think would support the proposition that the Vietnam War was another war in which Americans participated very well, and so any of the material that would contribute to that in some way we would be glad to look at it.

Our problem right now is that we have a fairly small staff and we already have mined two of the major Vietnam veteran libraries and so we are in the process of trying to sort out of that material what is the most useable for either film or documentary use.

GIACHINO:  It sounds like a tremendous effort, but one that will be well worth it.

I would like to turn the focus now to Jane Fonda’s “Peace Tour.”  As many know, she has been in the news lately — something I am certain has renewed the anger of many Vietnam veterans.  I read that she was conducting a cross-country bus tour, this time to call for an end to the War in Iraq.

Colonel Day, can you give us your thoughts about Ms. Fonda’s latest political endeavor that I believe is designed to undermine our U.S. soldiers’ efforts overseas now.

DAY:  It is designed to once again undermine an effort that has great importance to the entire world.  It is important that we see an independent Iraq in the center of that Arab culture where some very strong steps have already been taken.  There is a re-elected Afghan government, the dictator has basically been run out of Lebanon and we have Qadhafi who has decided that he will be more of a team player and less of a renegade.  So some very important things have been happening there.  To include the attacks by al Qaeda on the Saudis — those attacks I think are really pretty unproductive and, coupled with these murders that happened in Britain, bring to focus the importance of success in Iraq because the people who we are fighting in Iraq are the people who would prefer to be doing a lot of destruction in the United States and in Europe.

I cannot imagine what motivates this goofy woman.  Maybe she has been standing back there sucking up too much of the fumes from that vegetable oil engine.

GIACHINO:  There is some thought out there that maybe she is taking a stand again because she has a new book out.  Ms. Fonda claims that she has not taken a stand on the issue of war since Vietnam.  So you question why she is out there again.  I don’t think it is that Ted Turner was able to silence her for all those years.  I think perhaps the timing is just too coincidental with her new autobiography My Life So Far.  Wouldn’t you agree?

DAY:  I agree with that, and it is not a very good book.  As a result, it is not selling, and I think there is also something squirrelly about Jane where she has to drag all of her dirty linen out to show everybody.  I don’t know if that is just for shock value or if it is an attempt to explain herself, but to go into all this detail about how her father rejected her and how she is out trolling for ladies of the night to sleep in bed with her and her husband.  It is all so bizarre that you have to wonder whether all of her marbles are still in the bag.

GIACHINO:  There are a lot of Vietnam veterans who feel that Fonda committed treason when she took her trip to Hanoi and met with the North Vietnamese.  Do you agree with that?

DAY:  Yes, I am one of those.  I think her actions were every bit as treasonous as those of Tokyo Rose who was tried and convicted.  There really was no difference between what Fonda did and others who were found guilty of treason — those who worked on the battlefield caused a lot of Americans to get killed who might not have been killed but for those treacherous activities.

GIACHINO:  She says, and I think it may be in that book – and I must confess that I have not read her book, nor do I think I will unless I find it at a garage sale for about 50 cents.  Anyway, Fonda says that she regrets the pain that she caused Vietnam veterans by being photographed peering through the sites of an enemy anti-aircraft gun.  She claims she was young, only 34, and easily manipulated.  She also claims to have apologized. 

Colonel Day, do you think she has formally apologized to the veterans, and do you think the apology has been accepted by many?

DAY:  No, she never did apologize.  I remember Barbara Walters had her on her show — this has been quite a few years ago — and with the pitch that Jane was going to step up and apologize, and she never did.  You know what an apology would amount to would be telling the public that she made a stupid mistake, that it is wrong to work against your government, that she is humiliated about it and embarrassed that she would have done wrong to her country.  Those are the types of words that are necessary to create an apology.

I do not recall exactly what she said, but she never really addressed the idea that she was sorry and that she was apologizing.  She just said some wimpy little remark about having been foolish back on the Barbara Walters Show.  It was not an apology then, and it is not an apology now.

GIACHINO:  I understand that you spent more than five years as a prisoner of war.  Were you a POW at the time that Jane was in Vietnam?

DAY:  Yes, I was.  She was there in 1972, specifically claiming that we were going to be bombing all of the dikes and flooding all of North Vietnam.  This was absolute baloney.  It was not rainy season.  We could have bombed every dike in North Vietnam and not caused a single death because it was not monsoon season.  That was three or four months before.  She is not only nutty, she is a liar.  The reason she was there was to help the North Vietnamese, and she did.

GIACHINO:  Have you ever met her?

DAY:  No.  I came very close to meeting her.  I was at a National Press Club program and Bob Novak was the emcee.  Jane and her husband were in the same hotel, on the same floor in a different series of rooms, addressing some people.  This would have been about 1973 or 1974, shortly after the war.  So Novak proposed that we debate.  So I said, “bring her on.”  They sent an emissary to the room to invite her and her husband to debate and they refused.

GIACHINO:  I read that while she was in Vietnam at least ten POWs surreptitiously gave her notes that they asked to have taken back to their family members and Jane promised that she would do that.  But in fact she turned them over to the enemy.

Are you aware of that story and do you know whether it is true?

DAY:  Yes, I have heard that story and to the best of my knowledge it is not true.  But to be straightforward with you, I cannot tell you that it is not true.

GIACHINO:  Colonel Day, is it okay if we take calls?

DAY:  Sure.

GIACHINO:  Go ahead caller, it’s your turn.

CALLER:  I have a question and a comment.  Colonel, it is a distinct privilege to have the opportunity to hear you and to talk with you.  You are an Air Force veteran from the ’60s and you have done a whole lot of stuff.  I don’t know whether you are up to speed on all that he has done, Renee, for the veterans over the past years?

GIACHINO:  And what he continues to do.

CALLER:  That’s right.  I had no idea of the latest thing that he has going on.  It is just outstanding.  I am glad to hear you on the air and to hear about your latest project.  I just don’t know where you get the energy from to continue on with all of this after the last fight that you had?

DAY:  Well, good afternoon and thank you for the call.  I have been eating my Wheaties.

CALLER:  I have a suggestion for the Hanoi Jane Tour.  Maybe she would like to bring her bus tour here to Baghdad, Florida, and maybe the Colonel would like to come over here and maybe we could get her to see her ways.  What do you think of that Colonel?

DAY:  I think it is a great idea, but I think she is only going to go to friendly territory.  Her home spot will be The New York Times or CBS.

CALLER:  I agree.  Again, Colonel, my hats off to you and I appreciate all that you have done, all that you have tried to do and all that you continue to do for the veterans — and it is not just Air Force veterans, it is veterans at-large.  Renee, there is a whole lot more to this man.  There is a large story and maybe you could get him to expound on that.

GIACHINO:  Well, if he would, I would certainly enjoy hearing more about that.  You are in fact the most highly decorated living combat Air Force veteran in the U.S.  If you don’t mind spending just a couple of minutes telling us a little more about you.  I know that you are a practicing attorney and you have continued to help veterans in your law practice, as well.

DAY:  That’s right.  The most notable success I had in that area was successfully suing the government over the issue of taking away the medical care of the World War II and Korean retired veterans.  The Clinton Administration kicked us out of military hospitals, and I sued them over that issue.  And we prevailed up in the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals on that issue.  And we also organized a group called Class Act and we got a lot of veterans involved and we wound up getting a bill passed called “Keep the Promise to World War II and Korean Vets” which got us care again in military hospitals or civilian hospitals.

GIACHINO:  That is another wonderful effort.  Is there a biography, or have you written an autobiography about your life?

DAY:  I have two books out, one of which is out of print that is called Return of Honor.  And then I have a current book that is on the market that is called Duty, Honor, and Country.  And I have a website at colbudday.com.  And that has a copy of my bio if people are interested and if they are interested in buying the book through the Web.

GIACHINO:  As the caller aptly noted, you have done a lot for a lot of Vietnam veterans.  What relevance do you think this new organization, the Vietnam Veterans Legacy Foundation, could have on soldiers who are fighting the current war for us?

DAY:  I think it will have an impact.  These young kids who are over there carrying the load right now are much like we were when we went off to World War II.  They are very young and fighting under just terrible conditions.  It is important for them to know that there are organizations and people back home who support them.  That is what makes the work of Jane Fonda and those people who denigrate the importance of freedom so wrong.  They need to know that there are a lot of strong voices back here in America saying that we support them on the battlefield.  And I think that is the most important message that we can get out.

We have had some of our members in Iraq already who have been visiting some of the Marines there and in Afghanistan.  We have already had some impact, and I am hoping that we can keep the kids informed and let them know that we stand behind them.

GIACHINO:  What can the listeners do to help the Vietnam Veterans Legacy Foundation?

DAY:  If they could pull up the site and look at the information that we have posted there.  We will have some indexes there that will hopefully help them.  If they have something to contribute, we hope they will let us know so we can look at it to consider putting it in our archives.  We also are looking for help across the country.  We would hope that somewhere down the stream we could be like the Legion and be organized enough to have groups around the country that hold meetings and pass the good word out about the Vietnam War.

GIACHINO:  I would sure be happy to have you on regularly to talk about this.  It has been our pleasure.

I assume, as well, that if some of your goal is to create independent films, documentaries and provide exhibits and visual materials in museums and libraries, that you will be looking for monetary contributions as well.

DAY:  Obviously, we would be happy to have people help us out.  We are a 501(c) corporation so the contributions are tax deductible.  We would be absolutely thrilled if people are able to forward us some cash contributions.

GIACHINO:  Again, to learn more about the organization visit its website at vvlf.org.  And to learn more about Colonel Bud Day, please visit his website at colbudday.com.  And I think we all need to go out and buy his book, Duty, Honor, and Country.

I’d like to just finish out this interview by offering to the listeners a quote that you said so that we can just kind of sum this up.  Colonel Day has said that the “false history of Vietnam has been used to demoralize our troops and in combat, undermine the public's confidence in U.S. foreign policy and weaken our national security. Radical leftists such as Jane Fonda lied about the war 35 years ago, and are still lying about it today. The goal of the [Vietnam Veterans Legacy Foundation] is to continue the work of countering more than three decades of misinformation and propaganda, and to set the record straight.”

Thank you, Colonel Bud Day, for everything that you have done and everything that you continue to do.  We greatly appreciate all of your efforts.

DAY:  God bless you, and thank you for the opportunity to speak.

GIACHINO:  Thank you and I hope you will join us again sometime soon.