The Communist Party of The U.S. Has Endorsed John Kerry and the Vietnamese Communists Have Enshrined Kerry in One of Their Museums-Fiction! & Truth!
Summary of eRumor:
The eRumor says that the Communist Party of the U.S. has endorsed John Kerry.
It quotes a letter from a Communist Party official in Georgia who said the party supports John Kerry and regards the defeat of George Bush to be the single most important issue in November.
It also says that one of Kerry’s campaign themes, “Let America Be America Again”, is borrowed from a Communist poet, and that John Kerry is in “The Hanoi Hall of Fame” in Vietnam.
The Truth:
The Communist Party of the United States is not running a candidate for president this year.
It’s official position regarding the candidates is that the party is not endorsing any of them.
It is however, conducting a strong campaign to defeat President Bush.
Since the writer of this eRumor did not identify himself or herself, it’s hearsay as to whether a Communist official from Georgia said the party supported Kerry.
Regarding John Kerry’s picture appearing in a museum in Vietnam, that story is true.
There is a facility in Ho Chi Minh City that is called “The Vietnamese Communist War Remnants Museum.”
A Conservative group called Vietnam Vets for Truth sent a photographer to the museum In June, 2004 to document the presence of the picture and to confirm that it was still on display.
Kerry critics say it shows that Kerry is being honored by the Communist Vietnamese.
Some reports say the picture is in a portion of the museum that honors whose who helped the communists achieve victory in Vietnam.
Kerry supporters say the picture is not from Kerry’s anti-war years but shows him as a member of a delegation of Americans who were in Vietnam because of the issue of American prisoners of war and missing in action.
Click here for that page.
Regarding Kerry’s quoting poet Langston Hughes, that is also true.
In many of Kerry speeches he has used the phrase “Let America be America again” and in some of them, such a speech on the anniversary of the famous Brown Versus the Board of Education court decision, he’s said it’s a quote from Langston Hughes.
Hughes was never officially a member of the Communist Party, but was a socialist columnist whose articles frequently appeared in publications of the Communist Party USA.
Last updated 10/21/04