MA-05: Vietnam Veterans Protest Clinton Visit for Tsongas
By EaBo-Clipper Posted in Archived — Comments (1) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
The Merrimack Valley Vietnam Veterans are fuming about Niki Tsongas' use of the Lowell [Veterans'] Memorial Auditorium to host Bill Clinton for a fundraiser. Robert Cronin the founder of the organization told the Lowell Sun:
he spent 12 months "in the jungle" on the war's front lines. He battled the North Vietnamese Army during its Tet Offensive.
The Lowell resident makes no bones about it: He's no fan of former President Bill Clinton, an antiwar protester who famously avoided being drafted for Vietnam while studying at Oxford.
"I haven't forgotten it," said Cronin, 60, the founder of a
Lowell-based organization known as the Merrimack Valley Vietnam Veterans. "I never will. He's everything that we don't stand for."
When he heard Clinton will be appearing at Lowell Memorial Auditorium on behalf of Democratic congressional candidate Niki Tsongas on Sunday, Cronin was incensed. The building is dedicated to the memory of U.S. war veterans. The flags of many local veterans groups hang in the auditorium's Hall of Flags.
Rather than have his organization's flag soiled by Clinton's visit he has requested that it be taken down during the ceremony.
This is another chink in Niki's armor. The Ogonowski campaign had this to say about the brou-ha
"That's the problem with basing your support on other partisan politicians," said Barney Keller, spokesman for Tsongas' Republican opponent, Jim Ogonowski. "They have a polarizing effect on the voters."
know what it meant to defend American in Vietnam. There are people who know what it means to defend us in Afghanistan, Iraq and around the globe. Then there are Bill Clinton and others, like him, who know what it's like not to defend America. It is so sad to see the ones who won't defend America in the limelight, so often.