Attorney General Robert Blumenthal, who is running as a Democrat for Senator from Connecticut, lied about serving in Vietnam at ceremony for Veterans back in 2008 according to the New York Times.
“We have learned something important since the days that I served in Vietnam,” Mr. Blumenthal said to the group gathered in Norwalk in March 2008.
But heck, that wasn’t the first or last time he has done so. Blumenthal has lied and mislead about his time during the Vietnam War years several times in recent years.
Blumenthal, like many other privileged young white males, did everything under his and his father’s power to avoid serving in Vietnam.
The deferments allowed Mr. Blumenthal to complete his studies at Harvard; pursue a graduate fellowship in England; serve as a special assistant to The Washington Post’s publisher, Katharine Graham; and ultimately take a job in the Nixon White House.
In 1970, with his last deferment in jeopardy, he landed a coveted spot in the Marine Reserve, which virtually guaranteed that he would not be sent to Vietnam. He joined a unit in Washington that conducted drills and other exercises and focused on local projects, like fixing a campground and organizing a Toys for Tots drive.
So while over 50,000 Americans lost their lives actually fighting the Vietcong, Blumenthal was collecting Toys for Tots. Which, in any other time, would be noble. It was even noble then, but to lie today and several times over the past few years claiming to have actually served and fought in Vietnam is the epitome of a coward.
More of Blumenthal’s Lies About Fighting in Vietnam
In 2003, he addressed a rally in Bridgeport, where about 100 military families gathered to express support for American troops overseas. “When we returned, we saw nothing like this,” Mr. Blumenthal said. “Let us do better by this generation of men and women.”
From 2008, “I served during the Vietnam era,” he said. “I remember the taunts, the insults, sometimes even physical abuse.”
Blumenthal failed to correct the record on numerous occasions when publications incorrectly stated and praised his Vietnam service.
The New Haven Register on July 20, 2006, described him as “a veteran of the Vietnam War,” and on April 6, 2007, said that the attorney general had “served in the Marines in Vietnam.” On May 26, 2009, The Connecticut Post, a Bridgeport newspaper that is the state’s third-largest daily, described Mr. Blumenthal as “a Vietnam veteran.” The Shelton Weekly reported on May 23, 2008, that Mr. Blumenthal “was met with applause when he spoke about his experience as a Marine sergeant in Vietnam.”
Blumenthal is running as a Democrat for the Connecticut Senate seat that Senator Christopher Dodd is retiring from.
