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When U.S. Senator Bob Smith, of late known as (R-NH), stood up to toss his hat in the presidential ring in February, his six-foot-six, 280 pound frame cast an impressive shadow. A Vietnam veteran, Smith is well known in Washington as one senator who uses plain talk to give straight answers. Looming large on the presidential horizon, he looks excellent as a serious alternative to the typical candidates served up so far on traditional party platters.
Smith's reputation is founded on the principle that people never come away wondering what the heck he said, or where he stands on an issue. This alone pretty much puts him in a league of his own on Capitol Hill.
His father, a World War II naval aviator, was killed in active duty two days before his son's fourth birthday. Raised on his family farm, Smith credits an unwavering work ethic to the simple farm upbringing his mother and grandparents gave him and his brother.
Smith joined the United States Navy after graduating college in 1965. Soon after his marriage to Mary Jo Hutchinson, Smith was shipped to Vietnam, where he served from 1966 to 1967 on the USS Navasota off North Vietnam's coast in the Gulf of Tonkin.
Following his military service, Smith became a teacher of history and government and a baseball coach at Kingswood Regional High School in New Hampshire. He later served as school board chairman and owned a small business.
Elected to Congress in 1984, he served three terms in the House of Representatives before becoming a U.S. Senator in 1990.
Smith's military service instilled in him more than the mere lip service frequently passing as patriotism on the Hill these days. He is one of only seven Vietnam veterans now in Congress.
From his senate office in the nation's capital, Smith speaks about the impact of the Vietnam Memorial Wall. "Every time I look at the Wall, I think of the sacrifice - not just of these veterans, but of the families: families of the MIA, the POW, and even those who did return from Vietnam and every war. All those separations each name represents - how do you measure that? "And then, for these POW/MIA families to be so mistreated - it's one thing to have to solicit information from foreign governments - you can pretty much expect that - but they shouldn't have to beg their own government for information. It's just wrong."
Smith does not just talk about his concern for American POW/MIAs. He has traveled extensively to current and former communist countries for the specific purpose of seeking information about their fates. He has made five trips to Vietnam, four trips to Russia, two trips to North Korea, and other trips to Laos, Cambodia, Poland and the Czech Republic.
Smith says it has been his privilege to work for POW/MIA efforts. "My travel to other countries to seek answers has been something I feel is my duty and honor to do. I also am working to streamline data collection in the various intelligence systems to help find the truth about our missing veterans."
In the Senate, he passed legislation requiring the president to certify Vietnam's full cooperation of the POW/MIA accounting issues before U.S. taxpayer money could be spent to further expand normalization of relations with Hanoi's communist government.
Smith notes with dismay that current moves to exempt regimes from full cooperation in the POW/MIA and human rights issue just adds insult to injury.
He is vehemently opposed to the pending Jackson-Vanik waiver extension for communist Vietnam and has introduced a bill to back it. The waiver allows for U.S. tax dollars to guarantee private investment in Vietnam, regardless of Hanoi's glaring human rights violations and refusal to explain what happened to hundreds of U.S. prisoners of war known to have been alive in captivity but never released. "Don't give special privileges to countries withholding POW/MIA information. Seeking answers about missing American servicemen should not be superseded for profit."
From 1985 through 1990, Smith served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives Task Force on POW/MIAs where he successfully forced legislation that requires the government to provide correlated "live sighting reports" of U.S. POWs to their next of kin.
As legislative author for creation of the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs in 1991, Senator Smith earned the trust of POW/MIA families by his steadfast work on their behalf for their missing loved ones.
Discouraged by years of political brush off, the families of missing American servicemen take heart in watching Smith advance the cause that strikes at the very core of American military honor.
Addressing the National Alliance of POW/MIA Families' June session in Washington, Smith pledged his ongoing support to bring reality to previous make-believe POW/MIA searches by working to restructure the government effort from the ground up.
National Chairperson of the Alliance, Delores Alfond, whose brother Major Victor J. Apodaca was shot down over Vietnam in 1967, describes the frustration felt by the POW/MIA families: "Normally a pilot, my brother was a back-seater that day. We know the plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire. The beeper signal, indicating their ejection, definitely went off." That was 32 years ago.
In 1989, Alfond said, the family received two boxes. The first contained dog tags with her brother's name, but study revealed the metal used was not the same as that of dog tags at the time, and evidence showed they had been artificially "distressed" by scraping and pounding, as though to simulate age. Such phony tags were commonly produced by the Vietnamese government, sending grieving families on a roller coaster of emotional agony. Even more chilling were three bones included in the box. Pathology results showed them to be animal remains, not human.
Contents of the second box did nothing to clarify the mystery. Analysis proved it contained bones of Oriental origin, and powder of non-human source. Incredibly, Alfond heard from unofficial sources that this box "became" her brother's remains as far as the government was concerned.
From her home in Washington state, Alfond credits Bob Smith as being "the backbone" of support for the Alliance. "Senator Smith has always been there, first as a congressman, then as a Senator. It seems like forever - at least ten years. Without his work on the issue, we couldn't have come as far as we have."
While co-chairman of the Select Committee during its investigation from September 1991 to January 1993, Smith's efforts resulted in the White House declassifying by Executive Order tens of thousands of pages of government documents pertaining to the Vietnam era POW/MIA issue. Also a member of the Vietnam War Working Group of the U.S.-Russia Joint Commission on POWs and MIAs since its inception in 1992, Senator Smith currently serves as its U.S. Chairman.
Not only concerned about POW/MIA matters, the senator feels strongly about the plight of many vets: "It makes me sick to see homeless veterans sleeping on grates - take some of the money we send for foreign concerns and get our veterans off the grates. To me, there's no difference between giving servicemen the resources they need in combat, and providing what they need to live, today. For those who really need it, that's not a handout - they earned those benefits."
"Today, with fewer and fewer veterans serving in both Congress and the Administration," the senator notes, "I am proud of my personal understanding of veterans issues." He wants his message to veterans heard loud and clear:
"If elected, I would increase the VA budget dramatically, reform the VA system and do more with VA hospitals to upgrade health care for our veterans."
Chairman of the Strategic Forces Subcommittee, and member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, the senator notes, "Thirteen years of consecutive cuts have created a force that is unable to meet its potential wartime requirements. At the height of the Gulf War, seven of the Army's 18 divisions, six of the Navy's 15 carriers, 10 of the Air Force's 24 fighter wings and more than 50 percent of the Marine Corps were deployed in and around the Persian Gulf. Today, the United States military force is only 40 percent of that capacity."
"During the Persian Gulf War, 28 Army soldiers died when one of Sadam Hussein's Scud missiles struck their barracks in Dharan, Saudi Arabia. They died because the United States lacked an effective ballistic missile defense capability to protect them. Seven years later, our troops are every bit as vulnerable as those fallen soldiers. This is simply unconscionable." Smith is equally firm on other issues that affect American lives.
Regarding school prayer, Smith contends, "Religious freedom is a bedrock constitutional right in this country. As an exercise of this right, I strongly support prayer in the public schools. I am a co-sponsor of S.J. Res. 15, which is a constitutional amendment that would allow voluntary prayer in the public schools."
His right to life stand is based on his belief that unborn children are human beings who have the unalienable right to life of which the Declaration of Independence speaks. He adds, "I have been a leader in the fight to protect the lives of unborn children and was the first to call attention to the grossly inhumane partial-birth abortion procedure, introducing legislation in 1995 to ban it. I have introduced a constitutional amendment…recognizing that the word 'person' in the constitution includes all human beings, including unborn children."
He also has a strong record of Social Security system support, Smith points out, "I voted against the budget bill proposed by President Bill Clinton in 1993 that increased the tax on Social Security benefits for many seniors."
Consistently voting to eliminate the Social Security earnings test, which penalizes those seniors who choose not to retire, he states "I have called for the 106th Congress to 'wall-off' the Social Security surplus so that it cannot be used for any other purpose."
"Social Security's own Board of Trustees has advised us that the Social Security program will be bankrupt and unable to pay benefits by the year 2032 if Congress ignores these facts and does not take action.
"I will not allow that to happen…The solutions may be complicated, but the facts are clear. Long term changes are needed to secure the benefits of those in need…" "I am committed to ensuring that only responsible changes are made to the Social Security program so those in need may continue to rely on their benefits."
As to Second Amendment rights, Senator declares with typical clarity, "It is the right of every American citizen to own a firearm to protect himself and his family…
"Some argue that the crime problem is the result of too much personal freedom. I believe that it is the result of moral decay, the breakdown of the family, and a revolving door criminal justice system. The solution is to punish the guilty, not the peaceful citizen who owns a gun for defensive or sporting purposes."
A proponent of tax cuts, he expresses his concern that "The combined government tax burden has now reached an all time high, making tax relief for American families critical. As a member of Congress, I have never voted for a tax increase, and I will continue to oppose higher taxes of any kind."
Smith points to his record of "actively working to bring greater tax relief, including the repeal of the marriage penalty, to the overburdened American taxpayers." "In addition," he says, "I have co-sponsored and/or voted for legislation that would reduce the capital gains tax, eliminate the tax code by the end of 2003, and provide family tax relief."
Finally, Smith stands firm in his fight to make American flag burning a crime, not an "expression of free speech."
On a wall in Smith's senate office hangs a treasured memento - a framed poster from the movie, "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," autographed to "Senator Smith" from Jimmy Stewart. Senator Smith doesn't mind the comparison to the old fashioned patriot who clung to the belief that "America is good and deserves good, honest leaders," adding "I agree."
In person, Smith's stature and passionate beliefs put one more in mind of "John Wayne Goes to Washington." He reflects on his passage to the bold presidential candidate of today: "Back in 1996, I went through a particularly nasty election. When it was over, and we'd won, a peace came over me. I determined then always to speak my mind. It's something I've never regretted." What does Mary Jo Smith, his wife of thirty-four years, think of his candidacy? Smiling, Smith admits, "There's an interesting story to that."
The couple met in college, and Mary Jo later confessed that when she first laid eyes on Bob, three thoughts struck her: "That man will be my husband, the father of my children and President of the United States."
Packing his one-two punch of integrity and plain talk, Smith declared himself an "Indenpendant" on July 13, 1999. As he marched out of the Republican Party, his footsteps seemed to rumble in the ancient halls like distant thunder. The moment of truth for Smith's leaving the party in a speech to the Senate floor at 2:15pm did not come as any great surprise to those familiar with his weariness of "RINOs," or "Republicans In Name Only." Political pundits are taking presidential candidate Smith seriously, noting he could do in D.C. what Jesse Ventura did in Minnesota. When asked about the comparison, or the possibility of a Smith-Ventura ticket, Smith laughed.
"Well, to begin with, I don't know that Jesse would want to run with me - we disagree on just about every major social issue. I will say, though, I admire the man. He speaks his mind; I respect that. He's honest and straightforward. When he first entered politics, everybody said he was a nut. As they say, they used to call him crazy, now they call him Governor."
For America's veterans who've had to hunker down in political back trenches far too long, Senator Smith's candidacy comes like a cool breeze to the stale air of the Washington front.
Senator Bob Smith's campaign web site is www.smithforpresident.org
For a transcript of his July 13, 1999 Senate Floor statement, go to www.senate.gov/smith/flrtps.html.
