California Congressman, Vietnam Ace Pleads Guilty

Representative Randy "Duke" Cunningham has pled guilty in Federal Court in San Diego to two counts of conspiracy and tax evasion. Immediately afterward he resigned from Congress, saying at an emotional press conference that he "...misled my friends, family and myself. The truth is, I broke the law and disgraced my office and myself."

Prosecutors charged in August that Cunningham, a Vietnam fighter ace who was awarded the Navy Cross, had used his position on Pentagon oversight committees to advance the interests of a defense contractor who was a personal friend -- and to line his own pockets. He was charged with taking at least $2.4 million in bribes, and with his plea-bargain admitted this and agreed to hand over $1.8 million in cash, as well as his Del Mar home. The plea agreement even specifies which of the furnishings and rugs must be disgorged as illegal gains.

The bribes took a variety of forms, everything from cash and checks to complicated mortgage swap deals, underpriced SUVs, and other sweetheart deals that were, if not too good to be true, definitely too good to be legal.

The news sent dismay through Cunningham's conservative supporters; comments on the conservative Free Republic bulletin board ranged from upset to disappointed to vengefully angry. "Cunningham is a fool, a corrupt fool," one wrote. "As one of his constituents I'm PISSED. Damn you, Duke!" another vented.

And one tied this to his most celebrated fight, on May 10, 1972: "Just damn. And another one of my heros shot down... the Duke goes down in flames, again!!!"

On that date Cunningham and his RIO, Lt JG Willie "Irish" Driscoll, shot down three North Vietnamese MiG-17s in one day to become the first US aces of the Vietnam war (the team had downed a MiG-21 in January and another MiG-17 two days before). They also lost their airplane, being hit by a SAM and having to eject over the South China Sea. The best story of this air fight is arguably in Jeff Ethell's "One Day in a Long War;" the version at acepilots.com is also good. (Note that some Cunningham detractors have suggested that he and Driscoll weren't shot down, but ejected because they ran out of fuel; Cunningham has always denied that, and there's no concrete evidence in favor of it).

By the end of the war Cunningham was arguably the most famous pilot in any service, highly decorated with the Navy Cross, two Silver Stars, fifteen Air Medals and the Purple Heart. He later taught at the Fighter Weapons School ("Top Gun") and retired from the Navy in 1987 with over twenty years' service.
 
Cunningham seemed to realize that he has burned his bridges with his former supporters. "In my life I have great joy and great sorrow, and now I know great shame," he said. Indeed, how do you characterize a guy who's been by turns pilot, ace, hero, politician, crook and convict?

While his supporters were gloomy, Cunningham's enemies were gloating. One of them maintains a website, that tracks all the convoluted ups and downs of the scandal as well as every other bit of misconduct by Duke and his family members (his son Todd went to prison, it turns out, for smuggling drugs in an airplane). 

There will be a special election to replace Cunningham. It is unlikely to change the balance of Congress -- his very conservative, well-to-do district leans Republican -- but his loss may be felt by military aviators and by the defense contractors that support them -- even the ones that weren't bribing Cunningham. The former Tailhook Association board member was a strong voice for military aviation programs, and especially, as one might expect, for naval aviation. The naval F-35 program, for instance, just lost a vocal defender in beltway budget battles. The companies involved may miss him how that he's gone -- or they may just be glad that they weren't among the contractors that got caught paying him off.

The charges, all felonies, stem from Cunningham's dealings with a variety of defense contractors. "Conspirator No. 1" is not instantly identifiable in the plea document, but paid Cunningham over $100,000 in checks in 2000. "Conspirator No. 2" appears to be Mitchell Wade of MZM Inc., an intelligence systems firm doing mostly classified  work.

Wade overpaid for Cunningham's old house in California, and provided Cunningham with a yacht to live aboard in Washington. The yacht was named -- you couldn't make this up -- the Duke Stir. Now it is Duke who's expected to land "in stir" -- he could receive a prison sentence of up to 10 years at his sentencing, February 27th.

Indeed, it might be longer: the plea agreement suggests that sentencing guidelines would require 135 to 168 months' incarceration.

FMI: www.acepilots.com/vietnam/cunningham.html,  Bonus site: The Criminals in Congress (not updated to include Duke yet)