Posted on 08/22/2004 10:51:28 AM PDT by Pikamax
Nation & World By Michael Barone Winter in Cambodia?
This month the Kerry Campaign abandoned one claim that John Kerry had made for years about his Vietnam War service and put another into question. The claim that has been dropped: that Kerry was in Cambodia at Christmastime in 1968. In a 1979 review of the movie Apocalypse Now in the Boston Herald, Kerry wrote, "I remember spending Christmas Eve of 1968 5 miles across the Cambodian border being shot at by our Vietnamese allies." In a 1986 speech on the Senate floor, Kerry said, "I remember Christmas of 1968 sitting on a gunboat in Cambodia. . . . I have that memory which is seared-seared-in me." In a 1992 interview with States News Service, Kerry claimed, "On Christmas Eve of 1968, I was on a gunboat in a firefight that wasn't supposed to be taking place." That year he also told the Associated Press, "Everybody was over there [in Cambodia]. Nobody thought twice about it."
These are vivid statements full of colorful detail-South Vietnamese soldiers shooting off guns to celebrate Christmas. But, as Emily Litella used to say on Saturday Night Live, "Never mind." Historian Douglas Brinkley's bestselling Tour of Duty, based partly on Kerry's wartime journals, places Kerry on Christmas 1968 in Sa Dec, 50 miles from Cambodia. On August 11, Kerry spokesman Michael Meehan said Kerry's boat was "in the watery borders between Vietnam and Cambodia" on Christmas Eve. That's far from an endorsement of Kerry's oft-told stories. "He was mistaken about Christmas in Cambodia," Brinkley told London's Daily Telegraph last week. But he "went into Cambodian waters three or four times in January and February 1969 on clandestine missions. . . . He was a ferry master, a drop-off guy, but it was dangerous as hell. Kerry carries a hat which he was given by one CIA operative." Indeed, Kerry showed the hat to a Washington Post reporter last year. Similarly, in 2000 Kerry told U.S. News's Kevin Whitelaw that he had run guns into Cambodia.
The Kerry camp has provided no documentation of Kerry's missions to Cambodia; Meehan says that's not surprising because the missions were secret. Perhaps. But none of Kerry's boat mates, most of whom support him, corroborate his story, and the one boat mate who opposes him flatly denies it. Retired Adm. Roy Hoffman, commander of the swift boats during Kerry's four months in Vietnam, insists that no swift boats went into Cambodia. Hoffman is, to be sure, a member of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which opposes Kerry and sponsored the anti-Kerry book Unfit for Command. But there is nothing on the record except Kerry's word to prove him wrong.
There is public documentation of other secret missions to Cambodia in 1968-69. In most, if not all, cases it seems that agents and special ops were flown into Cambodia by helicopter. If boats were used, the Navy had available smaller, quieter craft than swift boats. That makes Kerry's story seem implausible, but it could still be true. If he made public the journals he provided to Brinkley, there might be more evidence that could be checked.
Character counts. On the Christmas story (which even the pro-Kerry New York Times admits Kerry has not "put to rest"), perhaps Kerry was just confused about dates, or perhaps he convinced himself that an untrue story was true, as people sometimes do, and had no intent to mislead. A more unsettling possibility is that he consciously leapt the bounds of truth to make his experience seem more spectacular or to score political points. Those are not the sort of things most people want in a president.
Will Kerry's evidently untrue statements about Christmas in Cambodia raise doubts about his as-yet-uncorroborated stories about later Cambodian missions? Will they undermine his credibility and bolster the charges of his swift boat critics? Not clear. Most of Kerry's boat mates testify to his heroism; most of those serving on other swift boats in the unit take a different view. So far as I know, all served honorably and are entitled to respectful attention; some may have political motives, in both directions. Battlefield memories inevitably and understandably differ. But character counts in presidents, and some of Kerry's statements over the years-not all, but some-count against his character.
There is nothing -- repeat, nothing -- that happened in 1968-69 in Vietnam or Cambodia that is still classified.
B.G. Burkett's "Stolen Valor" exposes this sorry excuse for having no military records to support your phoney war story.
This morning George Stephanopoulos acctually said that now it was known that Christmas in Cambodia was false. He had O'Neil and Podesta on. Hope some of you saw the show. O'Neil actually won that round.
btttttttttttttt
I'm very pleased to see these new articles examining sKerry's Nam record via the new book Unfit For Command. It appears more every day, that the title is a major understatement. Terazor bought a real zero, not a hero.
I posted a thread about that appearance and I thought it was one of O'Neill's best ... and (with Podesta "defending" him) one of Kerry's WORST.
BUMP FOR THE SUPPORT OF SWIFT VETS HERE... http://www.swiftvets.com/
Finally.
I may remember details of a particular engagement differently than someone else who was there, but I think we'll both remember which country we were in. If you ever hear me say, "Yeh, I remember that time I drove special forces guys from Baghdad into Iran in my HMMWV," call me a liar.
The problem with most of J. Kerry's "stories" is that they are just that "stories" not truth. Then again, when you are so full of sh$t your eyes turn brown who would believe you.
In other words, what the writer is trying to tell us.
bump
this story reminds me of my High School days when I used to listen to the "dead kennedys" and thier song "holiday in cambodia"....man, the "dead kennedys" were such a horrible band. :)
Abandoned ??? How do you abandon nearly 3 decades of falsehood? We just won't use that one any more??
So if he was not in Cambodia afterall, then what forces were shooting at him? What forces were in the firefight that wasn't supposed to be taking place?
Let's see now; lied about being in Cambodia, lied about being shot at, lied about being in a firefight.
What else is out there that may bubble up?
Fearless prediction..whent he full weight of the evidence comes out, Kerry will adopt his fall back position.."Man, I gotta confess, dude..all 4 months I was in country, I was stoned outta my gourd...It was amazing I could get my shit togetehr every morning to find my ship..and that guy Rassman, he was blitzed..the stupid SOB fell off the boat...I was gonna leave him in the water for the other guys to pick him up,then Iremembered he had MY stash in his locker..so I had to go back and pick him up..and I wasn't IN Cambodia Christmas Day, I was "ON" Cambodian Red....good shit, man.."
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