Kerry charges return focus to Cambodia war (MSM article NAILS Kerry on his Cambodia lies!)

Philadelphia Inquirer ^ | 8-28-04

[ambrose]

Posted on Sat, Aug. 28, 2004

Kerry charges return focus to Cambodia war

Nearly forgotten is how incursions and invasion polarized this country.

By Tom Infield

Inquirer Staff Writer

WASHINGTON - Vietnam War veterans critical of Sen. John Kerry's claims about his military service in Southeast Asia have reopened one of that era's most controversial chapters, with claims that Kerry lied decades ago when he said he spent Christmas Eve 1968 in Cambodia.

In a 1986 Senate speech, Kerry said that, as the skipper of a Swift boat in the Mekong Delta, he crossed the Vietnamese border into Cambodia, then a neutral country. His commanding officer and two others above him in the chain of command said Thursday that his boat probably was no closer than 50 miles from the border at the time.

The issue in the presidential campaign may be whether Kerry was telling the truth and how that could reflect on his character. But for Americans who remember that era, the dispute reawakened one of the most bitter moments in the political conflict over the war: whether the government lied about U.S. military involvement in Cambodia.

For Vietnam War opponents, the Cambodia issue was about fear that Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard M. Nixon were widening the war into a conflagration that would engulf Southeast Asia. When Nixon began a secret Cambodia bombing campaign in the spring of 1969, U.S. officials denied that it was taking place.

For Vietnam War supporters, the Cambodia issue was about common sense. It was stated policy that U.S. forces were not to violate Cambodia's neutrality. But the North Vietnamese and their Viet Cong guerrilla allies were using the border area of Cambodia to pile up weapons and mount attacks. Why maintain the fiction of neutrality?

The issue was only beginning to build when Kerry served in Vietnam from November 1968 to March 1969.

It exploded on April 30, 1970, when Nixon announced an invasion of Cambodia. College campuses throughout the United States erupted with protests against the escalation, and on May 4, Ohio National Guard troops fired into a crowd at Kent State University, killing four students and injuring nine. A nationwide student strike shut down hundreds of campuses.

The invasion turned what had been a clandestine campaign to root out Vietnamese troops in Cambodia into a major battle that, besides ground forces, included carpet-bombing by B-52 aircraft.

The campaign was a military success, at least initially, but a political disaster. It helped create the climate that made America's withdrawal from Vietnam in 1975 almost inevitable. Many blame it for the rise of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, whose genocidal rule killed millions.

Kerry, as a leader of Vietnam Veterans Against the War in the early '70s, was active in the Cambodia protest movement. But in 1968 and '69 he was an unknown Yale University graduate, a lieutenant junior grade in charge of a 50-foot aluminum boat manned by a crew of six sailors.

"I remember Christmas of 1968, sitting on a gunboat in Cambodia," he recalled in his 1986 Senate speech. "I remember what it was like to be shot at by the Vietnamese and the Khmer Rouge and the Cambodians, and have the president of the United States telling the people of the United States that I was not there - the troops were not in Cambodia. I have that memory, which is seared - seared - in me."

Tour of Duty, a recent Kerry biography by historian Douglas Brinkley, to whom the Massachusetts senator opened his wartime diaries, carries a different story. It says Kerry and his crew sailed as far as a river bend "approaching the Cambodian border." At that point, Brinkley wrote, they came under mortar fire and left as quickly as they could.

At the time, Kerry was assigned to Coastal Division 13 at Cat Lo, near the mouth of the Saigon River. The division's prescribed patrol area ended 50 miles from the border.

Retired Rear Adm. Roy Hoffmann, who as a Navy captain was in command of all river patrols at that time, said Thursday that although he had no personal knowledge of Kerry's whereabouts, he could not believe Kerry had gone anywhere near Cambodia.

"Let's say he did go up toward Cambodia," Hoffmann said. "When he got up there, he was going to find an Army... landing craft, manned 24 hours a day, with a huge sign up there that says, 'The Cambodian border: Do not enter,' or words to that effect, plus two [other boats] patrolling the area to... stop anything from going into Cambodian waters."

The Kerry campaign now concedes that Kerry probably was not in Cambodia that Christmas. But it says he was there at some point during his tour of duty. It has given no date and no details.

Kerry, in his war diaries, told of another incident in which he sailed up the Rach Giang Thanh, a river that parallels the Vietnam-Cambodia border, to drop off a Navy SEAL team on a secret mission. He wrote: "The banks... whistled by as we churned out mile after mile at full speed. On my left were occasional open fields that allowed us a clear view of Cambodia."

Hoffmann, the founder of the anti-Kerry group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, said Kerry never dropped off a SEAL team.

"I was the tactical commander of the entire force," he said. "... If it was a clandestine operation, they would have notified me, because otherwise you have a damned good chance of a firefight between friendly forces."

Kerry campaign spokesman Michael Meehan dismissed Hoffmann's accusations. "It was clear Roy Hoffmann was not on the boat at the time," he said.

Other allegations by Hoffmann's group about Kerry's war record have been challenged by Navy records and by testimony from pro-Kerry veterans, including men under his command. No one has come forward to corroborate Kerry's assertion that he was in Cambodia on Christmas Eve 1968, so the controversy over his Cambodia recollections is likely to continue.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Contact staff writer Tom Infield at 215-854-2405 or tinfield@phillynews.com.

[ambrose]

..

[lowercoloradoriver]

"The Kerry campaign now concedes that Kerry probably was not in Cambodia that Christmas."

This is big. If the MSM concedes Kerry lied about this, this opens the floodgates, don't it? This proves that he is more than capable of lying about his record. hopefully this will hit it home to America.

[ambrose]

Too late (for you).

[lowercoloradoriver]

You're right. It is getting late. I am going to bed. See you around, ambrose.

[NYCVirago]

No one has come forward to corroborate Kerry's assertion that he was in Cambodia on Christmas Eve 1968, so the controversy over his Cambodia recollections is likely to continue.

Um, since Kerry has no witnesses to this, shouldn't that mean the controversy should *end*, with Kerry having been proven a liar?

[ambrose]

No... the SwiftVets have to prove Kerry WASN'T in Cambodia... and once they prove that, the media can say "Who cares? No big deal. Time to move on."

[mass55th]

"If the MSM concedes Kerry lied about this, this opens the floodgates, don't it?"

I hate being pessimistic on this one, but all I can think of is how the MSM handled Clinton's repeated lies.

Kerry's been caught in several untruths: his allegations of systematic atrocities in Vietnam; posting spot reports on his website for January of '69 that actually pertained to another Lieutenant; the revelation that Rev. David Alston actually served a week or less on Kerry's boat; Cambodia; his campaign admitting that the first Purple Heart may have been self-inflicted.

I'm sure there are other examples. I just can't think of them at the moment.

[xm177e2]

These lies are not "decades" old. They continue to this very day. Kerry has said on many occasions that he was part of illegal missions to Cambodia, to sneak special forces/CIA men in and to run guns. John Kerry's web site contains the word "Cambodia" in one of the tags (look at the source HTML and you'll find the word; it's not visible on the page)

<meta name=keywords content="vietnam,viet nam,swift boat,swiftboat,mekong delta,cambodia,records,medals,bronze star,purple heart,combat v,silver star,dd 214,dd214,navy,after action,naval records">

This was pointed out weeks ago, so Kerry's campaign has had time to correct it if it wanted to.

[TomGuy]

More and more, for Kerry it is "lie after lie after lie after lie."

Kerry may have been unduly influenced, not by the movie Apocalypse Now, but by the movie Forest Gump. Kerry seems to make mention of his military heroics and being in VietNam in association with other historical events.

[TruthShallSetYouFree]

Kerry, like most liberals, tends to speak in sound bites. He uses specific incidents (often fabricated) to illustrate a broad point. These incidents provide an allegorical background that replaces real analytical concepts. To wit:

Kerry's claim of being in Cambodia in 1968 is only useful as a representation of Nixon's (sic) illegal and secret war against that nation. The fact that Johnson was still president or that Kerry was not actually in Cambodia are irrelevancies to the dem mindset.

Bill Clinton recalls watching "Black churches" burn in Arkansas when he was a youth. This is used to tell the Black community and the democrat base how much he "feels their pain." The truth--that historical analysis proved that there were no such arson events at the time and place indicated by Clinton--is merely an inconvenient irrelevancy.

Hillary Clinton claimed to have been named after Mt. Everest conqueror Sir Edmund Hillary. This is supposed to assert some linkage between the esteemed senator from New York and a man who was world-reknowned for his bravery. When it was pointed out that the conquering was done in 1953, six years after Her Heinous was spawned, the claim was dropped. No mea culpa was ever issued.

How often we have seen the democrats trot out an individual American citizen, reveal that person's plight, and use it as grist for their mill of lies.

"Mrs. Becky Johnson, 90 years old, from Ft. Worth, Texas, has to choose between prescription drugs and the little bit of Puppy Chow she needs for sustenance, because of those Wascally Wepublicans."

"Mr. Leroy Johnson, of Detroit, Michigan, was laid off of his job at the auto plant because George Bush sent his job to Mexico."

"Little Juanita Hernandez, of Los Angeles, California, reads three years behind her grade level because George Bush won't allow her to be taught in her native Spanish."

You don't see a realistic, give-and-take analysis of the real issues of medical coverage, outsourcing. bi-lingual education, or anything else. The left's M.O. is the heart-tugging personal example that works on an emotional, rather than an intellectual level. And, considring that they have no platform and haven't had an original thought since FDR was on his high school track team, I'd say that fooling approximately 50 million voters into supporting their candidates and policies means that their methods have been pretty damned successful. Our only recourse is fighting them with the truth, day and night.

[Lacey]

See this thread re Kerry's comments in 1996 about misrepresenting one's military service:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1201190/posts

[GailA]

I thought one of his band of brothers said there was NO SIGN saying this was the Cambodian border? Yet the Swifties say there were on this boat that blocked the opening into the Cambodian border.

[listenhillary]

Bookmarked

[Bob from De]

"no one has come forward to corroborate Kerry's assertion"
At least 7 Swiftveys vs. 1 Kerry equals a draw! The MSM will always try to sweep this under the rug. Rush used to refer to #42 as proven liar Clinton. Mr. PROVEN LIAR KERRY, yeah, thats the way he should be addressed!

[Chieftain]

Tired of the lamestream media and the DemocRATS 'smear the messenger' campaign?

Do SOMETHING ABOUT IT!

Do what Reagan did - GO AROUND THEM AND GO DIRECTLY TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE!

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I put this sticker on my truck the other day. I get lots of honks and 'thumbs up'!

The sticker serves 3 purposes:
1 - Shows visible support for "Swift Boat Veterans For Truth" to passing motorists, (encourages our side discourages the libs).
2 - Gets the swiftvets.com website visible to the public, so they can and find out more about 'Hanoi John' Kerry.
3 - Circumvents the lamestream media BIAS filter!

Made by fellow FReeper disabled vet who has a bone to pick with Kerry, like we all do!
Large (24" Wide 12" Tall) $20 (like mine above)
Small (12" Wide 6" Tall) $10
Profits go to SwiftVets.com

Ping your FRiends, let 'em know about this!

FReep mail / private reply for details on how you can get one for your vehicle!