The Political Guns Of August Are Firing (Douglas Brinkley -- Christmas in Cambodia Not True)

Washington Post ^ | 08/28/04 | Ann Gerhart

[conservative in nyc]

---Snip---

The Kerry campaign has refused to release Kerry's personal Vietnam archive, including his journals and letters, saying that the senator is contractually bound to grant Brinkley exclusive access to the material. But Brinkley said this week the papers are the property of the senator and in his full control.

"I don't mind if John Kerry shows anybody anything," he said. "If he wants to let anybody in, that's his business. Go bug John Kerry, and leave me alone." The exclusivity agreement, he said, simply requires "that anybody quoting any of the material needs to cite my book."

---Snip---

Kerry repeatedly said in the past that he was ordered illegally into Cambodia during Christmas 1968. His detractors claim he never entered that country at all. In "Tour of Duty," Brinkley does not place Kerry in Cambodia but, quoting from Kerry's journal, notes that Kerry's Swift boat was "patrolling near the Cambodian line." Later in the book, Brinkley writes that Kerry and his fellow Swift boat operators "went on dropping Navy SEALS off along the Cambodian border."

"I'm under the impression that they were near the Cambodian border," said Brinkley, in the interview. So Kerry's statement about being in Cambodia at Christmas "is obviously wrong," he said. "It's a mongrel phrase he should never have uttered. I stick to my story."

---Snip---

[NonValueAdded]

research bump

[Just mythoughts]

"It's a mongrel phrase he should never have uttered. I stick to my story."


So is Douglas Brinkley now calling JFKerry a "mongrel"????

Seems Douglas is feeling some heat!!!

[oldngray]

Someone... on one of the threads yesterday said something to the effect... "if Kerry goes down it will be the parade the Vietnam vets never had".

Oh how sweet!!!

[Cboldt]

I am not familiar with the idiom, "mongrel phrase". Is that just a lame euphemism for a lie?

It's combining two events, somehow, to make up a single statment. In this case, Brinkley is saying "Christmas in Cambodia" is not true, but "Christmas" is true (not in Cambodia though), and "in Cambodia" is true (but not at Christmas). The problem is, there is no record of Kerry being in Cambodia at ANY time during his Swift Boat assignments.

Kerry made up the whole thing. It is a lie. And he used the lie to poilitcal advantage, and to advance his personal ambitions. The lie is an assertion that teh US government (ostensibly under Nixon) was lying to the public -- and he continues to use that angle of atack, based on falsehoods. Today, he says the government lied to get us into Iraq. See a pattern here? These aren't "little harmless" lies. These are cold, calculated, and dangerous lies.

[conservative in nyc]

Read the rest of the article. It's clear Douglas Brinkley is feeling the heat. He's getting tons of calls from reporters.

Oh, by the way, he's going to be an NBC talking head next week during the Republican National Convention.

[twhitak]

I bet he's ticked because Unfit for Command has sold more copies than his book.

Amazon.com sales rank on 8/28/04:

"Unfit for Command": 1

"Tour of Duty": 592

[Cboldt]

Another Dobbs piece is on the front page of the Washington Post, this time on Kerry's post-war activities. It mentions the VVAW Kansas City meeting (where the plot to assassinate Senators was discussed) and Kerry's participation in it.

Saturday edition, lowest readership. But still, it's there!

I speculated to my wife that Kerry would be sunk by mid-September. He can't escape his past.

[kittymyrib]

That sucking sound you hear is Brinkley's reputation as a historian going down the drain. He must have decided to try to salvage a modicum of it, but it's really too late. His accounts of Kerry's heroics put him in the same catagory as Maureen Dowd in their lack of credibility.

[Just mythoughts]

"Oh, by the way, he's going to be an NBC talking head next week during the Republican National Convention."


Time to expose him for being a sniveling little twit, not that world class historian he pretends to be.

[Just mythoughts]

Congressman Dingle-berry of MI is on FOX Weekend, asking Ashcroft to investigate the "illegal" campaign ads by the Swiftvets....

[mohresearcher]

Michael Dobbs, also at the WP, wrote about Brinkley's refusal to let him see Kerry's journals. Strange that every thing is secret about Kerry's Vietnam experience.

Like an onion, the lies are revealed layer by layer.

Brinkley's reputation for scholarship and objectivity has been ruined as a result of his press agent flackery in Tour of Duty.

[thelastvirgil]

Brinkley is now trying to save what may be left of his career. Methinks it's too late, but he has to make the effort. He should release the diaries since he has discredited the exclusivity "agreement".

[JLAGRAYFOX]

Could I be wrong, but is the MSM starting to turn on John Kerry? I hope so! Want to see him disgraced and sent into the black hole from whence he came to the Nth degree! What a low life piece of vermin John Kerry is!!!

[sd-joe]

witless protection program

Love it. What a great phrase for this idiot Brinkley.

[Boundless]

> Brinkley's reputation for scholarship and objectivity
> has been ruined as a result of his press agent flackery
> in Tour of Duty.

He's in bigger trouble than that. The ToD book is what
set the Swifties off. The "Self Destruct" button on
Starship Kerry may not have been properly labelled,
but Brinkley is the fool who wondered "what does this
little button do?".

Brinkley apparently made little or no effort to contact
the surviving swifties (or perhaps he did call a couple,
and didn't like what he heard). In any case, he ignored
the ticking bomb of truths out there.

> I thought Brinkley had entered the witness protection
> program - at least that's what Mark Steyn wrote.

He's toast on both sides of the aisle now.

[devolve]

Black BG music:     

---

Critical dates: Oct 14 & 15, 1969

While on active duty at the Brooklyn Navy Yard
Lt(jg.) John Kerry illegally signed out to a bogus
destination and flew Adam Wilensky to anti-war rallies.

Source: Harvard Crimson and Peggy and John Kerry

---

Critical dates: Nov 12-15, 1971

While at a VVAW Steering Committee Conference in KC
John Kerry on Nov 15, 1971 "allegedly" votes
against the VVAW "Phoenix Project" plot
to assassinate 6 US Senators.

Source: FBI documents, VVAW witnesses and minutes.

---

The blood is in the water!

[independentmind]

I'm under the impression that they were near the Cambodian border," said Brinkley, in the interview. So Kerry's statement about being in Cambodia at Christmas "is obviously wrong," he said. "It's a mongrel phrase he should never have uttered. I stick to my story."

How exactly do the events described by a "mongrel phrase" get seared into one's memory?

Brinkley is either lying to us or lying to himself.

[reformedliberal]

There is the term "conflation", which I think applies to Brinkley's term: "mongrel phrase".

Conflation: to combine 2 or more separate things to form a whole.

I think Kerry has some serious psychological problems. I agree w/those who think he smoked some strong pot while in Vietnam and afterward, but I think he has obsessed over his personal history for 30 years, maybe longer, and simply can no longer separate truth from fiction. I think the entire Christmas in Cambodia incident came from watching and internalizing "Apocalypse Now".

No one ever publicly called Kerry on any statement before. He will implode because he suddenly is under scrutiny and his entire constructed history is being questioned and proved bogus. His sense of entitlement will not allow him to even consider reality, let alone his own truthfulness. In the past, he has successfully used his Vietnam history and his Band of Brothers (tm) to silence anyone who questioned him. This time, his tactic itself is being blown wide open by the SBVT.

[MNnice]

"It's a mongrel phrase ..."

That's Dem-speak for lie.