Posted on 10/14/2004 1:55:15 PM PDT by areafiftyone
The Swift Boat Controversy: New Witnesses
October 14, 2004
John Kerry's service in Vietnam has become a campaign issue. The group calling itself Swift Boat Veterans for Truth alleges that Kerry has distorted the truth about what happened during the war and questions whether he deserved the medals he received. Tonight, you'll hear from eyewitnesses who have not spoken before: the Vietnamese who fought against him.
We've had the debates and the race is a virtual dead-heat. This is the part of a campaign when there are daily fires--issues that rise, flare, and then go away, only to be replaced by a new one the next day. But for a while, this campaign was dominated by Vietnam, a war that ended, at least the fighting, thirty years ago. John Kerry made his service in Vietnam a major part of his campaign. The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth fired back. They have alleged that Kerry was not truthful about his actions in Vietnam. Then questions were raised about the group's connections to people linked to the GOP. And so the story just kept spiraling in different directions. But the polls clearly showed that Kerry was hurt by allegations that he was not candid about his actions in Vietnam.
Which brings us to an old expression: the fog of war. People, in general, are not always great eyewitnesses. Memories fade, especially as the years go by. Two people standing next to each other may have very different recollections of something that happened right in front of them. But in the whole Swift Boat controversy, there is one group that hasn't been heard from at length: the Vietnamese. Producer Andrew Morse went to Vietnam, to the coordinates taken from the U.S. military after-action report from Kerry's battle for which he won the Silver Star. And there Andrew found several people who had either witnessed the events of that day, or in some cases, had actually fought against the swift boats. And it is their accounts that you will hear tonight. Do their accounts favor one version or the other? Can these questions be definitively settled? You'll have to judge. One of the surprising stories we were told? One of the Vietnamese men in the area says he was visited by a man claiming to be a swift boat veteran and a cameraman. He says the veteran was disparaging towards Kerry's conduct in the war, and asked him in an interview about the events of that day. We do not know who that man is, or whatever happened to that tape.
Ted will be anchoring tonight, and he will be joined by John O'Neill, a leader of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and the author of Unfit for Command, a book critical of Kerry. I hope you'll join us.
Leroy Sievers and the Nightline Staff,br> Washington D.C.
That can mean either May 12th or December 5th, depending on the system. I am surprised they did not use the Vietnamese calendar.
Those are some nice emerald-type earrings that peasant is wearing.
Well, it's finally on in the Pacific time zone.
Ted is despicable, even worse, than I expected in the way he portrays the Viet Cong as credible and is not even allowing O'Neill to make his points.
Seems they played it unedited out here in the AZ desert anyway. And seems my much earlier post had it all "bracketed" (an old military term some here will understand) pretty well... :)
O'Neill had Ted back pedaling from the get-go and never let up. Like I said b4: "...like a bug!"
Remember, the "after action report" that Terrible Ted kept trying to cite would have been written by none other than one Lt(jg) Kerry as the "mission commander" or whatever term the navy used... what a credible source! And O'Neill as much as said "Ted, put that piece of fiction where the sun don't shine."
Key line of the night: "You didn't interview our people, of course...." and Ted looked like he'd been poleaxed!
To me at least, it seemed like Ted found out way too late that he'd messed with the wrong man.
In the cyclonic swirl of the cosmic journalistic garbage grinder is that Ted I hear hollering: "Don't worry Dan, I got your back!"
Bwahahahahahahaaa......
Ted's story is being ripped a new hole big enough to drive a Mack truck through!
What is particularly interesting is that he is taking the word of the Vietnamese, and doing it very quickly, over the word of US officers.
The ABC radio news blurb didn't mention anything about these being enemy combatants.
EVen more slimy and disgusting.
The numbers were recognizable. There were other characters, but I was focused on the numbers, having read about the east coast feed earlier.
What is particularly interesting is that he is taking the word of the Vietnamese, and doing it very quickly, over the word of US officers.
===
Precisely.
WOW!
O'Neill handled Ted.
Talk about a sham of a "investigative report" ---
this one was laughable.
Why not dig up the buried weapons?
LOL!
I just saw the program here in CA - yes, O'Neill destroyed Koppel .. it was hysterical. So glad I read this thread before I saw the show.
I though John was just wonderful .. and I especially loved it when he mentioned that although Ted had interviewed VC, he had never interviewed the Swift Vets ..!!! Awesome!!
It would be interesting to see what Swift Boat actions took place on or around May 12, 1969.
I heard that interview, it was hysterical. One of them said she was against Bush because he was going to blow up the world. LOL!! Good grief.
Ted Baxter?
The interview was surreal, Ted was getting pummeled repeatedly
He reminded me of those arcade games were a set of prairie dogs pop up out of the hole and WHAM! you hit it with the hammer
It's easy .. absolute power corrupts absolutely!!
Ted couldn't have been so stupid not to know, that in a communist country people aren't just allowed to talk to foreign reporters and say what they want.
The whole thing was a put up job by the Vietnamese communist government.
Ted, as Kerry did in 1971 was spouting exactly what the communist Vietnamese government wanted them to.
And Koppel calls himself a journalist. How pathetic. It's actually even worse than what Dan Rather did.
Nicely done bump.
Ted is not interested in facts.
Defeating Bush is his only agenda.
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