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new movie!: a suggestion
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Posted on 08/04/2004 11:25:23 PM PDT by Steven W.
Christmas In “Cambodia”
Vietnam, December 1968
JOHN KERRY’S STORY
If there is one story told over and over again by John Kerry since his return from Vietnam, it is the heart-wrenching tale of how he spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day illegally in Cambodia. From the early 1970s, when he used the tale as part of his proof for war crimes in Cambodia, through the mid-1980s and the 1990s, Kerry has spoken and written again and again of how he was illegally ordered to enter Cambodia.
On the floor of the U.S. Senate on March 27, 1986, Kerry launched one of his many attacks against President Reagan—this time charging that President Reagan’s actions in Central America were leading the United States into yet another Vietnam, claiming that he could recognize the error of the administration’s ways because he had experienced firsthand the duplicity of the Nixon administration in lying about American incursions into Cambodia during the Vietnam War.
Kerry charged that he had been illegally ordered into Cambodia during Christmas 1968:
I remember Christmas of 1968 sitting on a gunboat in Cambodia. I remember what it was like to be shot at by the Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge and Cambodians, and have the president of the United States telling the American people that I was not there; the troops were not in Cambodia. I have that memory which is seared—seared—in me.
Kerry also described, for example, for the Boston Herald his vivid memories of his Christmas Eve spent in Cambodia:
I remember spending Christmas Eve of 1968 five miles across the Cambodian border being shot at by our South Vietnamese allies who were drunk and celebrating Christmas. The absurdity of almost being killed by our own allies in a country in which President Nixon claimed there were no American troops was very real.
As recently as July 7, 2004, Michael Kranish of the Boston Globe repeated Kerry’s Christmas in Cambodia story on FOX News Channel’s Hannity & Colmes, indicating that it was a critical turning point in Kerry’s life. Kranish had no knowledge, even after his extensive study of Kerry, that he was simply repeating a total fabrication by Kerry. And Kranish was right: Study of the Christmas in Cambodia story is central to understanding John Kerry.
The story is also in the pages of the 2004 biography written by Krahish and other Boston Globe reporters. As we have come to expect, the story is twisted at the end to provide justification for yet another of Kerry’s political ruses, this time used to justify what Kerry portrays as his noble and continuing distrust of government pronouncements:
To top it off, Kerry said later that he had gone into Cambodia, despite President Nixon’s assurances to the American public that there was no combat action in this neutral territory. The young sailor began to develop a deep mistrust of the U.S. government pronouncements, he later recalled.
Even without minimal investigation, a critical press should have been able to spot the story as a total fabrication: Richard Nixon did not become president of the United States until twenty-six days after John Kerry’s Christmas in Cambodia.
WHAT REALLY HAPPENED: CHRISTMAS IN VIETNAM
Despite the dramatic memories of his Christmas in Cambodia, Kerry’s statements are complete lies. Kerry was never in Cambodia during Christmas 1968, or at all during the Vietnam War. In reality, during Christmas 1968, he was more than fifty miles away from Cambodia. Kerry was never ordered into Cambodia by anyone and would have been court-martialed had he gone there.
During Christmas 1968, Kerry was stationed at Coastal Division 13 in Cat Lo. Coastal Division 13’s patrol areas extended to Sa Dec, about fifty-five miles from the Cambodian border. Areas closer than fifty-five miles to the Cambodian border in the area of the Mekong River were patrolled by PBRs, a small river patrol craft, and not by Swift Boats. Preventing border crossings was considered so important at the time that an LCU (a large, mechanized landing craft) and several PBRs were stationed to ensure that no one could cross the border.
A large sign at the border prohibited entry. Tom Anderson, Commander of River Division 531, who was in charge of the PBRs, confirmed that there were no Swifts anywhere in the area and that they would have been stopped had they appeared.
All the living commanders in Kerry’s chain of command—Joe Streuhli (Commander of CosDiv 13), George Elliott (Commander of CosDiv 11), Adrian Lonsdale (Captain, USCG and Commander, Coastal Surveillance Center at An Thoi), Rear Admiral Roy Hoffmann (Commander, Coastal Surveillance Force Vietnam, CTF 115), and Rear Admiral Art Price (Commander of River Patrol Force, CTF 116)—deny that Kerry was ever ordered to Cambodia. They indicate that Kerry would have been seriously disciplined or court-martialed had he gone there. At least three of the five crewmen on Kerry’s PCF 44 boat—Bill Zaldonis, Steven Hatch, and Steve Gardner—deny that they or their boat were ever in Cambodia. The remaining two crewmen declined to be interviewed for this book. Gardner, in particular, will never forget those days in late December when he was wounded on PCF 44, not in Cambodia, but many miles away in Vietnam.
The Cambodia incursion story is not included in Tour of Duty.
Instead, Kerry replaces the story with a report about a mortar attack that occurred on Christmas Eve 1968 “near the Cambodia border” in a town called Sa Dec, some fifty-five miles from the Cambodian border.
Somehow, Kerry’s secret illegal mission to Cambodia, which he recounted on the floor of the U.S. Senate in 1986, is now a firefight at Sa Dec and a Christmas day spent back at the base writing entries in his journal. The truth is that Kerry made up his secret mission into Cambodia.
Much like Kerry’s many other lies relating to supposed “war crimes” committed by the U.S. military in Vietnam, the lie about the illegal Cambodian incursion painted his superiors up the chain of command—men such as Commander Streuhli, Commander Elliott, Admiral Hoffmann, and Admiral Zumwalt, all distinguished Naval heroes and men of integrity—as villains faced down by John Kerry, a solitary hero in grave and exotic danger and forced illegally and against his will into harm’s way.
The same sorts of lies were repeated over and over in Kerry’s antiwar book, The New Soldier, a book filled with preposterous, false confessions of bogus war crimes committed by the participants (who were often not even real veterans) against their will and under orders from dishonest superiors. Kerry’s Christmas in Cambodia typifies the sort of lie upon which Kerry has built a false persona and a political career.
The story of Christmas 1968 has one final chapter. When refueling his PCF near Dong Tam, Kerry and his crew were told that the Bob Hope USO show was at the Dong Tam base. So Kerry decided to leave his station on the river and go searching for the Bob Hope Christmas show. Unable to find the show, he risked boat and crew by unknowingly blundering into one of the most dangerous canals in Vietnam, a canal that to those who knew the area was notorious for Viet Cong ambushes. Given the easy navigation by radar and map of the rivers involved—not much more difficult than driving a car—Kerry had just performed a feat of reverse navigation worthy of Wrong Way Corrigan.
There is, of course, no record that Kerry ever informed anyone of what he did, where he was, or where he was going—all required by regulations for the safety of the boat and crew. He did, however, record the Bob Hope adventure in his journal so he could be sure to share it in Tour of Duty.
Wouldn't it be weird if Kerry really remembered it this way - you know, completely, clinically delusional. Not saying that's what I think, but either way the creep is beyond unfit to be Prez.
Outdoor Life Network Fishing With Roland Martin ''The Executive Pond.'' Roland, President Bush and his dog, Barney, fish his personal ranch pond in Crawford, Texas. (30 minutes) Sports, non-event Fishing
Pass along, should be great viewing
(Sorry for being off topic, I'm buying the book asap)
bttt
This Cambodian business is just somebody's imagination. John Kerry's imagination. And pinning it on Dick Nixon is equally immoral. As pointed out, Christmas in 1968 was a time still under the Democratic Administration of Lyndon Johnson. The Apollo 8 crew members went around the moon. And that was about it.
And John Kerry went searching for Bob Hope. Sure, Kerry's going to know he is in Cambodia, even if he were there. Good point about him saying he could ID the Khmer Rouge. What a phoney.
Methinks Kerry has been talking to Oliver Stone too much, or perhaps seeing "Platoon" a few too many times, particularly the "Cambodian incursion" scene. ("Yeah, I even heard we're in F---in' Cambodia." "Cambodia? Man!!!")
Exactly. To the best of my knowledge, the Khmer Rouge from '67 to '70 was little more than a few dozen malcontents working up a plan for revolution in a little encampment in the far northwest, a little south of Poipet, far from the borders of either north or south Vietnam.
The Khmer communist movement started in 1951. This was fully backed by the Vietnamese. They started working within the system through elections trying to get power. This caused a crackdown by Sihanouk including cancelling elections and denying seats to the communists. A thtat point, Sihanouk also started a crackdown against them. They went underground and Pol Pot took over in 1963. At this time they were very pro-VNA and were getting most of their support from Hanoi.
In 1968, they were still a regular insurgent force. The CPK, which was started by Pol Pot and later became the Khmer Rouge was started in 1970 (IIRC). They used the US bombing of Cambodia as a way to recruit people into the movement so it is impossible they existed before 1970.
If Kerry did fight against Cambodians along the border, it was against North Vietnamese backed Khmer guerilla fighters, certainly not against the Khmer Rouge. That said, I have no doubt those people later joined the Khmer Rouge.
During 1967 and 1968, Operation Salem House was putting US Special Forces (Green Berets?) into Cambodia to conduct recon mission and also create random chaos. I don't know very much about these missions but IF they were using swift boats to drop these guys into Cambodia, there is a chance Kerry could have been there when he says he was.
Read my previous post. IF he was there and he was getting shot at, it was not by the Khmer Rouge who didn't exist at the time.
It certainly was not the KR, as you said, which did not really take off until Sihanouk allied himself with the KR after his ouster, during the Khmer Republic, when he went into the jungles. 1970, 1971 at best, several years before Lt. Kerry's 'sojourn'.
UNFIT for President
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new movie!: a suggestion
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All good points, and that's pretty much what I recall from reading Chandler and Kiernan and the rest.
In 1970, the KR numbered less than 10,000, and I think they were fighting for control of the cities and provinces, not down in the swampy border areas near VN hoping to pick off a stray American sailor.
I read this section last night, but didn't have time to comment. I'm so glad someone else picked up Nixon and 1968.
What do you want to bet that the spin will be "Kerry didn't mean Nixon sent troops to Cambodia in 1968, he just meant that Nixon lied to the American public about Cambodia even though he knew troops had been sent to Cambodia by the previous administration?
bump
That would be President Johnson, a democrat.
There is, of course, no record that Kerry ever informed anyone of what he did, where he was, or where he was going—all required by regulations for the safety of the boat and crew.
You see when you're a for really HEro these little rules don't apply to you.
preordained or destined to be President
I understand upper slovinia has an opening.
Remember we have'nt seen anything yet. These idiots still think Kerry's going to win. When it finaly sinks in that they're going to lose...watch out They're going to go absolutly insane! (of course for some of them it's a really short trip)
Links of interest:
U.S. POWs were known to have been inside Cambodia prior to the 1970 incursion
MACV/SOG/OPS-35
Military Assistance Command Vietnam’s (MACV)
Studies and Observation Group (SOG),
and its ground reconnaissance component, Operations 35 (OPS-35)
snip
Between 1964 and 1972, the SOG’s OPS-35 was said to have had a strength of 2,000-2,500 U.S. personnel and 7,000 to 8,000 indigenous troops, most of whom came from South Vietnam’s Montagnard, Cambodian (Khmer Krom), and Nung ethnic minorities. Although OPS-35’s primarily concerns were with strategic reconnaissance, on special occasions its teams would conduct raids, prisoner apprehension missions, or seek-locate-annihilate-and-monitor (SLAM) missions.
Snip
Thus from the initiation of SOG’s Cambodian operations in 1967 until 1970, there was a progressive expansion of the zones of operation and OPS-35 patrols within Cambodia.
Snip
From 1967 through April 1972, OPS-35 conducted 1,398 reconnaissance missions, 38 platoon-sized patrols, and 12 multi-platoon operations in Cambodia. During the same period, it captured 24 prisoners of war.
Snip
Deactivation of SOG and Congressional Hearings
In mid-1972, SOG deactivated.
It seems unlikely that the KR would have been "5 miles" from the VN border in 1968, or that they would have been hanging out with the NVA, or that Kerry would have been able to ID a KR member vs. a plain old Cambodian, esp. at night. The KR didn't wear uniforms. I'm just wondering how Kerry knew that he was facing Cambodians that evening.
I beg to differ; this is WAY past Clinton.
If Kerry or his shills try the "it was a super duper top secret CIA mission, we were sworn to lifetime secrecy and given a special CIA boat for the mission," he'll be laughed at.
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