Hugh Hewitt on SwiftVets and "Christmas in Cambodia"

Hugh Hewitt ^ | 8/6/04 | Hugh Hewitt

[Steven W.]

The key to all the underpinnings of Kerry's public life is the idea that he was sent to Vietnam and forced to go to Cambodia by an evil Republican President Richard Nixon who lied to the public about his presence there, leading to his rethinking the war, etc., etc.

The "Christmas in Cambodia" story - if / as proven false - puts the lie to all that upon which Kerry has based his positioning etc. on over the past years; albeit his testimony before the Senate in 1970's, his rant against Reagan supporting the Butcher of Managua in the speech on the Senate floor in the 80's to his comments about Bush and lying or war today, everything, down to the utter core of his soul (whatever is there) is derived from these events. If / as proven wrong, every essence of his being and the statements or policies or positions he derives from such, literally crumble under the weight of the intellectual fraud on which this story is based.

GET A COPY OF THE SENATE TESTIMONY & KERRY WILL BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE!

[Always Right]

Kerry's already been caught in several lies such as his ever changing story about the medal tossing event.

[Spok]

"Journalists ought to instead ask "What's new in the book that is susceptible of being proven true or false, leading to increases or decreases in the critics' or Kerry's credibility?"

Call me a cynic, but what I think concerns journalists is saving Kerry's campaign from becoming a disaster for him and a monumental humiliation to the Democrats.

[Steven W.]

it's not just being caught in a lie - it's being caught lying about the fundamental reason for his basic course of reasoning. Everthing Kerry has ever said or done, since, including throwing the medals ... or ribbons ... or whatever, comes back to a rationale which is based on the events outlined in his "Christmas in Cambodia" story. If a ruse, as it obviously is (Nixon wasn't president in 1968) - then the whole basis for Kerry's being is shown to be false and phony. Then everything else, also known or easily seen as lies, whether medal throwing or his positions supporting other communists like Daniel Ortega, goes away, leaving him without any underlying sense of purpose or rationale for any position he has ever espoused.

[CyberCowboy777]

Vetting the truth bump!

[gilliam]

Reminds me of the get out the vote commercial with the people all standing around saying: do something!

Well, these two quotes should be easy to research. Can't anyone research them?

Then it is just a matter of finding out if he really was there or not.

[Merry]

Does he really think that there are going to be discussions about that in the newsrooms. I doubt it.

[Reagan Man]

I think a whole bunch of conservatives are overreacting.

An earlier release of the book "Unfit For Command", would have had a more damaging effect on the Kerry campaign. This is mostly information that was already in the public domain and is far too late in the anti-Kerry opposition gameplan to have a serious effect on the outcome of the election.

Btw. Even though its been 30 years since Watergate, whenever the name Richard Nixon is mentioned in todays political environment, people don't think of a great statesman. They think of someone who broke the law and walked on prosecution and jail time.

Call it lies, call it distortions, call it whatever you like. Most Americans have moved on and aren't interested in revisiting stories from the Vietnam War era. Kerry's record post-Vietnam and his 19 years in the US Senate should be made an issue of.

[Tacis]

I'm sorry but this is not fair and balanced and, therefore, the ultra-left wing neocommunist media will not touch it. The NYT, IIRC, maintained absolute secrecy on all classified and secret matters regarding Nam and would be unable to comment on whether traitor John had ever been in Cambodia.

[kabar]

http://www.insightmag.com/main.cfm?include=detail&storyid=681132

[kabar]

VAN SUSTEREN: Michael, did he cooperate at all with this or participate or sit down for interviews?

MICHAEL KRANISH, KERRY BIOGRAPHER: Well, sure. We did a series last year. It was a seven part series that ran 14 pages in the newspaper and he sat down for about ten hours of interviews for this series.

The book was written during the time when he was still running for the nomination right at the height of the Super Tuesday primaries and so forth, so our material for interviews was from the series.

To go back to your question you asked Nina, you know, he's also a skeptic of government. So, you ask why does he go, some people say flip- flop, other people would say why does he question things the way that he does?

A very short anecdote, he was in Vietnam and he was in Cambodia as part of a mission. I don't know if he intended to go but that's where he was but the government that was running the war knew that troops were in Cambodia but Nixon, President Nixon at the time was telling the American public, "We're not in Cambodia."

So, from a very early time, John Kerry is skeptical of government and he came back to protest the war that he participated in, so this is where some of this inner belief comes from. He does -- he did serve but he also questioned.

[gilliam]

I don't know if he intended to go but that's where he was but the government that was running the war knew that troops were in Cambodia but Nixon, President Nixon at the time was telling the American public, "We're not in Cambodia."

Was he lost?

[gilliam]

by the way, Nixon was not President at the time, I am told.

[gilliam]

So, from a very early time, John Kerry is skeptical of government and he came back to protest the war that he participated in, so this is where some of this inner belief comes from. He does -- he did serve but he also questioned.

Personally, I think he was ticked off because he was told to go home.

[gilliam]

Christmas Eve 1968 Johnson was in office, not Nixon

[kabar]

That's the point. Kerry was lying if you believe what John O'Neill wrote in his book. Nixon wasn't in office and Kerry was never in Cambodia. Just trying to find a primary source to prove it.

[Ann Archy]

WOW!! Christmas in Cambodia story!! This story is a centipede it has so many legs!!

[musicman]

Golly....Nixon didn't take office until Jan.20th,1969.

...hmmmmm "I'll take " kerrys Fabricated Lies Told to Try to Become President for $1000. Alex"......

[gilliam]

Kerry was known to get lost while commanding his boat. It is possible he wandered into Cambodia :)