CALLED TO SERVE AGAIN

Captain Ed has the complete text of the letter that Swift Boat Veterans for Truth spokesman John O'Neill has sent to television stations in response to the Kerry campaign's threat to sue them if they run the veterans' ad. O'Neill's letter is absolutely devastating. If the facts surrounding John Kerry's fabrication of claims about his Vietnam service, and his slander of his fellow servicemen after he returned home after a mere four months in Vietnam, were widely known, Kerry would not stand a chance in November.

One key Kerry fabrication is the "Christmas in Cambodia" story that he has told over and over again throughout his career. O'Neill's letter treats this issue briefly:

If there is a consistent[ly] repeated story by John Kerry about his Vietnam experience, it is his story about how he and his boat spent Christmas Eve and Christmas of 1968 illegally present in Cambodia and, listening to President Nixon's contrary assurances, developed "a deep mistrust of U.S. government pronouncements." See Exhibit 24, Kranish book, p. 84. The point of his story was that his government and his commanders were lying about Kerry's presence in Cambodia on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. During a critical debate on the floor of the United States Senate on March 27, 1986, Senator John Kerry said: Mr. President, I remember Christmas of 1968 sitting on a gunboat in Cambodia. I remember what it was like to be shot at by 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.

By way of further example, Kerry wrote an article for the Boston Herald on October 14, 1979:

"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 killed by our own allies in a country in which President Nixon claimed there were no American troops was very real."

The Christmas in Cambodia story of John Kerry was repeated as recently as July 7, 2004 by Michael Kranish, a principal biographer of Kerry from The Boston Globe. On the Hannity & Colmes television show, Kranish indicated that Kerry's Christmas in Cambodia was a critical turning point in Kerry's life.

The story is a total preposterous fabrication by Kerry. Exhibit 8 is an affidavit by the Commander of the Swift boats in Vietnam, Admiral Roy Hoffmann, stating that Kerry's claim to be in Cambodia for Christmas Eve and Christmas of 1968 is a total lie. If necessary, similar affidavits are available from the entire chain of command. In reality, Kerry was at Sa Dec -- easily locatable on any map more than fifty miles from Cambodia. Kerry himself inadvertently admits that he was in Sa Dec for Christmas Eve and Christmas and not in Cambodia, as he had stated for so many years on the Senate Floor, in the newspapers, and elsewhere. Exhibit 27, Tour, pp. 213-219. Sa Dec is hardly "close" to the Cambodian border. In reality, far from being ordered secretly to Cambodia, Kerry spent a pleasant night at Sa Dec with "visions of sugar plums" dancing in his head. Exhibit 27, p. 219. At Sa Dec where the Swift boat patrol area ended, there were many miles of other boats (PBR's) leading to the Cambodian border. There were also gunboats on the border to prevent any crossing. If Kerry tried to get through, he would have been arrested. Obviously, Kerry has hardly been honest about his service in Vietnam.

The other aspect of this story that is completely phony, but is not noted by O'Neill, is that Richard Nixon was not the President in December 1968. Lyndon Johnson was. It is simply incredible to me that for many years, reporters have mindlessly repeated this obviously false story without, apparently, noticing that it couldn't possibly be true.

And, if you're thinking that Kerry may inadvertently have gotten the year wrong, forget about it: Kerry was only in Vietnam for four months, and he spent only one Christmas there. It was 1968.

Those who think this story doesn't have legs are wrong. Kerry has made his service in Vietnam the centerpiece of his campaign, for reasons I can't understand. In contrast, his nineteen years in the Senate are a well-kept secret. So he has obviously opened the door to scrutiny of his record. Yesterday, we spent most of the first hour of our radio show talking about the Swift Boat Vets' charges. The response was unbelievable. The phones were ringing off the hook; we've never gotten so many calls. One Vietnam veteran was in tears as he talked about an upcoming family reunion, and wondered whether his nephews and nieces would think he was a war criminal, because of Kerry's slanders. Two Democrats called and tried to argue with us. A mistake.

The facts that the Swift Vets are prepared to prove are nuclear, far worse than one would assume from reading general newspaper coverage of the controversy. It is not enough to say that the Vets' evidence shows Kerry to be a liar. That is an understatement. In my opinion, they show Kerry to be a sick, deeply delusional man whose tenuous connection to reality would make a Kerry presidency an unacceptable danger to our country.

One of the Swift Boat Vets has said that he and his colleagues--who represent nearly all of the surviving veterans who served with Kerry in Vietnam--feel that they have been called to serve their country a second time. The veterans' problem, of course, is that they don't have any money. While borderline-criminal multi-billionaires like George Soros and spoiled entertainers like Ben Affleck have the Democrats' coffers overflowing with tens of millions if not hundreds of millions of dollars, the veterans have been able to raise only a pitiful $150,000--most of it from a single home-builder in Houston, who has been slandered for his efforts.

The newspapers and television networks will do their best to kill this story; it will never see the light of day unless citizens pay to put the veterans' ads on the air. We will never be able to match the Democrats' money, but you can do your part to help the veterans get their message out here.

DEACON adds: Richard Nixon (or was it Lyndon Johnson) was a pretty smart fellow. It appears that he knew more about where John Kerry spent Christmas 1968 than John Kerry did. And Nixon/Johnson didn't even have the benefit of a "seared" memory. Sunday, August 8, 2004

Captain Ed and Powerline are keeping the focus on Kerry's Christmas-Eve-in-Cambodia lie, and Ed has a letter from John O'Neill that answers all the charges made after the swift-boat ad appeared. Even empty-headed tv-types must know that the Cambodia whopper is the weakest spot in Kerry's Vietnam narrative. First Q: Senator, did you ever state that you had been sent on an illegal mission into Cambodia on Christmas eve? Second Q: If so, did that really happen? If not: What's this speech you made on the floor of the Senate on March 27, 1986 all about?

UPDATE: John "Christmas-Eve-In-Cambodia" Kerry is getting seared --seared-- by the blogosphere, including new posts by Instapundit, Ipse Dixit, LittleGreenFootballs, Roger L. Simon, and Speed of Thought, and a comprehensive one (plus great comments) at JustOneMinute. So does elite media even mention the obvious story tomorrow: "Swiftboat Critics of Kerry Bring Attention to a Kerry Lie"? Probably not, but one would think that the Boston Globe, whose reporters put out an entire book on Kerry that includes a reference to the implausible "illegal mission" to Cambodia without noticing the lie would carry a special burden to flesh out this story. Boston Globe editor Martin Baron has been known to turn a blind eye to unflattering stories about Democrats in the past, so we'll see if he assigns his troops to follow up this inviting target.

Given the big lefty bloggers' collective refusal to mention the searing memories that John Kerry carried with him (but which Kerry forgot to mention to Douglas Brinkley when that book was getting written and fact-checkers might have raised an eyebrow or two), the Kerry-in-Cambodia story has gone as far as it can in the blogosphere. I have spent two days focusing on it on the radio, and hopefully Rush, Sean, Dennis and Michael will add some attention to the mix, but at some point a print editor or television producer with integrity has to surface who is willing to acknowledge that Kerry's lying about an illegal mission to Cambodia --on the floor of a Senate in order to advance a political agenda-- raises a huge question about all of his Vietnam narrative that depends solely on his testimony, and on his credibility generally. Boldly inventing episodes that didn't happen to pad your resume doesn't detract from Kerry's courage, or his rescue of one of his crewmates under fire, but Christmas-Eve-in-Cambodia is a window on Kerry's trustworthiness. Given the number of serious writers who have now bothered to check and recheck the story --and in Glenn's case, to post the photograph of the relevant page of the Congressional Record-- indifference from the papers and the networks will be clear proof of the agenda journalism driving the major news rooms in their full "get Bush" mode.

I expect indifference, but Kerry's people must be holding their breath. One question and the hunt will be on. And if I am a presidential debate panelist, I tuck this one into my "make me famous" pile: "Senator, on March 27, 1986, in a debate on U.S policy in Nicaragua, you told your colleagues in the United States Senate that you had been quote seared, seared close quote by having been sent on an illegal mission on Christmas eve into Cambodia. Your critics say that never happened, that you made that episode up, and that your credibility is damaged by your having made up such a story. Did it happen Senator, and can you provide us the exact details of what happened?"

This story was just reported on Fox's Special Report but even they didn't mention the Nixon lie. They're probably getting swamped with emails on that point now. I sent mine.

He also said the Kerry Camp denied he ever said he was in Cambodia. Whoops! That damned Congressional Record and the article Kerry wrote for the Boston paper. Then it was We'll get back to you when we figure out a response.

Carl Cameron is still waiting....

I saw Cameron's report. What I found amusing is that Kerry's staff initially denied Kerry made the statement about being in Cambodia. When shown proof of the quote in the Senate record, the staff said they would get back to Cameron. As of the time of his report, Cameron hadn't heard anything.....SHOCKING...absolutely SHOCKING but true to form.

06/25

Kerry-MIA

By JOHN DIAMOND
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Navy Lt. John Kerry knew he had no business steering his Mekong River patrol boat across the border into Cambodia, but orders were orders.

But for Kerry, who spent six violent months commanding a patrol boat on the Mekong River, there's always been a ring of truth to allegations of abandoned Americans. By Christmas 1968, part of Kerry's patrol extended across the border of South Vietnam into Cambodia.

"We were told, `Just go up there and do your patrol. Everybody was over there (in Cambodia). Nobody thought twice about it," Kerry said. One of the missions, which Kerry, at the time, was ordered not to discuss, involved taking CIA operatives into Cambodia to search for enemy enclaves.

"I can remember wondering, `If you're going to go, what happens to you,"' Kerry said.

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