Posted on 08/11/2004 12:02:30 PM PDT by Brian Mosely
KERRY/CAMBODIA UPDATE: I promised a while back to see if I could get a look at the Boston Herald story -- where Kerry says he remembers spending Christmas, 1968 in Cambodia and hearing President Nixon deny that troops were there -- in original form. The quote's genuine, and here's an image. Sorry it's a bit hard to read: it's a scan of a fax of a photocopy of a microfilm, sent to me by a helpful reader who works at the Herald.
But what's really interesting is the context -- see the full scan here -- which is all about Kerry's Vietnam experiences as they relate to Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now. Unlike Al Gore and Love Story, Kerry doesn't claim that the movie is about him -- but he sure draws parallels. In fact, the passage that everyone has been quoting actually reads like this, when you include the prior sentence that people haven't been including:
On more than one occasion, I, like Martin Sheen in "Apocalypse Now," took my patrol boat into Cambodia
In fact, I remember spending Christmas Day 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. But nowhere in "Apocalypse Now" did I sense that kind of absurdity.
So Kerry's Vietnam experience was like Apocalypse Now, only it was more so.
How much this adds to the debate isn't clear to me -- but in case anyone was doubting the provenance of this particular quotation, well, I'm satisfied now that its authenticity, if not its veracity, is pretty clear.
Presumably, some big-time journalists are even now interviewing people and combing the records to see if this version of Kerry's 1968 Christmas was correct. (For other, inconsistent, versions, click here.) And for those -- apparently unclear on my age and suspecting me of draft-dodging -- who want to know where I was spending my Christmas in 1968, it was in Heidelberg, Germany. I got a train, and an SST model kit.
This Cambodia thing could be fatal to Kerry's campaign.
We need to get to the bottom of it.
"The Horror, The Horror"
NIXON WAS NOT PRESIDENT THEN!!!!! JOHNSON WAS!!!
Yeah... he piloted the boat that dispensed Martin Sheen to get Col. Kurtz!!
Then what? Hitlery replaces him on the ticket to save the day for the dems?
PING...............
Actually that was the year Nixon was elected.
sampan on the port bow, sampan on the port bow. Go investigate Lieutenant. nuh uh....
Actually that was the year Nixon was elected.
sampan on the port bow, sampan on the port bow. Go investigate Lieutenant. nuh uh....
The web of flip/flops is finally catching up with JF'nK. Why don't we just call it what it is . LIES.
FResearch bump
Fox news just reported that Kerry camp now says Kerry was either IN Cambodia OR right at its watery border. Let the flip-flops begin.
Don't forget the point that Kerry talks about President Nixon saying no troops in Cambodia, while he, Kerry, is in Cambodia on Christmas Eve 1968 and that Nixon was not president yet.
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