KERRY/CAMBODIA UPDATE (Kerry draws parallels to Apocalypse Now in story)

Instapundit ^ | Glenn Reynolds

[Clemenza]

Yep, I misremembered the protagonist in the movie for the Chief of the boat. As soon as I read your post, I remembered the scene where the Chief bought the farm.

A Spear?

[maica]

And I was in Guam, working in Guam Memorial Hospital, having just seen the Bob Hope Show, and preparing to return stateside on New Year's Eve.

[Poohbah]

It might just be possible to indicate (but not prove) that some of Kerry's citations were written on his own typewriter, that would be awesome!

Actually, if we can get samples of writing that are known to be from his typewriter (typed letters to people in the States from Vietnam) and compare them to the citations, it would prove it one way or another.

[Brian Mosely]

NOTHING ON THE KERRY/CAMBODIA STORY in either the New York Times or the Washington Post this morning -- I just searched both sites. Even though the Kerry Campaign has now admitted that Kerry's oft-repeated stories about being in Cambodia on Christmas Day, 1968 aren't true. The Post did find the time to condemn the Swift Boat vets, though, without admitting that one of their charges has already been borne out.

They're spending another chunk of their diminishing credibility to help this guy. Hope they still think it was worth it in a few years.

UPDATE: Well here's a report:

For the first time, Sen John Kerry, the Democratic presidential challenger, has been left floundering by allegations that he invented a key episode of his decorated wartime service in Vietnam - a central plank of his election platform. . . . the Kerry campaign was left in verbal knots after a new book accused the senator of inventing stories about being sent, illegally, over the border into neutral Cambodia. . . .

In newspaper articles, interviews and at least one Senate speech, Mr Kerry has claimed that he spent Christmas 1968 inside Cambodia, at a time when even the US president was publicly denying that American forces were inside that country.

He has cited the missions as a psychological turning point, when he realised that American leaders were not telling the truth to the world about the war in south-east Asia.

The Kerry campaign responded, initially, that Mr Kerry had always said he was "near" Cambodia. Then a campaign aide said Mr Kerry had been in the Mekong Delta "between" Vietnam and next-door Cambodia - a geographical zone not found on maps, which show the Mekong river running from Cambodia to Vietnam.

Michael Meehan, a Kerry campaign adviser, told ABC Television: "The Mekong Delta consists of the border between Cambodia and Vietnam, so on Christmas Eve in 1968, he was in fact on patrol . . . in the Mekong Delta between Cambodia and Vietnam. He was ambushed, they fired back, he was fired upon from both sides, from the Cambodian side of the border and the Vietnam side during that day in 1968."

The map accompanying the story makes short work of that geographical absurdity. I hope that if Kerry's elected, he'll find some advisors who can read a map. (You can see a bigger, and clearer, map here, if you're interested.)

posted at 07:22 AM by Glenn Reynolds

[maica]

Fascinating scan, Meek.

The bio blurb under Kerry's name is interesting -
It lists Lt jg - Mekong Delta -
later spokesman anti-war movement
in 1972 ran unsuccessfully for ... congress
"From 1976-79, Kerry was first assistant district attorney for Middlesex County.
He is now a private attorney practicing in Boston." [Aug 1979]
*****

I assume that he was in law school during 1972 to 76, most law schools take 3 years. I guess his trust funds and his reserve officer paycheck supported his wife and children for these years.

I wonder why he did not stay as assistant DA? Did he have the same effect on his peers and co-workers there as he did in the Swift Boats Unit.

Another mostly hidden bio note is that he met his first wife in 1963, when he was 19. She is the twin sister of his college roommate. Kerry was visiting the Thorne's beach home on Long Island during the summer after his freshman year. According to another news article "she remained with him through college and two tours of Vietnam." They married in 1970. The marriage was solid until he ran for office in 1972.

So they were friends/lovers? for 7 years, but two years after marriage, she had had enough.

I detect a pattern here!

PS: I think his roommate ex-brother-in-law is still close to him, and working on his campaign.

[Condor51]

Yes but in DEC of 68, LBJ was POTUS and would have been the one who 'sent' Kerry there ...... Bwaaahaha!!

[Condor51]

There's a man who leads a life of danger
With every quote he gets a little stranger
And every speech he makes, the truth is always at stake
Odds are he won't live to see November

Secret agent man, secret agent man
They've given you a number and taken away your brain

Beware of pretty faces that you find
A pretty face can hide an evil mind
Ah, be careful what you say
Or you'll give yourself away
Odds are you won't live to see November

Secret agent man, secret agent man
They've given you a number and taken away your brain

------ lead guitar ------

Secret agent man, secret agent man
They've given you a number and taken away your brain

Swingin' on the Riviera one day
Boatin' in Cambodia on the next day
Oh no, you let the wrong word slip
While kissing Teresa's lips
The odds are now she'll leave you broke tomorrow

Secret agent man, secret agent man
They've given you a number and taken away your brain

Secret agent man....

[stocksthatgoup]

ON MORE THAN ONE OCCASION

[Condor51]

OOPS, forgot a major clarification:

The reference to not 'living' to see November means his campaign - period! Nothing nefarious is meant. It's only a parody song (for all you FBI lurkers)!

[maica]

I saw a rep for Kerry spin on Brit Hume's show last night, but did not have time to really focus on who the spokesman was. His story was that Kerry was not there on Christmas Eve, but he did ferry Navy Seals in to Cambodia on other occasions, after Nixon was elected!

I suggest that JFnK task at least one campaign worker to read our threads, before they try to sell an new lie.

They ought to buy O'Neil's book and read that, too, before they embarass themselves by showing their ignorance.

To these anti-war limpwristed socialists, Seals, CIA, Green Berets, Vietnam, Cambodia, 50-ft high bridge boat, Boston whaler, are all distinctions without a difference.

[mwl1]

I would like to know how he can contend he was in Cambodia 50+ times over 30+ years and now call that a "misstatement."

By contrast, Bush has had to provide exacting details of his day-to-day, week-to-week, month-to-month whereabouts during Vietnam with minute precision and zero tolerance for error.

The double standard is sickening, devastating to our country, and, sadly, the MSM and Kerry campaign are getting away with stonewalling this story.

[Travis McGee]

There is NO chance that a fifty foot long twenty feet high "castle" profile Swift boat would be used to sneak ANYBODY into Cambodia. If it was ever done at all, it would have been a PBR (30 footer) or an even smaller boat, like a boston whaler, or a native sampan. But a big fat tall Swift boat? Ridiculous! The only times SEALs would ever travel on Swift boats would be to be moved from A to B, and NOT into areas known to be under enemy observation.

[Condor51]

"Wow. I watched Apollo circle the moon, but I never noticed it was "in your pajamas."

That's NOTHING!

Last night I shot an Elephant in my pajamas.
How he got in them I'll never know.

© Groucho Marx

[EdReform]

BTTT

Talking Points for Freepers Re: Swift Boat Veterans for Truth - www.SwiftVets.com

[Fiddlstix]

BTTT

[exhaustedmomma]

But Kerry made that connection to paint himself as a hero in his own mind.

Oh but, John of Arc has his "lucky hat", given to him by a CIA guy.

[exhaustedmomma]

John Kerry | CANDIDATE IN THE MAKING

Back at his base, a weary, disconsolate Kerry sat at his typewriter, as he often did, and poured out his grief. "You hope that they'll courtmartial you or something because that would make sense," Kerry typed that night. He would later recall using court-martial as "a joke," because nothing made sense to him -- the war policy, the deaths, and his presence in the middle of it all. (*Yeah right... joke my toe.)
In an intense three months of combat following that Christmas Eve battle, Kerry often would go beyond his Navy orders and beach his boat, in one case chasing and killing a teenage Viet Cong enemy who wore only a loin cloth and carried a rocket launcher. Kerry's aggressiveness in combat caused a commanding officer to wonder whether he should be given a medal or court-martialed. Kerry would watch in despair as a crewmate killed a boy who may or may not have been an innocent civilian. He would angrily challenge a military policy that risked the death of noncombatants.

**Seems like "courtmartial" was thrown around alot. And maybe not just at him, possibly his crewmates?????????)

[exhaustedmomma]

King of Cambodia endorsement, hmmmmmm. That's got my curiosity stirred.

[exhaustedmomma]

one comprehensive thread for all the Kerry's Christmas in Cambodia stories/links/quotes.

I second that!

[cartoonistx]