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.
And I was glued to the tube watching Apollo 8 circle the moon!...in my pajamas!
Kerry Bilge water.
another problem is the jokes on leno and letterman should start soon-
any word on these?
good one!! that's the Boston Herald newspaper I presume.
It never happened. Kerry now knows it never happened.
He's been caught in a self-promoting lie, worse than what Gore did, as it relates to miltary service.
He is a FRAUD and a disgrace.
We all know that.
Kerry's aim was to imply that Nixon was president and had ordered covert operations in Cambodia and then lied to the American people.
What's your point?
I think we have gotten to the bottom of it. Now its a matter of the MSM actually relating the truth of the matter to the unengaged segment of the electorate.
Kozak has the official Congressional record in photos posted
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1189380/posts?page=109#109
You are right...But during the Christmas that Kerry is talking about the President saying he wasn't in Cambodia when Kerry says that he was....JOHNSON was President and Kerry keeps saying Nixon said it....another lie!!!
Worse than self-promoting. For years he used that story to tear at Nixon (yes, Nixon did wrong things, but that doesn't give license to the likes of John Kerry to then make up things out of whole cloth about him) AND to tell the American public that the government had lied to them, and then he offered his false testimony as evidence.
"Apackolies Now"
Good One! Is that yours?
I love the smell of napalm in the morning. It reminds me of VICTORY!
Nixon was elected in November 1968 and inaugurated in January 1969. The president who was not elected to his first term in office, then lied us into a war which he bungled so badly that the troops weren't given a chance to win, Lyndon Johnson, was president during the period of Kerry's recovered delusional memory.
Yes, but on Christmas 1968, he hadn't been inaugurated yet. That didn't happen until January 20, 1969. Johnson was still president until then.
Have you noticed how kerry always refers toVietnam as 'Nixon's war'. Johnson was president when he went over. Nixon was when he came back.
So who's going to transcribe this mess?
Sure would like to see a reprint (readable) of the scanned article. :-)
"Yeah, baby I was in Cambodia, secret CIA mission, I had to kill Col Kurtz."
"See my camo boonie cap the CIA gave me, this is all hush hush though don't tell anybody."
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
