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.
How do you unsear a memory?
He's been a programmed zombie for decades. There's a reason he took a film camera and a typewriter to Viet Nam and there's a reason he likens himself to Martin Sheen.
They're both actors.
Wow another thing O'Reilly and the rest of the enablers will not report.
Kerry says in the article that he went to Cambodia MANY times.
Swifts were 50 feet. I understand there was a 30 foot US boat, shallow draft, that would have been used to go into Cambodia, if there was any mission to Cambodia. Note Kerry's reference to Apocalypse Now. The single boat that Martin Sheen was driving, was smaller than a Swift Boat.
The movie reference, which most media leave out in referring to Kerry, helps to explain what's going on. Kerry's boat would not, for physical limitations, be used on a Cambodian "black op." But Kerry made that connection to paint himself as a hero in his own mind.
Congressman Billybob
Latest column, "Says the Wuss: Ma, He's Touching Me"
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I actually was near Cambodia, before I was in it.
Did Kerry enjoy the USO show with the Playboy Bunnies?
I just like "Apackolies Now" a little better. :)
-PJ
John / Billybob
OK, so we have Kerry caught 100% red handed on paper lying about his war record to propel himself politically. What is the best way to exploit this?
I think the Kerry defence will be a play on these words, trying to obfuscate the issue (which is a core tenet of being a democrat).
Kerry's words: "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."
He will say he was 5 miles inside Nam, actually 5 miles away from the Cambodian border. The "I didn't have sexual relations with that woman!!! Monica Lewinsky, I never told yold you to lie."
Clinton meant it as 2 senctences, everyone reported it as 1 long sentence. In his mind "THAT WOMAN" meant some female he was POINTING at in the news conference.
The "MONICA LEWINSKY" was NOT the woman he was refering to, it's the meaning of IS defence.
Look’s like Kerry’s on his flip-flop-a-losa tour.
What a scumbag.
He takes a false cheap shot at Nixon when Nixon wasn't President and when Kerry wasn't in Cambodia.
He's a total FRAUD. He's been exposed.
If Pres. Bush said he flew F-4's instead of F-100's, the media would make him toast on a relatively minor gaffe.
Kerry has incontrovertibly intentionally lied about his war record. He should be destroyed for this.
Apollo 8 was wearing your pajamas? That is so cool.
bump
I couldn't read that if my life depended on it. I'd have to make it up as I go...
HIn September he will proclaim that Vivaldi is his favorite composer and that he learned to surf in Vietnam, and personally witnessed the effect that massive napalm drops had on the break of the waves in the surf.
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