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.
No sane person (who isn't hallucinating) could have a mistaken recollection about this, with all the great number of details that Kerry offers, such as taking the CIA operative "illegally" up the river "into" Cambodia.
He is a total FRAUD.
Unfortunately Kerry and his supporters on the left will continue to knowingly spout blatant, outrageous lies. They understand that no matter WHAT they say, they'll still get 40% of vote or so, and they think they can make up any shortfall from getting votes from the suckers who believe them. I think it will backfire, however.
When Kerry starts hanging mutilated staffers from the lamp posts outside the DNC Lair and putting heads on the reserved parking posts, while Dennis Hopper replaces Terri McAullife as DNC talking head, only then will I be certain they are imploding.
I'm trying to imagine discussions at Kerry for Prez High Command.
"Gee, John, it looks like you read your Cambodia story into the Congressional Record. That's going to be hard to spin away. These guys have affadavits and books and stuff that looks pretty convincing. Are you sure there's nothing to any of the phony medal stuff? Tell us again how you braved enemy fire to rescue this Rassmen guy."
Apocalypse Now was released in 1979. Is Kerry on record claiming Cambodian adventures prior to that date?
It wouldn't change the core fabrication, but it would make some slight difference in atmospherics if he made the story up independently, as opposed to seizing on a major movie target of opportunity.
Kerry's own reference to that movie -- which I hadn't known about prior to today through the more complete Instapundit quotation -- seems very telling to me. It is also consistent with the combat cap story from the Washington Post two years ago, that Kerry carries in his briefcase today a "cap given to me by a CIA agent on a secret mission."
How do you add those details up from your own standpoint?
John / Billybob
...Like Martin Sheen in "Apocalypse Now" took my patrol boat into Cambodia. In fact, I remember spending Christmas Eve of 1968 five miles across the Cambodian border being shot at by our South Vientnamese allies who were drunk and celebrating Christmas. The absurdity of almost being killed by our own allies in a country in which President Nixon [denied] there were any American troops (illegible)...
So it is clear that Kerry remembered being ordered into Cambodia on a secret mission by Richard Nixon at least one month before he was elected President. Secret mission indeed. Who would have thought that Nixon was calling the shots before he was inaugurated?
I'm claiming this one first.
thanks, i missed that.
Kerry just lies for Kerry's cause and nobody elses.
Heck, America celebrated Clinton's lies. His lies were entertaining, huge in scope, and he pioneered the use of accusing your enemy of the exact behavior you yourself were guilty of, thus innoculating yourself from your own behavior.
Permission granted.
Francis Ford Coppola's movie: Apocalypse Now.
Kerry's presidential campaign: A Crock o' S**t Now
On NPR last week they had a talking head on claiming that conservatives place way too much stock in events and history of the past, that they are obsessed by it to the point of foolishness. He claimed that liberals are the only ones with hope and regard for our future, refusing to be governed by the past.
Christmas of 68? Sure, Nixon was ELECTED, but Johnson occcupied the White House until January 1969, right? Just like now, Bush was elected in November 2000, but didn't take office until January 2001.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/index2.html
From the White House web site, it lists:
Johnson, Lyndon - 1963-1969
Nixon, Richard - 1969-1974
Ford, Gerald - 1974-1977
So - Christmas of 1968, it was President Johnson, and President-Elect Nixon.
Shifty Swifty..........
The SS Kerry has sprung a leak. Man overboard.
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