Some Explaining Is Definitely Due (Kerry's Christmas (Not Really)In Cambodia

One Hand Clapping ^ | August 11, 2004 | Donald Sensing

[TennTuxedo]

Some explaining is definitely due

More and more loose ends are unraveling in the Kerry-Cambodia issue

In all the brouhaha over John Kerry's Vietnam service, I have never taken much note about the validity of his decorations, although I have noted a few times that news stories were being printed or broadcast about them. And truth is, I really don't too much care whether Army Special Forces Capt. Jim Rassman got blown out his boat by enemy fire and then was rescued by Kerry, or had one beer to many and fell out.

I understand why these issues matter to others. As I said here,

I wish both sides would shut up about Vietnam and talk about keeping America safe today and tomorrow. But John Kerry has made his Vietnam service the glaring centerpiece of his ability to secure the country as president. As long as he does so he has to expect his service to come under the microscope. Kerry has made his Vietnam service credential his primary presidential qualification. It's both hypocrisy and fantasy for him to expect his opponents give him a pass on it.

But the issue of whether Kerry was in or not in Cambodia on Christmas 1968 matters to me because IMO it cuts directly to whether he is trustworthy. He claimed on the Senate floor in 1986,

I remember Christmas of 1968 sitting on a gunboat in Cambodia. I remember what it was like to be shot at by Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge and Cambodians, and have the President of the United States telling the American people that I was not there; the troops were not in Cambodia.

I have that memory which is seared - seared - in me, ..."

In a 1979 account carried in the Boston Herald, Kerry (same link), Kerry is quoted thus:

I remember spending Christmas Eve of 1968 five miles across the Cambodian border being shot at by our South Vietnamese allies who were drunk and celebrating Christmas.

Glenn Reynolds, BTW, has posted an image of that story; it's so old that there was some question whether it could be confirmed.

Yet Kerry's authorized biographer, Douglas Brinkley, included in his book this excerpt from Kerry's actual Vietnam diary, dated Dec. 24, 1968:

"Visions of sugarplums really do dance through your head and you think of stockings and snow and roast chestnuts and fires with birch logs and all that is good and warm and real. It's Christmas Eve."

That is not what you expect someone near death from allied fire to write. And they aren't: the words were written at Sa Dec, South Vietnam, 55 miles away from the Cambodian border.

Kerry has not addressed this disparity or the accusations he simply lied about Cambodia in order to disparage President Reagan's assistance to Nicaraguan Contras (1986), or vicariously entered Francis Ford Coppola's 1979 Vietnam piece de resistance, Apocalypse Now (Boston Herald, which he also told, "On more than one occasion, I, like Martin Sheen in 'Apocalypse Now,' took my patrol boat into Cambodia").

Kerry also was quoted by the Washington Post as saying that he ran CIA agents into Cambodia from South Vietnam, which implies strongly, I think, that Kerry meant that he sailed his boat into Cambodia on more than one occasion. So when?

However, three of Kerry's own crew members - his campaign's band of brothers - have stated firmly that they were never in Cambodia or Christmas 1968 or any other day. So do all of Kerry's Vietnam commanders still alive.

It would be a simple thing for the CIA agent(s) Kerry boated into Cambodia to call FoxNews or the NYT and say so, or for records to be gleaned from archives showing whether Kerry's boat sailed CIA agents into the country.

But Kerry and his campaign apparently cannot offer any actual evidence to back up Kerry's decades-long claims. Instead, they are hemming and hawing and playing, "What the candidate meant to say."

But today, on Fox News' "Fox and Friends," Kerry Campaign Advisor Jeh Johnson had this to say to the show's co-host Brian Kilmeade:

JOHNSON: John Kerry has said on the record that he had a mistaken recollection earlier. He talked about a combat situation on Christmas Eve 1968 which at one point he said occurred in Cambodia. He has since corrected the recorded to say it was some place on a river near Cambodia and he is certain that at some point subsequent to that he was in Cambodia. My understanding is that he is not certain about that date.

Just when and where did Kerry say this? My Google searches turned up nothing. So I went to Kerry's own campaign web site and used the site's search feature, searching only for the word, "Cambodia." It yielded exactly two results. One is nothing but a repost of the text of the WaPo story linked above. The other is a summary about Kerry's Vietnam service in which the word, "Cambodia," does not appear; I don't know why it came up as a hit on the search.

If Kerry had done what Johnson said he did - go "on the record" to correct the date - why does not Kerry's campaign site at least link to the record concerned?

I want to know:

• In what medium is Kerry directly quoted making these corrections?

• When were they uttered by Kerry?

• In 1986 Kerry said his 1968 Cambodia Christmas was "seared, seared" into his memory. Why is this memory so indistinct now, to the point that today's story is that he spent Christmas "some place on a river near Cambodia," in Johnson's words? Which river? And how can that be squared with his own diary's account that he was in Sa Dec, South Vietnam at that time?

Until these questions are effectively addressed by Kerry himself, I have to agree with Instapundit reader Daniel Aronstein:

WHAT IF... Porter Goss had lied about going into Cambodia during the Vietnam War repeatedly, over a few decades, in different media, and on the floor of the House)?

Would we want him as DCI? Would he get confirmed? NO WAY!

We should not hold Kerry - who is running for CIC - to a lower standard."

As Glenn said, "Indeed."

[TennTuxedo]

Will anyone hold Senator Kerry's feet to the fire? He owes an explanation to this nation.

[Conspiracy Guy]

Dems don't need truth. It is very cumbersome.



Kerry Lies

War Criminal or War Hero,
See both you cannot be.
You claimed you burned a village,
Sounds like a crime to me.
Cambodia in Sixty-Eight,
You say that you were there.
You said Nixon said you weren’t,
Just why would Nixon care?
He wasn’t even president,
Till Nineteen Sixty-Nine.
But details never bother you,
Bold lies do suit you fine.
Three Purple Hearts for paper cuts,
A Bronze and Silver Star.
Then home you came, threw them away,
But look now, there they are.
You testified with still more lies,
About brave fighting men.
The things you claimed that they did,
Just aren’t true now or then.
So tell us please John Kerry,
Which lie we should believe.
Oh what a tangled web you’ve weaved,
You practice to deceive.

Conspiracy Guy aka DIF 8/10/2004

[coconutt2000]

He was smoking pot in an outhouse 50 miles from the border, and had a drug induced vision of heroics. He rushed out to his boat and collapsed at the controls, awakening in the morning thinking that he had indeed gone across the border and come back.

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

Big media will not because most are lying braggarts also.

[Jammz]

Just out of curiosity... Why would South Vietnamese be celebrating Christmas when most of them are buddhists, taoists, confucionists and caodists? There were catholics but not many as Catholicism didn't really start there until the 1960s . Something doesn't sound right here either.

Vietnam Religion:
http://www.askasia.org/frclasrm/readings/r000058.htm


Can anyone help me out here?

[wai-ming]

our South Vietnamese allies who were drunk and celebrating Christmas

Christmas is not a major holiday in Asia. It is observed mainly by devout Christians, who go to church or spend time at home with their families. Nowadays it is much more commercialized than it was in 1968. I'm sure the Vietnamese soldiers had plenty of reasons to drink, but "celebrating" a foreign holiday was probably not one of them.

[Piquaboy]

I would like to know how many Vietnam Vets out there came back with home movies of theirselves running around Vietnam in battle gear?

[Dallas59]

[mict42]

This only matters if Truth matters. Unfortunately, to half of the population, truth is but a minor obstacle in the path of electing anyone other than President Bush. I truly believe that it is a feather in our president's cap that he is so reviled by those who fester this hate. President Bush is a good man, possessing all of the attributes of greatness and goodness. If you are hated by evil, isn't that a positive?

[Viet Vet in Augusta GA]

Catholicism started in Vietnam back in the 1800's, and by about 1900 around 1/3 of the population was Catholic.

[Kenton]

He was smoking pot in an outhouse 50 miles from the border, and had a drug induced vision of heroics. He rushed out to his boat and collapsed at the controls, awakening in the morning thinking that he had indeed gone across the border and come back.

Sounds like Labor Day weekend at Put in Bay... that's the only explanation I can think of for that crazy Canadian chick that was on the boat the next morning...

[kabar]

http://vietcatholic.net/culture/religions.htm

[coconutt2000]

Did you deport her immediately?

[Kenton]

I would like to know how many Vietnam Vets out there came back with home movies of theirselves running around Vietnam in battle gear?

When I was in Vietnam is was too busy for that, but I got some cool pics of me playing paintball with the guys from work, and most people don't know the difference when I show them to 'em... ;)

[MattinNJ]

Another Rambo eruption.

[An.American.Expatriate]

As far as the hit on the page where Cambodia could not be found, the Kerry Web Site has this in the Source Code of the page:

[meta name=target content="military record, cambodia, vietnam, military service"]

** Brackets changed so that the text is visible!! **

Check it out here http://www.johnkerry.com/about/john_kerry/service.html

Use the View Source to see.

[Jammz]

In 1965 there were reportedly 1,559,077 Catholics in the South, 1771 priests of whom 1,376 were Vietnamese, 4,826 nuns the majority of whom were Vietnamese.

That just doesn't seem like very many to be honest

[angkor]

"On more than one occasion, I, like Martin Sheen in 'Apocalypse Now,' took my patrol boat into Cambodia"

This is easily dismissed as a lie.

First, there was a Special Operations Group (IIRC, Green Beret) at Chau Doc, 5 miles from the border in 1968. Why would anyone choose a Naval coastal patrol boat to infiltrate CIA across the border, as opposed to a SOG mission? Makes no sense.

Second, under Operation Sealords, SWIFT boats were not brought to the border until 1970. Prior to that smaller PBRs were used in border and canal missions from Ha Tien north to the Plain Of Reeds and Tay Ninh (e.g., Operation Slingshot in Jan/Feb 1969).

Also IIRC, in 1968/1969 Sa Dec was the furthest point upriver for resupply.

[Logical me]

"I really don't too much care whether Army Special Forces Capt. Jim Rassman got blown out his boat by enemy fire and then was rescued by Kerry."

1. Blown out of boat, where was the damage to the boat. Would someone check records to see if the boat was damaged.

2. I read when jacka$$ Kerry heard a shot fired, he jammed the throttle full and Rassman fell in the water since he was sitting on the back of the boat. Sounds more like it.

3. Also heard one of the other boats hit a mine and three seaman was thrown in the water. They were rescued by other boats. Kerry must have realized his boat was the only boat running away and turned around and found Rassman in the water.

4. If, If, If. Aah. Shi! Lets just get rid of Kerry's bid for President and then there is no question.

[lewislynn]

I was in Viet Nam Christmas of 1968 also. I don't recall the Viet Namese celebrating Christmas with gun fire like it's the Fourth of July.

Use the View Source to see.

What do I have to do to get my "view source" to view the source?...when I click on it I get no response.