Posted on 08/12/2004 7:13:16 PM PDT by wagglebee
**Exclusive**
TOUR OF DUTY author and John Kerry historian Doug Brinkley is rushing a piece for the NEW YORKER: to set-the-record-straight on Kerry's Christmas in Cambodia tale, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.
Kerry has turned to author Brinkley for a "modification" after it was exposed that Kerry was not in Cambodia during Christmas of 1968, as he once claimed from the Senate floor.
The Brinkley piece for the NEW YORKER will now say that Kerry was not in Cambodia during Christmas, but rather in January, publishing sources tell DRUDGE.
MORE
Since the early 1970s, Kerry has spoken and written of how he was illegally ordered to enter Cambodia. Kerry mentioned it in the floor of the Senate in 1986 when he charged that President Reagan’s actions in Central America were leading the U.S. in another Vietnam. Here’s what he said as excerpted from the new book, UNFIT FOR COMMAND:
"I remember Christmas of 1968 sitting on a gunboat in Cambodia. I remember what it was like to be shot at by the 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."
John O’Neil’s, author of UNFIT FOR COMMAND, comments on the “clarification:”
“John Kerry describes Christmas Eve in Cambodia as a critical turning point in his life. We now know that his story is completely false. My question is how many people do you know have invented a turning point, one that is seared in his memory? While it makes sense for John Kerry to come clean about the Cambodia story, it is one of several tales that the Kerry campaign will have to face and clarify.”
“By claiming we were engaged in a war crime and crossing international borders, John Kerry damaged the credibility of all the commanding officers above him and insulted the sailors who served with him,” said John O’Neill, member of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.”
Developing...
No Way! Kerry would have to have 6 or more months in-country to earn an R&R.
I don't recall seeing the alleged mission linked to a truce. If you are correct, then his latest version is shot to Hades. Can you provide a reference?
He sure takes a lot of vacations, doesn't he?
This would work, too, since Nixon would have been sworn in just 5 days prior--well 4, since Kerry actually said Christmas EVE...
Just one problem there .. Kerry was in Siagon around that time
January 22, 1969 – Kerry and other Swift boat commanders travel to Saigon for meeting with Adm. Elmo Zumwalt, Commander Naval Forces Vietnam (COMNAVFORV), and Gen. Creighton Abrams, Commander United States Military Assistance Command Vietnam (COMUSMACV).
It wouldn't work that way in the first place. If the CIA were tasking Coastal Division ELEVEN with a secret mission, they would not go directly to Kerry. They would contact Hoffmann and Elliott first and get their approval for the tasking. This is nonsense.
Well, maybe the Jewish part of him confused Christmas with Channukah, and that it was actually Channukah which maybe fell in January.
http://www.johnkerry.com/about/john_kerry/service_timeline.html
John Kerry's timeline. Even here January is empty.
November 17, 1968
Upon completion of his training, Kerry reports for duty to Coastal Squadron 1, Coastal Division 14, Cam Ranh Bay, South Vietnam.
December 1968 through January 1969
Kerry commands PCF-44
December 2, 1968
Kerry experiences first intense combat; receives first combat related injury.
December 6, 1968
Kerry moved to Coastal Division 11 at An Thoi on Phu Quoc Island
December 13, 1968
Kerry moved to Coastal Division 13, Cam Ranh Bay
December 24, 1968
Kerry involved in combat during the Christmas Eve truce of 1968. The truce was three minutes old when mortar fire exploded around Lieutenant Kerry and his five-man crew. Reacting swiftly, John Kerry and his crew silenced the machine gun nest.
January 22, 1969
Kerry and other Swift boat commanders travel to Saigon for meeting with Adm. Elmo Zumwalt, Commander Naval Forces Vietnam (COMNAVFORV), and Gen. Creighton Abrams, Commander United States Military Assistance Command Vietnam (COMUSMACV)
Late January, 1969
Kerry joined his 5 man crew on PCF-94
Late January through Early March, 1969
Starting in late January 1969, this crew completed 18 missions over an intense and dangerous 48 days, almost all of them in the dense jungles of the Mekong Delta. Kerry's crew included engineman Eugene Thorson, later an Iowa cement mason; David Alston, then the crew's only African-American and today a minister in South Carolina; petty officer Del Sandusky of Illinois; rear gunner and quartermaster Michael Medeiros of California; and the late Tom Belodeau, who joined the crew fresh out of Chelmsford High School in Massachusetts. Others rotated in and out of the crew. The most intense action came during an extraordinary eight days of more than 10 firefights, remembered by Kerry's crew as the "days of hell."
February 20, 1969
Kerry and crew involved in combat; Kerry receives second combat injury – Kerry earned his second Purple Heart after sustaining a shrapnel wound in his left thigh.
: Basically (a) Brinkley says 3-4 missions to Cambodia in January + February 1969 and (b) Brinkley is a suck-up for the so-lucky-it-fits-me-perfectly hat story.
I'm nearly certain that Steve Gardner was his gunner through the end of January. Also, the photograph of Kerry with 19 other Coastal Div 11 officers (the one used in his campaign) was taken on January 22, 1969, at Ton Sun Nuht Air Base. I'm not sure how far that is from the Cambodian border, I'll look that up.
I have been creating a spreadsheet that has a daily timeline of Kerry's 3.5 months in Swift boats, including all documentation of where he was on each date, what events are known to have occurred, who he was with, what boat he was using, what occurred when, and the documentation that backs that up. I'm hoping there is enough documentation to really narrow down the events of those 3.5 months to a point that it can do some good in pinning this liar down.
Interestingly Kerry's public timelines have been always very skimpy about January 1969
If they collapse, at least Kerry has the skills to resuscitate them.
Thank you for first posting that - we need to assemble a timeline & Calendar of his months' events to rule out which days he clearly WASN'T on missions to Cambodia and see what's left from there.
Well Yea
But don't you know who Kerry is?? ... He's Secret Agent Man
Kerry is a traitor. Period. End of discussion.
and anyone who believes this is a complete asshole.
What a guy.
Might as well, it's the Olympics.
He'll come back with a big speech, accusing others, proclaiming his sanctity.
Ships have logs which are kept. Boats have some sort of a record, but it is not kept. Now, perhaps the LST which served as the base for Kerry's unit has a log in which the orders for the individual boats can be found.
I don't think the boats were big enough to be ferrying, unless thay had the Gov. from NJ on board.
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.