JANUARY -- NOT CHRISTMAS -- KERRY IN CAMBODIA (More Flip-Flop Spin!)

Drudge Report ^ | 8/12/04 | Matt Drudge

[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...

[cyncooper]

Off topic, but...

Shermy--I'm signing off but took a look at Drudge's site just now and he doesn't have it clickable yet, but more on that grand jury. Here's what he has now:

A reporter for The New York Times, Judith Miller, was subpoenaed Thursday by a Washington grand jury investigating the disclosure of the identity of a CIA undercover officer to the syndicated columnist Robert Novak and other journalists.... MORE...

Judith Miller, hm? The plot thickens...

Ping to Ella for the morning.

[tobyhill]

The jury will disregard all statements previously said from this witness.

[texasbluebell]

That's almost worth popping for.

[lewislynn]

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

They were wise beyond their years....

[rolling_stone]

I believe I read earlier that the meeting was to complain about their missons and how dangerous they were..they had signed up for coastal patrol...

[RagingBull]

Not a defense of Clinton, but I'd say he had 2 kinds if lies:

• Denials
• Telling the audience what they wanted to hear

Church burnings, lifetime NRA member, jewish uncle, Hillary and I are getting divorced ... whatever the situation calls for. He says it and forgets it.

With Cambodia, though, Kerry has repeated it for 30 years, on the senate floor and in interviews. That's an entirely different class of lying (or gross exaggeration as the case may be).

[El Gato]

Ton Sun Nuht Air Base. I'm not sure how far that is from the Cambodian border, I'll look that up

Ton Sun Nuht base was near Saigon, a good long ways from the point on the Cambodia border where the Mekong crosses into Vietnam. By boat you'd have to go down the coast well over 50-75 miles and then upriver on the Mekong another 100. However they could have driven or choppered back to a base on the river much more quickly. There was at least one such base about 75 miles downriver from the border.

[El Gato]

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

Hmm, Cam Ranh Bay and Phu Quoc Island are on opposite sides of Vietnam. Cam Ranh Bay is along the east coast north of Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City. Phu Quoc Island is off of the Southwest coast. Neither is particularly close to the mouth of the Mekong.

[ProudVet77]

You are correct, the delta starts to shrink down at Sa Dec.
I'm sure they inserted SEALs, and UDT members. But PCFs were used to move relatively large numbers of troops. That would be a few SEALS and a lot of RFPFs.
Here's an example of an operation:
http://www.midcoast.com/~waterman/songongdoc.html
For more clandetine operations SEALs used their own boats.
http://www.mst2-vietnam.info/index.html
The issue isn't offloading SEALs, it's operating beyond the Cambodian border.

[faithincowboys]

When in January? It can only happen after Nixon's inauguration until the end of Jan for it to be on Nixon's watch. That's not a long time.

Look for some of Kerry's Band of the bribed to corroborate Kerry's latest tale.

[xkaydet65]

On more than one occasion, I like Martin Sheen in "Apocalypse Now,"… Yeah, I read that review this afternoon. The only problem is Martin Sheen is an actor and Apocalyspse Now is a movie….

He didn't even get the plot right. Sheen's character isn't the commander of the Swift, he's the passenger.

[ApplegateRanch]

I was looking at the dates in your link.

November 17, 1968 reports for duty to Coastal Squadron 1, Coastal Division 14

December 1968 through January 1969 – Kerry commands PCF-44

December 2, 1968 – Kerry experiences first intense combat; receives first combat related injury.

(Not even three weeks--barely two, really after starting duty. Just bad luck? Or had he screwed up?)

December 6, 1968 – Kerry moved to Coastal Division 11

(Four days after "first intense combat/first 'combat related injury'" he was transferred to a different unit.)

December 13, 1968 – Kerry moved to Coastal Division 13

(Seven days later, he is transferred to yet another unit.)

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.

(What 'machine gun nest' was it that was firing mortars at his boat?)

It seems to me that, when added to the assertion on another thread yesterday, that his fellow boat OIC's (not him) used the "3 PH's & out" option to get rid of him, that everybody possible did their damnedest to get him out of their units.

Somehow, I get the picture of a walking, breathing, royal F**K UP.

[kilowhskey]

I strongly agree with your take, AR. When you look at the timeline and see those transfers, it becomes obvious that this was a loser that no unit wanted.

[Ichneumon]

Also, notice how little time Kerry actually spends talking about the movie he's supposed to be reviewing, and how much time he spends talking about his own "experiences" in Vietnam.

In fact, he says so few specific things about the film (the *only* specific is the helicopters playing "Ride of the Valkyries", but I believe that was even in the previews and TV ads), that I wonder if he even actually *watched* the film before writing this "review", especially since he says astoundingly off-base things like, "nowhere in [the film] did I sense that kind of absurdity". Huh? The film was almost nothing *but* depictions of the absurdities of war.

[Mjaye]

Yes, who could forget Hillary being honored all her life for being named for Sir Edmund Hillary, which means she was born after 1953. Or Algore, having an entire movie written about him and Tipper ("Love Story"). And there ought to be a law against anyone being called "Tipper".

[Husker8877]

The Kerry Ferries are certainly working hard trying to plug the drain that this blue-blood fraud is circling.

Only Clinton himself had more putz's on the payroll than this puke Kerry.

[First_Salute]

Said the Team Leader:

"Mr. Kerry,"

"Do you know where you're going? Where we're going?"

You, Lt. Kerry, are the new guy. True, you've been around boats since you were a kid, which explains some of why you were selected for PCF training; yet being around boats, you know that at night, in territory that you do not know, you do not muck about except very carefully, other than in an emergency, especially when the hazards to mariners include more than Cape Cod area inlet shoals and Long Island currents, that is, namely: hostile, heavy calibre, not merely small arms, fire.

This night, you are not sneaking up the Essex River in Connecticut. (Though we are given to understand that your psyche is "conflicted" at every moment and movement by the Vietnam environment - always reminding you, shockingly, or boringly, that it is not Connecticut, nor Kansas anymore.)

You have how many hours on this boat? How many hours accumlated, total?

You have forgotten that the U.S. Navy keeps track of your hours, and it keeps track of your engines' hours (see the engine clocks?). (Indeed, see the maintenance logs and records of repairs to the taxpayers' boat.)

Your hours on stretches of river and water ways, indicate your experience with those ways and their many secrets, which on the job training ("OJT") time must accumulate, before you are trusted with more daring do.

Training, as it is in military aviation, given the hazardous nature of early missions, generally, and actually in your case, often on the particulars for night time and / or special operations behind enemy lines as it were --- it's a given that experienced hands shall, did, accompany you and your boat(s) as you navigated said river and water ways.

Either these old hands were on other boats nearby, "on you," or, these old hands were assigned to your boat; observing your actions and upon debriefing, telling your tale.

Because, for you to proceed up to the border of Cambodia, would mean that you were either accompanied by an experienced boat, or you had aboard, a man who had traveled to the border (and probably beyond).

So that your commanders would have specific knowledge, that you are familiar with the routes to which they would assign you on some (any) mission; "you're the man for the job;" especially "five miles" into Cambodia, on Christmas, in January, in February, or in March (or whenever it was that you say you sallied forth).

It is not likely at all, that you would forget the instructions from the scout who showed you the way, your first trip into Cambodia (and back), because first, you do not know where you are going, and second, your knowing that, is going to "sear" into your mind, your teacher's struggle to keep you from messing up your career plans on this night.

On the night of the mission into Cambodia, the S.E.A.L. Team Leader is not going to be entertained by your otherwise not having a clue except for some map that "headquarters just sent over." No, the S.E.A.L.'s will not think it funny at all, because they wish to be entirely unremarkable, in their arrival (and departure), which silent insertion is commonly regarded by the old hands, as being at odds with a boat commander who does not really know about, where he is taking everybody.

So, said the Team Leader:

"Mr. Kerry,"

"Do you know where you're going? Where we're going?"

[ApplegateRanch]

Thanks for the info & links. I just wanted to be certain that the "SEAL insertions" mentioned in Feb CAN'T be spun into any kind of "Cambodia" claim. I have NO doubt he never got within many miles of the border, let alone across it.

Of course, I also know one can't shoot small arms 5 miles in the jungle, either; nor is there any way the 'drunken VN' could be firing at him from one side of the river, while Cambodians were firing from the other, unless the VN had illegally, drunkenly stumbled 5 miles across the border! Never mind the supposed KR fire.

In fact, firing small arms five miles is a neat trick anywhere, unless you're up about 25,000 feet.

[xm177e2]

This is so INCREDIBLY lame. Kerry can't go out and personally say "Yes, I was in Cambodia in January," but he will have a lackey do it for him? Lame, lame, lame!

[bobo1]

I kind of feel sorry for this Brinkley fellow. Looks like there will be 25 or 30 revisions in the next three months that he will have to make.

Guess he will have to work 24 hours a day, seven days a week to cover up for all the lies. Kerry must be paying him pretty good, hopefully for life. After this is over, any integrity, believability or respect that he might have had up to this time will be toast, burnt and buttered on both sides. He has become a liar for Kerry.

You lie, then tell another lie to cover up the first lie and more lies to cover up the preceding lies, until one of the lies told is discovered and the house of cards fall

How many lies do you tell before you become a liar?

Kerry is a liar, however, the Clintoon's put him to shame. But an amateur.

Blessings, Bobo