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1971 Flashback: John Kerry admits to NYT he volunteered for Swift Boats to avoid war
The New York Times Archives (NO LINK) | April 23, 1971 | nwrep

Posted on 08/21/2004 2:08:47 PM PDT by nwrep

In this interview titled "An Angry War Veteran", John Kerry admitted to the NYT reporter that he enlisted in the Swift Boats to avoid the war in Vietnam, since the boats were only used for patrol duty:

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..That first trip to Vietnam piqued his curiosity, - "I wanted to go back and see for myself what was going on, but I didn't really want to get involved in the war." So late in 1968 he volunteered for an assignment on "swift boats" - the short, fast aluminum craft that were then used for patrol duty off the coast of Vietnam.

Two weeks before he arrived in Vietnam as a swift boat commander, he said, "they changed the policy on the used of the boats - decided to send them up the river to prove to the Vietcong that they didn't own the waters."

The river missions involved shooting at sampans and at huts along the banks and suddenly, Mr. Kerry recalls, "we said, 'hey, wait a minute - we don't know who these people are'. So we started to beach our boats to go to ashore and find out what we had been shooting at."


TOPICS: Extended News; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: 1971; kerry; kerryrecord; nyt; swiftboats
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1 posted on 08/21/2004 2:08:48 PM PDT by nwrep
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To: Peach; Howlin; Interesting Times; jmstein7; onyx; Mo1

PING


2 posted on 08/21/2004 2:09:15 PM PDT by nwrep
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To: nwrep
So we started to beach our boats to go to ashore and find out what we had been shooting at."

Isn't that against the standard operational orders for Swift Boat Patrols?

3 posted on 08/21/2004 2:11:07 PM PDT by Semper Paratus
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To: nwrep

Try as he may,this is NOT "1984" and Kerry can't have the damning PROOF eliminated. :-)


4 posted on 08/21/2004 2:11:26 PM PDT by nopardons
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To: nwrep
Great job.
5 posted on 08/21/2004 2:11:41 PM PDT by tallhappy (Juntos Podemos!)
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To: nwrep

Terrific find. Can someone get some of this great research to some people who can broadcast it?


6 posted on 08/21/2004 2:11:53 PM PDT by MizSterious (First, the journalists, THEN the lawyers.)
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To: nwrep

Great Find! Especially in light of the fact that the NYT presumably couldn't find it (wink wink). Gosh, you think that the "Grey Lady" - that bastion of journalistic ethics - would have done a search on their own archives for the name of a Presidential Candidate.


7 posted on 08/21/2004 2:11:57 PM PDT by franklog
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To: nwrep

This doesn't surprise me. Great post.


8 posted on 08/21/2004 2:12:49 PM PDT by writer33 (Try this link: http://www.whiskeycreekpress.com/books/electivedecisions.shtml)
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To: Semper Paratus
True that he volunteered for Swift Boats because he thought it was safe duty.

The beaching and checking out the scenery is pure bullship.......

9 posted on 08/21/2004 2:12:52 PM PDT by OldFriend (WAR IS THE REMEDY OUR ENEMIES HAVE CHOSEN)
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To: nwrep

Someone needs to send this to the Swiftvets.


10 posted on 08/21/2004 2:14:57 PM PDT by federal
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To: nwrep

Can someone get a get a link here. nwrep, how and where did you find this?

Link on aisle nine!!


11 posted on 08/21/2004 2:16:27 PM PDT by the_Watchman
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To: federal

SBVT already know about it. Its all in the book


12 posted on 08/21/2004 2:20:03 PM PDT by mylife (The roar of the masses could be farts)
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To: the_Watchman

Kerry admitted as much to the Boston GLobe

http://www.boston.com/globe/nation/packages/kerry/061603.shtml

Kerry initially hoped to continue his service at a relatively safe distance from most fighting, securing an assignment as "swift boat" skipper. While the 50-foot swift boats cruised the Vietnamese coast a little closer to the action than the Gridley had come, they were still considered relatively safe.

"I didn't really want to get involved in the war," Kerry said in a little-noticed contribution to a book of Vietnam reminiscences published in 1986. "When I signed up for the swift boats, they had very little to do with the war. They were engaged in coastal patrolling and that's what I thought I was going to be doing."


13 posted on 08/21/2004 2:20:28 PM PDT by Pikamax
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To: nwrep

14 posted on 08/21/2004 2:20:28 PM PDT by shadowman99
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To: nwrep
Not really new news, but to summarize: Kerry signed up
for what was supposed to be water taxi and coastal patrol
with minimal risk of actual combat. It later turned into
up-river patrol & more hazard.

Bush, by contrast, signed up to fly F-102As, which were
being used in combat in VN at the time, and which were
very dangerous to fly at any time. He knew he was at
risk of going in harm's way, and applied to switch
to a different a/c type when the '102 was withdrawn from VN.

Both guys were mistaken when they enlisted, as pure luck
would have it. But whose intentions are the less flattering?

Anyway, here's a useful resource for those discussing
GW's service: F-102, Vietnam & George W. Bush
15 posted on 08/21/2004 2:20:45 PM PDT by Boundless
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To: nwrep

A bit more ...

http://www.boston.com/globe/nation/packages/kerry/061603.shtml

... Kerry served two tours. For a relatively uneventful six months, from December 1967 to June 1968, he served in the electrical department aboard the USS Gridley, a guided-missile frigate that supported aircraft carriers in the Gulf of Tonkin and was far removed from combat.

"I didn't have any real feel for what the heck was going on [in the war]," Kerry has recalled. His ship returned to its Long Beach, Calif., port on June 6, 1968, the day that Robert F. Kennedy died from a gunshot wound he received on the previous night at a Los Angeles hotel. The antiwar protests were growing. But within five months Kerry was heading back to Vietnam, seeking to fulfill his officer commitment despite his growing misgivings about the war.

Kerry initially hoped to continue his service at a relatively safe distance from most fighting, securing an assignment as "swift boat" skipper. While the 50-foot swift boats cruised the Vietnamese coast a little closer to the action than the Gridley had come, they were still considered relatively safe.

"I didn't really want to get involved in the war," Kerry said in a little-noticed contribution to a book of Vietnam reminiscences published in 1986. "When I signed up for the swift boats, they had very little to do with the war. They were engaged in coastal patrolling and that's what I thought I was going to be doing." ...


16 posted on 08/21/2004 2:21:10 PM PDT by maggief
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To: nwrep
he-he-he! His own words expose him like an absent codspiece(sp.).

Poetic Justice.
17 posted on 08/21/2004 2:21:42 PM PDT by SandRat (Duty, Honor, Country. What else needs to be said?)
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To: nwrep

Nice work. Good to see you got an applause.


18 posted on 08/21/2004 2:23:13 PM PDT by dc-zoo
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To: federal
Someone needs to send this to the Swiftvets.

They know. It's mentioned on pages 25 and 26 of "Unfit for Command."

19 posted on 08/21/2004 2:23:37 PM PDT by itsinthebag
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To: nwrep
I have a great response to those demonRATS that are upset about the ads. I wish someone on a news program would ask this question when their is a debate about these ads.

INTERVIEWER: We've had these battle of the ads, from Moveon.org, and the Swift vets Mr. Democratic spokesman, Which do you think is more likely, That George W. Bush is Hitler, or John Kerry exaggerated about his Vietnam experience?

or:

INTERVIWER: Mr. Davis, (or insert name of demonRATS lackey here) you say these 527 ads are terrible, negative campaign tactics that cloud the issues. I don't remember you calling into this network to go on the air to denounce the Moveon.org ads that said Bush was Hitler, yet you called us today to come on and complain about the Swiftboat vets ads. Please tell us why you you waited.

20 posted on 08/21/2004 2:24:06 PM PDT by feedback doctor (Either Bush is is Hitler, or John Kerry lies. One and only one is correct)
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