Publication:The New York Sun; | Date:Mar 22, 2004; | Section:Front page; | Page:1 |
KANSAS MEETING AT ISSUE
By THOMAS H. LIPSCOMB Special to the Sun
[excerpt] A Vietnam veteran who said he remembers John Kerry participating in a 1971 Kansas City meeting at which an assassination plot was discussed says an official with the Kerry presidential campaign called him this month and pressured him to change his story.
The veteran, John Musgrave, says he was called twice by the head of Veterans for Kerry, John Hurley, while a reporter for the Kansas City Star worked on a follow-up piece to a New York Sun article about the November 1971 meeting of Vietnam Veterans Against the War at which a plot to kill U.S. senators was voted down. Asked by The New York Sun if he felt pressured, Mr. Musgrave said, In the second call I did. Mr. Musgrave said Mr. Hurley said Mr. Kerry had told him he was definitely not in Kansas City.
According to Mr. Musgrave, Mr. Hurley said, Why dont you refresh your memory and call that reporter back?
A spokesman for Mr. Kerrys presidential campaign, David Wade, last week issued a statement to the Sun, following a week of denials, that said we accept Mr. Kerrys presence in Kansas City as a historical footnote.
By then, the recollections of six witnesses, along with minutes and FBI records, placed Mr. Kerry at the Kansas City meeting.
But the news of the calls from the campaign to Mr. Musgrave may move the episode from what the campaign is describing as a historical footnote to a matter that involves the contemporary behavior of Mr. Kerry and his campaign.
Mr. Musgrave said he received three Purple Hearts in Vietnam. After the third Purple Heart for wounds by three 7.62 rounds, one to the jaw and two to the left chest, Mr. Musgrave refused the standard release from further service in the combat zone offered Marines with three Purple Hearts and tried to return to his unit, he said.
But because of the extent of his injuries he was retired from the Marines with full disability and sent home, he said.
Mr. Musgrave said, I told Hurley it was my first meeting as a state officer of the VVAW, and I remember John being there. I remember what I remember.
When asked whom he is supporting in the presidential election, Mr. Musgrave replied, I am undecided. But I am sure not voting for some guy who called me a liar.
Mr. Hurley did not return calls for comment for this article.
Great research. It makes me wonder if the SBV are headed in that direction. They are obviously approaching the anti-war angle next, though.