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Letter that was delivered to the Kerry Campaign today by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.
Swiftvets.com ^ | 31 August 2004 | Swift Boat Veterans for Truth

Posted on 08/31/2004 3:18:39 PM PDT by NavySEAL F-16

Swift Boat Veterans for Truth P.O. Box 26184 Alexandria, Virginia 22313

August 31, 2004

Senator John Kerry 901 15th Street NW Washington, DC 20005

Dear Senator Kerry:

As you prepare for your address before the American Legion in Nashville, Tennessee, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth encourages you to use this opportunity to clarify your actions in Vietnam and your statements about your fellow Veterans and shipmates when you returned home. Since you have made your four-month tour in Vietnam the centerpiece of your campaign, we respectfully insist that you be truthful. The public is owed a full and honest accounting of your actions. Veterans are owed an apology from you and an acknowledgement that there was no basis in fact for the accusations you made against them.

We urge you to:

1. Apologize for your conduct once you returned from Vietnam. Your exaggerated testimony before the US Senate; the blanket indictment of your fellow veterans; throwing away medals and ribbons; all of these actions dishonored America and the armed forces. Your rhetoric and actions were not only wrong, they aided the enemy and brought great pain to POW's, veterans and their families.

2. Clarify the conflicting accounts involving the Bay Hap River incident of March 13, 1969 (Bronze Star and 3rd Purple Heart). You have now described three different versions of this incident. In the first version of this incident presented during the Democrat National Convention, you stated: "No man left behind," suggesting to the American people that you alone stayed on the river to rescue Mr. Rassmann. Later, when forced to acknowledge conflicting eyewitness testimony from fellow swift boat veterans, you said that your boat left the scene to return moments later to retrieve Jim Rassmann from the water. Yet, in another version of the same incident discovered in the Congressional Record, you reported that your boat struck a mine and Rassmann fell off the boat. Mr. Kerry, please explain to your fellow veterans and the American people which version is the truth.

3. Affirm that the injuries for which you received your purple hearts never required any medical treatment beyond perhaps a bandage and that, in all instances, these injuries were self-inflicted and came from your own weapon. Further, that if any of these purple hearts were falsely awarded, that you would not have been eligible to leave Vietnam after serving only four months.

4. Acknowledge what your own biographer is now saying, that the Christmas in Cambodia claim is "obviously wrong," that you were never in Cambodia over Christmas or any other time during your brief, four-month tour in Vietnam and that your statements before the United States Senate in 1986 were false.

If you undertake these steps we will be satisfied that the American public has been sufficiently apprised as to these aspects of your career, and we will discontinue the media advertisements you have sought so fervently to silence.

Please know that Swift Boat Veterans for Truth are eager to close our own personal chapters on Vietnam and instead focus on the war we're currently fighting — the ongoing war on terrorism. In the absence of full public disclosure and a public apology, we will continue efforts to carry our message to an ever-expanding base of grassroots supporters.

Senator Kerry, we want to get Vietnam behind us. But, we can only do so if the truth is told.

We respectfully await your reply.

Sincerely,

Swift Boat Veterans for Truth


TOPICS: Extended News; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 229; kerry; letters; sbv; swiftboatveterans; swiftboatvets
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1 posted on 08/31/2004 3:18:40 PM PDT by NavySEAL F-16
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To: NavySEAL F-16

The Swifties are calling all the shots. They are treating Kerri like a punk bitch that hasn't paid the big pimp'n man all his money. Gawd, I would love to have a 'smokey democrat back room CAM'.


2 posted on 08/31/2004 3:21:23 PM PDT by mlbford2 ("sycophantic kerry koolaid sucker" -- S. Hannity)
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To: mlbford2

On another thread, it was reported that FoxNews reported that the Kerry campaign said "no."


3 posted on 08/31/2004 3:22:08 PM PDT by Cboldt
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To: NavySEAL F-16
"We respectfully await your reply. "

insert crickets sound effect here...

4 posted on 08/31/2004 3:22:11 PM PDT by billorites (freepo ergo sum)
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To: NavySEAL F-16
I would add to number one: "Admit that your actions following your time in the Naval Reserves gave aid and comfort to the enemy and increased the hardship of your fellow servicemen still in theater."
5 posted on 08/31/2004 3:23:21 PM PDT by atomicpossum (If there are two Americas, John Edwards isn't qualified to lead either of them.©)
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To: Cboldt

What else would they say? "Yassa massa". They had no choice to say no. If this thing contiues to spiral out of control for Kerri, I predict he will apologize to the Vets in a last ditch effort.


6 posted on 08/31/2004 3:24:40 PM PDT by mlbford2 ("sycophantic kerry koolaid sucker" -- S. Hannity)
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To: Cboldt

What a surprise...NOT. I think we can count on a few more commercials before the election. I can't imagine Kerry humbling himself ("don't you know who I am?") enough to do the right thing.


7 posted on 08/31/2004 3:25:17 PM PDT by MizSterious (First, the journalists, THEN the lawyers.)
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Comment #8 Removed by Moderator

To: NavySEAL F-16

Letter discussed ~10 min. ago on Brit Hume's Special Report.


9 posted on 08/31/2004 3:26:21 PM PDT by pookie18
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To: Cboldt

It was Tad Devine, and I don't exactly remember what he said, but he implied no.

Maybe someone else saw him on Brit Hume's show. It was a Major Garrett piece.


10 posted on 08/31/2004 3:26:49 PM PDT by sissyjane (Does Rice show up on X-Rays??)
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To: mlbford2

> Gawd, I would love to have a 'smokey democrat back room CAM'.

Which back room?
Kerry loyalists, or
Clinton cronies?

The Kerry loyalists are likely bewildered and frustrated.
Why doesn't the boss just clear all this up?

The Clintonistas, who today took even firmer control of
the Kerry campaign, are saying:
"Excellent. Now we don't even have to use Hillary's copy
of the FBI files to ensure that there is no Dem
incumbent in 2008. Plus, the Clintons retain full
control of the DNC."


11 posted on 08/31/2004 3:27:20 PM PDT by Boundless
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To: NavySEAL F-16

No request for a signed one-eight-oh? I hope they set a decent standard for compliance with these demands.


12 posted on 08/31/2004 3:27:52 PM PDT by NonValueAdded (Kerry was in the Senate???)
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To: MizSterious

(Humming "Taps" slowly) - I thank God for the Swiftboat Vets, and I say very proudly, THANK YOU for all that you are doing.


13 posted on 08/31/2004 3:28:30 PM PDT by Viet-Boat-Rider (((KERRY IS A NARCISSISTIC LIAR, GOLDBRICKER, AND TRAITOR!)))
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To: NavySEAL F-16

Why the hell are the Swifties playing commercials here in TX. there is like one every half hour on each of the cable nets.


14 posted on 08/31/2004 3:29:18 PM PDT by mlbford2 ("sycophantic kerry koolaid sucker" -- S. Hannity)
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To: NavySEAL F-16

 
 
Click for the entire CouNTeRPuNcH Collection

Political Parodies and more
www.counterpunch.us



15 posted on 08/31/2004 3:29:21 PM PDT by counterpunch (The CouNTeRPuNcH Collection - www.counterpunch.us)
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To: mlbford2

Yep...it looks like Kerry got 'Pimpinated'! ;)


16 posted on 08/31/2004 3:30:13 PM PDT by BossLady
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To: mlbford2

They're playing here too (Hawaii) about every hour. It's great to see.


17 posted on 08/31/2004 3:30:28 PM PDT by GrandmaPatriot
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To: NavySEAL F-16
It would have been more effective if they had reduced the demands to just one: SIGN THE 180

Given the opportunity to shut up the swifties, even the most skeptical journalist would have to wonder why he won't do it.
18 posted on 08/31/2004 3:31:31 PM PDT by LSU Engineer
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To: NavySEAL F-16

Apologize for your conduct


I think the word REPENT would have been better.


19 posted on 08/31/2004 3:33:42 PM PDT by PeterPrinciple (seeking the truth here folks.)
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To: NavySEAL F-16
I'm sure that Hamas, Hizballah, Al Qaida and the like are taking note of how this small band of brothers is making a US Presidential candidate jump through hoops.

Can there be *any* doubt whatsoever that these organizations prefer a John Kerry victory this November?

20 posted on 08/31/2004 3:34:58 PM PDT by LincolnLover ("Jagshemash, I like you!"---Borat for President 2004)
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