Posted on 10/14/2004 1:55:15 PM PDT by areafiftyone
The Swift Boat Controversy: New Witnesses
October 14, 2004
John Kerry's service in Vietnam has become a campaign issue. The group calling itself Swift Boat Veterans for Truth alleges that Kerry has distorted the truth about what happened during the war and questions whether he deserved the medals he received. Tonight, you'll hear from eyewitnesses who have not spoken before: the Vietnamese who fought against him.
We've had the debates and the race is a virtual dead-heat. This is the part of a campaign when there are daily fires--issues that rise, flare, and then go away, only to be replaced by a new one the next day. But for a while, this campaign was dominated by Vietnam, a war that ended, at least the fighting, thirty years ago. John Kerry made his service in Vietnam a major part of his campaign. The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth fired back. They have alleged that Kerry was not truthful about his actions in Vietnam. Then questions were raised about the group's connections to people linked to the GOP. And so the story just kept spiraling in different directions. But the polls clearly showed that Kerry was hurt by allegations that he was not candid about his actions in Vietnam.
Which brings us to an old expression: the fog of war. People, in general, are not always great eyewitnesses. Memories fade, especially as the years go by. Two people standing next to each other may have very different recollections of something that happened right in front of them. But in the whole Swift Boat controversy, there is one group that hasn't been heard from at length: the Vietnamese. Producer Andrew Morse went to Vietnam, to the coordinates taken from the U.S. military after-action report from Kerry's battle for which he won the Silver Star. And there Andrew found several people who had either witnessed the events of that day, or in some cases, had actually fought against the swift boats. And it is their accounts that you will hear tonight. Do their accounts favor one version or the other? Can these questions be definitively settled? You'll have to judge. One of the surprising stories we were told? One of the Vietnamese men in the area says he was visited by a man claiming to be a swift boat veteran and a cameraman. He says the veteran was disparaging towards Kerry's conduct in the war, and asked him in an interview about the events of that day. We do not know who that man is, or whatever happened to that tape.
Ted will be anchoring tonight, and he will be joined by John O'Neill, a leader of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and the author of Unfit for Command, a book critical of Kerry. I hope you'll join us.
Leroy Sievers and the Nightline Staff,br> Washington D.C.
bump for later read
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Oh my goodness.
What's up with this I wonder?
http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/ClosingThoughts/story?id=64577
Go forth and send your OWN email! :)
YOU GO JOHN!!!!!
Not much info. Actually the ABC News website is brand new and they have not fixed it yet for today's date. I noticed it is out of date on alot of shows.
One of the surprising stories we were told? One of the Vietnamese men in the area says he was visited by a man claiming to be a swift boat veteran and a cameraman. He says the veteran was disparaging towards Kerry's conduct in the war, and asked him in an interview about the events of that day
Maybe I'm confused but it sounds like it is ANTI-Swift Vets or why else would John O'Neill be set up by the network?
It sounds like they found the ONE Vietnamese who is willing to say that Vets are trying to make him say bad things about Kerry. Remember that Kerry has a good buddy that works to get American companies into Vietnam today.
Now I am really confused.
Is HERO O'Neill scheduled tonight or not?
One of the rare times I wish I had TV. Go John!
Poor wittle crybabies. I guess they feel threatened by the truth. Two months have passed and they still haven't put the Swifties out of business!
Who will be there for Kerry. I hope it's not that Mueller guy, he's disgusting.
Thank you for this, area.
John Kerry can't afford this. The swift vets brought about a 10 point lead for George Bush when they first appeared on the scene. Combine the reemergence of the vets on the national scene with the showing of the movie about the former POWs and you get big trouble for John Kerry.
Koppel will attack O'Neill like Chris Matthews did-the liberal media will shred Koppel if he doesn't keep faith with the agenda.
Prayers for strength for John O'Neill. It looks like Nightline has found another angle from which to attack him. I don't buy the idea that dems are trying to stop this.
This is the Niteline e-mail going out, but the website for ABC is still on yesterday. As you can see it's dated for October 13th. No update. I got the e-mail.
"And there Andrew found several people who had either witnessed the events of that day, or in some cases, had actually fought against the swift boats. And it is their accounts that you will hear tonight. Do their accounts favor one version or the other?"
Hit job. NYTimes, or was it the WashPost, already had a story visting VC veterans in the "area" trying to frame them as witnesses to the "mine incident" event. It was less than certain what event they were talking about. This ABC piece is a follow-up.
In short, the Swifties said a mine exploded, but there was no shore gunfire. A couple of Americans later said they thought there was shore fire (as Rassmussen said). This "disputed point" was used to dismiss all the Swifties' claims.
The point was esoteric anyway, and had to do with the Bronze Medal for pulling Rassman out of the water. Basically arguing the valor citations is a loser, IMO. Kerry camp found the weakest link and hung on - still.
I forget ...were the Vietnamese the good guys or the bad guys?
I wish I could find a real link but apparently the ABC News website (which they just re-did) is not up to date. I liked the older one better. It still has yesterday's date on it.
It is too bad, too. There is a Pulitzer Prize in it for anyone who does a decent job of telling the truth about Kerry and his whole record. The SwiftBoat Vets do a disservice to the record because they play Kerry's 3 Card Monte game by forcing everyone to look at just 4.5 months of his total 12 years in the USNR. It is Kerry's post-Nam record where the MAJOR lies are buried! The dems' complaints here are, I fear, just another sleazy diversion. Rememeber the tape where Willie was supposed to lie and get mad but never got mad. No one ever talked about him lying only that he didn't get mad. Pure dem dibersion!
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