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.
How many U.S. casualties? You got to give Kerry some credit I guess but this battle sounds pretty one sided without any extra-ordinary heroism needed.
It's coming.
But nobody knows who Kerry is. Nobody saw Kerry get off his boat and shoot some big Viet Cong guy behind a hooch.
But we're supposed to believe that they all know that this was the day. This was the place and this was the firefight that earned Kerry his Silver Star.
It's asinine.
You forgot to fabricate the After Action Report touting your heroics.
Didn't Kerry go back and visit the site with his video camera?
John O'Neill is ripping into Ted
"they have no reason to LIE, that war ended 30 years ago!"
I can hear my mother already....
I think it will be mostly this:
What Happened in Kerry's Vietnam Battles?
http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/Vote2004/story?id=166434&page=1
They interviewed a bunch of people in Vietnam, who knew EXACTLY what happened on a particular day some 30 years ago, and exactly what Kerry did and so testified.
And if anyone believes this, I have lots of bridges to sell.
I think ABC is going to try to paint O'Neill as a liar, confronting him with the "strong evidence", the testimony of a bunch of people in Vietnam, who have no reason to remember one particular day versus another 30 years later.
ABC is willing to take the word of those people, but are not willing to take the word and evidence presented by 60 US true war heroes.
John O'Neil ROCKS!!!!!
integrity integrity inegrity..or something like that
Holy cow! O'Neill is going all out on this!
O'Neill is mad.
I knew this would be a hit piece...Ted cant even vouch for them and they present this as a news report.
This is getting good. O'Neill calls Koppel "pathetic".
GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
TED IS TAKING THE WORD OF COMMIES OVER A VIETNAM VET
I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS CRAP!
Wow, I've never seen O'Neill this cranky ! He's really going after Koppel !
John O'Neil is a great American
what are they saying!!!!!
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