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.
"I do not claim to know what ignorant men are sure of."
Here's another thing. I was in a traffic accident in 1976. I remember how it happened (a guy ran a red light), I remember what he was driving. I remember what I felt in my car. I remember what I said to him after the accident. But I'll be damned it I remember the exact date of the accident. And I'm not an uneducated peasant out in the rice paddies.
Ted had nothing that made his case. He had Kerry's words, the words of our military people all telling the same story and then Ted coming up with this strange tale from a communist land where they would be greatly interested in seeing their hero (Kerry) instead of Bush.
I've said this a few times here on FR now.
We are seeing the last gasp of the MSM as a major influence in elections and I do believe this is the most one sided help by the MSM for the Democrat candidate I have ever seen in my life.
I think they fear their loss of power and control of the American people and that they think by getting Kerry in they will somehow reverse their trend of dying out.
The pisser for them will be that Bush will win by three or more points.
After the outing of Cheney's daughter in the debate and Mrs. Edwards saying the Cheney's are ashamed of their daughter, I believe they are going to go down fast.
cgk. Thanks.
Can you post these images on the Swift Vets forum, or give me permission to do so?
Good grief! Koppel was terrible! John was awesome!
Your post 34 was right on the mark.
"used in a productive and truthful manner"
Based on who's opinion .. of what is productive and truthful ..??
I did .. you are correct! It was great.
On the other thread they have a screen capture. It seems to read "H S.12.1.1969" Depending on which frame was captured, the gravestone is obscurred by leaves. The 12.1.1969 could be correct in the Vietnamese calendar.
Yes, it was great the way John O'Neill stood his ground.
I am glad he mentioned and showed the photo of Kerry that hangs in the communist Vietnamese Museum.
Kerry was a hero all right, a hero to the communist Vietnamese.
My e-mail to Nightline:
Mr. Koppel,
I've watched Nightline regularly, for decades now. I remember being hooked on the program from its inception as the saga of the American hostages in Iran played out before a shocked nation.
Sadly, tonight's program reached an all time low. I'm flabbergasted that a journalist of your position would air a report like I witnessed this evening. Mr. O'Neill hit the nail on the head -- you went to a country that is a closed, communist society, no doubt led by government handlers, and reported what you were told without a bit of skepticism. That's not journalism, sir, that's propaganda. I remember applauding you once, during the Cold War, for correctly identifying a Soviet television journalist who appeared on your program as a propagandist. It seems you've forgotten the difference in the years since.
How do you know those villagers were there the day of Kerry's citation? We do know, for sure, which sailors were present. They all, including John Kerry, tell the same story.
How do you know that the incident they describe is even the same incident? If you are to believe them, they say the area was a hot zone with many such confrontations happening.
Mr. Koppel, you seemed to lose patience with John O'Neill tonight. He simply wanted you to acknowledge that he only reported in his book what Kerry's own biographers have said, and then pointed out the descrepencies with the citation. For some reason, you couldn't bring yourself to do that, while it was so obvious to anyone else listening to John O'Neill.
Nightline's handling of the swift boat veterans has been abysmal. ABC News's handling of the election coverage in general, equally bad and plainly slanted.
I won't be watching ABC News, especially Nightline, for news coverage in the future.
Per the photos in #415, I see were H 5.12. becomes H S.12.
You have my complete permission to post them wherever you need. If the bandwidth fails, freepmail me and I can send them to you.
Well .. the MSM are sloppy .. as the date on the grave proves. Evidently, whoever is buried there died before the incident Koppel was trying to prove happened.
But the real key is their eliest arrogance which proves to them that we are too stupid to understand anything unless they explain it to us. And .. after they have explained it .. it's the only truth.
This is where they make their greatest mistake. Like President Bush .. they misunderestimate us every time.
"You've been had Ted"
BWWWWAAAHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Copy of "Unfit for Command $30
Copy of Boston Globe bio of John Kerry $2
Copy of John Kerry's bio "Tour of Duty" 99 cents
Chance to show the American public that Ted Koppel is a leftist/Communist/propagandist........... Priceless
Close. It was a cousin who was able to broker a billion $ exclusive construction contract with the NV following "normalization."
To achieve "normalization" all possible POW/MIAs had to be accounted for. Kerry merely stated "They were all dead by 1974" thereby magically, tragically "accounting" for them all.
Shoot I just saw somelese already posted much better images! Sorry.
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