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.
You noticed the earrings also. Her ABC handlers screwed up letting her wear her new earrings - totally out of place.
However, Senate records, the Winter Soldiers hearings and FBI files are cast in stone. John Kerry's lies and thirty-three years of cover up facilitated by the main stream media is The story. See posts 44 and 45.
Check the blog stopdemocrats.com tomorrow and read my expanded story about this
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FYI (and I would bet you already know) Douglas Brinkley is on Fox & Friends this morning , part of another book tour because "Tour of Duty" is now out in paperback.
He just said that Kerry WAS in Cambodia in 1969, taking spec ops, etc into the country.
This can only happen with COMMUNIST media -
"We going to use COMMUNIST-MURDERERS-THAT-ARE-OUR-ENEMIES to prove that Swift Boat Veterans (HEROES) are making everything up"
Do you think American people will buy it?
Placemarker
Ted wasn't interested. That's clear. Ted was the one repeating himself. Ted was the one who didn't want to talk one on one. Ted was the one adopting the Communist government of Vietnam as his client in an adversarial proceeding with a professional - arbitrator - in John O'Neill.
He was cross-examining a witness, trying to get the witness to say or admit what he required. That's not 'journalism', whatever that word still means. His wasn't the attempt to get the story, but to debunk John O'Neill, as a personality. The problem was, his complaint was with Kerry. O'Neill kept pointing out - this is all from Kerry's book. Brinkley. Kerry. And Kranish, et al. And the Swifties on both sides. None of them saw anything like what Ted was told by a Communist government that reveres John Kerry as a hero of the revolution.
The one question O'Neill never managed to get out, and maybe should have:
I hope they put up the transcript. I taped the show and will enjoy watching it again.
Agreed.
This is supported by the fact that they couldn't get in "at first." The government was getting the story straight first.
And I also agree with the gist of most of the posts here - it seems unlikely they are even in the right location.
I'm wondering if Ted truly understands just how insulting he was during last nights interview??
I'm still in shock .. of all people to counter the SBV, ABC doesn't go to Kerry's Band of Brothers .. but instead takes the word of the Vietcong
Thanks for the screen shots
-- Asked why didn't they ask kerry to sign the sf-180 and let the truth be known.
Which means that subsequent to the interview the old woman and all the villagers were shot by the current government for keeping this cache. Way to go ABC!
(ABC disclaimer: No peasants were harmed in the making of this interview. Everything was cut from whole-cloth and all 'peasants' were dues paying members of the PRV actor's union.)
I sincerely doubt that the Vietnamese government has any idea what would or wouldn't be useful for ABC or John Kerry. I suspect their part was a simple "give them full cooperation." ABC supplied the script.
Commie symp, for sure. Commie collaborator.
ABC sent a crew to Vietnam to interview them about the "disputed" Kerry firefight. Dunno how strong O'Neill is, but rest assured this will be an attempt to slam him. ABC did not get the story from the witnesses they were hoping for, as is obvious by the way they constructed the story.
If you read the article on their site, you'll find that instead of having the Vietnamese account clearly laid out, they sprinkle these tiny say-nothing snippets throughout the article in a way that makes them confusing and non-sequitur. If ABC had gotten what they wanted, it would be all OVER the headlines, and it would be very very easy to understand. The way they cloak their findings tells you everything you need to know.
MM
No. The "independent producer" who speaks fluent VN and has had total access in and out of VN for the last 25 years is the key. He understands USA politics, and made the overtures to the VN govt about how to coach the "witnesses" for maximum Kerry advantage. He is well enough established in VN that the VN govt bought his plan and went with it.
I heard Kyle Hurst.
On another point, I'm still wondering how Koppel rationalizes the date of death on the NVC tombstone of Jan. '69 with the firefight date of Feb. '68? He took a long time to die? ; )
I hope Nightline's feedback is overwhelming from the Republican side, as well... here's mine:
I see that Mr. Kopple took Mark Halperin's memo to heart. Nightline's trip to Vietnam was so transparently meant to give aid and comfort to the Kerry Campaign that Kopple had to address that fact at the end of the episode. Kopple said Nightline would have aired the show even if the Vietnamese had bashed Kerry, but that's an obvious lie since Nightline has refused to interview the Swiftboat vets beyond the attempted bashing of John O'Neil. Nightline has pursued only the pro-Kerry story, and they have pursued that story to the ends of the earth. Any other view is ignored and attacked.
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