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.
BTTT
LOL...you gave me a good laugh...I will not be watching Nightline...yes, it will be a hit piece...
Hear tell that Streisand and her husband will be making a movie about Kerry. It will be very flattering. Kerry will be seen in the movie making various heroic returns into the front lines, visiting soldiers and delivering morale, battling along side of them hand-to-hand combat. It will show Kerry delivering spock-like grips to the shoulder, peacefully and non-violently incapacitating the Viet Cong and then visiting their families and weeping at their plight.
It will show Kerry educating dumb US soldiers and helping them see the light and signle-handedly getting all concerned to lay down their arms and party together...
Final scene in the movie has a soldier coming up to John and slapping him on the back and presciently telling John that he "ought to run for President someday...".
fade to black...
Question: Is this John O'Neil the same one that Bush referenced in the debate last night as having introduced him to Laura at a backyard BBQ?
what time does it come on?
Nightline wouldn't be having this show about Swift Vets if they didn't have something to counter the truth about Kerry... This is all a set up, watch and see............
No
My only prayer is that John O'Neill will say who they intend to bring on and get the truth out before they show this video.
Can you imagine? Finding the ONE guy in all of SouthEast Asia who likes Kerry. They must have searched for months.
Also, the Vietnamese community here in the United States is going to raise up in protest over this. Wait and see.
If Ted Koppel and his producers are in it, you can bet they found Vietnamese who support Kerry. They are in this to take down the Swift Boaters for Truth.
I hope not, but so far the main media have run true to type. I would not doubt they greased a few palms to get the answers they want.
vaudine
It's a set-up I'm sure,
but it is IMPOSSIBLE to trip-up
an honest man, and John O'Neill
is one honest man.
Too bad they cannot talk to the non-communist Vietnamese of the time.
They died by the hundreds of thousands at sea, trying to escape.
Or in re-education camps.
Or were murdered by the butchers who hail Kerry as their hero in a Hanoi museum.
bump!!
Bush's friend was named Joe.
Wonder why ABC didn't interview the American Vietnamese who oppose Kerry, OH YEA IT'S ABC
Ted Koppel and his video editors -- who did you think?
I'm confused. Are you talking about the Bronze Star incident or the Silver Star? There was no exploding mine in the Silver Star incident. I find it incredulous that Vietnamese witnesses could be found who remembered this incident more than 35 years ago.
bump
I think this will be a non-story. Few undecided voters are going to watch this and say "Wow! Looks like these Vietnamese support Kerry's medal citation 35 years after the fact. Not going to happen, folks. It will neither hurt nor help Bush...
-T
I made a mistake. ABC seems to be focusing on the Silver Star incident.
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