Dr. Louis Letson appeared in the first Swift Boat commercial and announced, "I know John Kerry is lying about his first Purple Heart, because I treated him for that injury." In another affidavit, Letson claimed Kerry's wound was too small to justify a medal.
But Navy guidelines during the Vietnam War for Purple Hearts did not take into account the size of the wound when awarding the honor, which meant Letson's claim was irrelevant. Also, Kerry's medical records indicate Letson did not sign off as the "person administering treatment" on the night of the injury, which raised doubts about whether Letson ever even treated Kerry.
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Note that in their "defense" they do not dispute the size of the wound. They simply dispute the Navy guidelines as to which wounds would be applicable to be awarded a Purple Heart.
To me their defense confirms that the wound was a minor wound, one not normally warranting the granting of such an award.
I have known more then a few people who served in combat and anyone with any self pride would not seek a purple heart for a minor wound.
Mostly the left (although sometimes we do it as well), will label invalid conclusions as lies, rather than mistakes. Almost ever “lie” media matters “exposes” turns out to be nothing more than their own interpretation of what the facts mean, not a complaint about the facts.
So in this case, the guy says the wound was too small to get a purple heart. Probably that was not the right thing to say, since the size of the wound doesn’t preclude a purple heart. If he had said “didn’t deserve”, that would have made it pure opinion, and immune for any charge of lying, but because the statement was an opinion on the applicability, it was a mistake. But not a lie.