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New Book Explodes Swift Boat Myths
NewsMax.com ^ | December 6, 2007 | Editors

Posted on 12/07/2007 8:39:54 AM PST by Interesting Times

FALLS CHURCH, Va. -- Last week former President Bill Clinton, John Kerry and various members of the media once again used "Swift boating" as a shorthand reference for misrepresenting a candidate's record. In "To Set the Record Straight: How Swift Boat Veterans, POWs and the New Media Defeated John Kerry," authors Scott Swett and Tim Ziegler counter that assertion in a heavily researched 400 page work that provides the first historical assessment of the 2004 presidential campaign.

"To Set the Record Straight" is the definitive account of the ad hoc political movement that dominated the 2004 presidential campaign. Based on hundreds of in-depth interviews with key participants and two years of meticulous research, the book tells the inside story of how a group of Vietnam vets and their supporters delivered the explosive truth about John Kerry's military service and pro-Hanoi activism to the American public, despite relentless efforts by old media gatekeepers to silence and discredit them.

Swett said, "John Kerry lost all the key debates in 2004 to the anti-Kerry veterans. Since then, he has tried to paper over his failure with sloganeering and empty promises of new evidence." He added, "The 2004 campaign was a watershed in American political history, marking the first time that online forums and blogs were able to have a real impact on the national conversation. These new media outlets made it impossible for the liberal press to hide or dismiss what the veterans had to say."

The foreword for the book was written by John E. O'Neill, the lead spokesman for the Swift Vets and POWs for Truth in 2004. One chapter that underscores the impact of the new media on the campaign has been made available online at "ToSetTheRecordStraight.com". "Rather's Ruin and the Rise of the Pajamahadeen" tells how ordinary citizens with computers exposed the phony documents "60 Minutes" used to attack George Bush's National Guard service, effectively ending Dan Rather's career at CBS News.

"To Set the Record Straight" also contains:

o Conclusive evidence that the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth acted independently, and were not a creation of the Bush campaign as their opponents repeatedly claimed.

o Detailed analysis of the efforts by the old media to blunt the impact of the anti-Kerry veterans by distorting and misrepresenting their charges

o Previously unpublished information on the "war crimes" propaganda effort that Kerry led during the Vietnam War, including material showing how the antiwar movement worked with the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong.

o New eyewitness perspectives on Kerry's "No Man Left Behind" engagement from a Forward Air Control pilot and the mission's Special Forces commander.

o The powerful story of a former member of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War who testified that Kerry personally pressured him to tell lies about military atrocities and war crimes at the group's 1971 "Winter Soldier" conference.



TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bookreview; johnkerry; newsmax; settherecordstraight; swiftboatveterans; swiftboatvets; unfit
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To: Always Right
John O’Neill to Free Republic — Thanks for everything

Thanks for the link - I was just getting ready to go find that.

41 posted on 12/07/2007 9:12:36 AM PST by Interesting Times (ABCNNBCBS -- yesterday's news.)
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To: mylife
I thought the book was about defending Kerry 3 years after the fact.

If Kerry had a defense you'd think we would have seen it by now.

42 posted on 12/07/2007 9:14:27 AM PST by Interesting Times (ABCNNBCBS -- yesterday's news.)
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To: Interesting Times
If someone can prove Kerry DIDN'T testify to Congress that American soldiers were mass murderering sadists, and DIDN'T meet with the N Viets in Paris when they were there to negotiate with the USA and Kerry opposed the US and supported a communist victory ....

I'll give them a million dollars. The Swift Boats could not possibly have been wrong that Kerry is a lying disloyal anti military skunk.

43 posted on 12/07/2007 9:14:51 AM PST by Williams
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To: GoLightly
Same guy who stopped by to FReep on the day of the rally in DC?

I'm not sure. The reference is to Steve Pitkin, the former VVAW member who came forward in 2004 to say that John Kerry pressured him to tell lies about war crimes at the group's 1971 Winter Soldier hearings.

44 posted on 12/07/2007 9:17:11 AM PST by Interesting Times (ABCNNBCBS -- yesterday's news.)
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To: Interesting Times

That headline is mis-leading. I thought I was going to read a slam on the Swift Boaters. Or maybe I have had too many Christmas cookies this morning.


45 posted on 12/07/2007 9:18:12 AM PST by trimom
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To: Big Mack
The MSM still believe, as do the dims, that if you tell a lie often enough, it will become the truth. The swiftboaters have proven this a wrong assumption.

No, lies still work.

They've created a new word "swiftboating" which is understood to mean "lying" about someone's record. Ironically, they've creating the new word by lying about what the Swiftboaters did. Demonstrating that the old adage about telling a lie often enough still works to counter the truth.

The Swiftboaters "won" by defeating John Kerry by telling the truth about him. But in the end they have been defined by the majority who are outside of the new media as the people who defeated Kerry by telling lies.

People around here know the truth. But the fact that people in the MSM can use the term "swiftboating" and be understood to be talking about liars demonstrates that there is more work to be done, and the patriots who wrote this book are doing it. Good for them.

46 posted on 12/07/2007 9:19:00 AM PST by Captain Pike
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To: trimom
That headline is mis-leading. I thought I was going to read a slam on the Swift Boaters.

Well, that's NewsMax.

Or maybe I have had too many Christmas cookies this morning.

Not possible.

47 posted on 12/07/2007 9:22:08 AM PST by Interesting Times (ABCNNBCBS -- yesterday's news.)
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To: Interesting Times
I'm not sure.

Yep, that's him! Watched his testimony on CSpan at the rally & it was very powerful, as was the testimony by all of the speakers that day.

48 posted on 12/07/2007 9:22:58 AM PST by GoLightly
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To: Interesting Times
Previously unpublished information on the "war crimes" propaganda effort that Kerry led during the Vietnam War, including material showing how the antiwar movement worked with the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong.

If this is true, then US Navy Reserve Lt. Kerry would have committed Treason, and those covering for him (or refusing to prosecute him) would be accomplices. They will never prosecute him, because they would set the ball rolling for themselves to be prosecuted. This ball would continue rolling and expose current day Treason which would involve the Globalist conspirators and supporters of the Cross Border Invasion.

49 posted on 12/07/2007 9:24:18 AM PST by ghostrider
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To: lapster

Amen to that, Lapster!

Karl Rove is highly overrated.

The Swifties and their supporters made a huge difference in the month between the Dem and Repub. conventions in the summer of 2004.

It was sickening to hear the President and his campaign disparage these brave veterans.

It may yet be seen that this was the final battle of Vietnam—setting the record straight.


50 posted on 12/07/2007 9:24:48 AM PST by exit82 (How do you handle Hillary? You Huma her.)
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To: GoLightly
Yep, that's him! Watched his testimony on CSpan at the rally & it was very powerful, as was the testimony by all of the speakers that day.

Steve's story is in the book, including the account of how he almost didn't get onto the stage that day...

51 posted on 12/07/2007 9:24:50 AM PST by Interesting Times (ABCNNBCBS -- yesterday's news.)
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To: trimom
That headline is mis-leading. I thought I was going to read a slam on the Swift Boaters. Or maybe I have had too many Christmas cookies this morning.

But the headline is good. Libs will ses it and think to themselves, "All right, the Swifties have finally been exposed". Wow, will they be diaappointed after they start read through the article.
52 posted on 12/07/2007 9:25:09 AM PST by Signalman
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To: trimom

I thought the same thing, at first, then I looked at the source (NewsMax).


53 posted on 12/07/2007 9:25:20 AM PST by Michael.SF. ("democrat" -- 'one who panders to the crude and mindless whims of the masses " - Joseph J. Ellis)
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To: Interesting Times

BUMP!!


54 posted on 12/07/2007 9:26:44 AM PST by Lancey Howard
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To: Interesting Times

Anybody think authors Scott Swett and Tim Ziegler will be showing up on the ‘Today Show’ or any of the other Democrat bubble baths anytime soon? R-i-i-i-i-ght!


55 posted on 12/07/2007 9:28:32 AM PST by Lancey Howard
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To: Interesting Times
Related thread here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1888315/posts

56 posted on 12/07/2007 9:29:20 AM PST by evets (beer)
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To: Interesting Times

Kerry was a big phonie, still is. Those pictures of him hunting and wind surfing made me laugh, also his pansie-ass football throwing...L.O.L.!


57 posted on 12/07/2007 9:29:59 AM PST by AngelesCrestHighway
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To: trimom
Or maybe I have had too many Christmas cookies this morning.

Doubtful unless they are rum raisin cookies. :-)

And you're right about the headline

58 posted on 12/07/2007 9:30:17 AM PST by jazusamo (DefendOurMarines.com)
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To: evets

Looks like an angry rooster just before a cock fight.


59 posted on 12/07/2007 9:33:54 AM PST by Wonder Warthog (The Hog of Steel-NRA)
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To: Always Right

Thanks for that link. We gave money to the Swift Vets, not the RNC. We are happy to have helped keep John EffinTraitor Kerry out of the White House


60 posted on 12/07/2007 9:34:49 AM PST by dennisw (Islam - "a transnational association of dangerous lunatics")
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