Posted on 08/08/2004 5:09:55 PM PDT by Steven W.
XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX SUN AUG 08, 2004 19:04:35 ET XXXXX
SWIFT OFFICERS AND VETS: KERRY LIED ABOUT SPENDING CHRISTMAS IN CAMBODIA
Since the early 1970s, Kerry has spoken and written of how he was illegally ordered to enter Cambodia. Kerry mentioned it in the floor of the Senate in 1986 when he charged that President Reagan’s actions in Central America were leading the U.S. in another Vietnam. Here’s what he said as excerpted from the new book, UNFIT FOR COMMAND:
I remember Christmas of 1968 sitting on a gunboat in Cambodia. I remember what it was like to be shot at by the Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge and Cambodians, and have the president of the United States telling the American people that I was not there; the troops were not in Cambodia. I have that memory which is seared--seared--in me.
DRUDGE has learned from the accounts of Swift Boat officers and Kerry’s crewmembers that Kerry was never in Cambodia. UNFIT FOR COMMAND authors charge that Kerry made it all up.
“Despite the dramatic memories of his Christmas in Cambodia, Kerry’s statements are complete lies,” according to John O’Neil, co-author and the Swift Boat commander who took over Kerry’s boat. “Kerry was never in Cambodia during Christmas 1968, or at all during the Vietnam War. . . . he was more than fifty miles away from Cambodia.”
Kerry was stationed at Coastal Division 13 in Cat Lo. Coastal Division 13’s patrol areas extended to Sa Dec, about 55 miles from the Cambodian border. . . . Tom Anderson, Commander of River Division 531, who was in charge of PBRs (small river patrol crafts] confirmed that there were no Swifts anywhere in the area and they would have been stopped had they appeared.
All the living commanders in Kerry’s chain of command . . . deny that Kerry was ever ordered to Cambodia. They indicate that Kerry would have been seriously disciplined or court-martialed had he gone there. At least three of the five crewmen on Kerry’s boat, Bill Zaldonis, Steven Hatch, and Steve Gardner, deny that they or their boat were ever in Cambodia.
O’Neill observed that the Cambodia incursion story is not included in Tour of Duty (Kerry’s recent biography). Instead, Kerry replaced the story with a report about a mortar attack that occurred on Christmas Eve 1968 “near the Cambodian border” in a town called Sa Dec and Christmas day was spent at the base writing entries in his journal.
After conducting interviews and research, authors of Unfit for Command conclude, “The truth is that Kerry made up his secret mission into Cambodia.... the lie about the illegal Cambodian incursion painted his superiors up the chain of command. . . . as villains faced down by John Kerry, a solitary hero in grave and exotic danger and forced illegally against his will into harm’s way.”
Developing...
I think he is John-Jaquestrap Effin Shove It S.O.B Teresa Winthrop Simoes-Ferreira Al Qerry-Heinz III.
;-)
I resepctfully disagree. This is the Swift Boat Veterans story to tell, and theirs alone. Ollie might step up to the plate and urge a fair airing of their story, but he cannot walk in their shoes, or do the task they have undertaken.
I've read the Swift Boat Veterans material, and as far as I am concerned, they are objective and honest. Kerry is a despicable phony.
ping!
This election is simply a vote of confidence on George W. Bush.
Approximately half the people in this country would put Hitler in charge to get rid of W. It's a sad reality.
So who is going to ask the question of Kerry: Did you or did you not spend Christmas in Cambodia? Is there no reporter out there who will ask the question?
Hmmmm, kerry spent Christmas in Cambodia, and impeached '42 remembers black churches being burnt in Arkansas when he was a child. Only trouble, neither of these things really happened. Still, they make awfully good stories.
And the idiotic talk of "revolution",is banned from FR,which you should know,since you've been here as long as you have.
Pretty soon Terrayza and Al Hunt of the Wall Street Journal will be the only ones who will believe this chapter in JF'nK's Book of Tall Tales.
John Kerry - March 27, 1986 Senate Speech (Christmas in Cambodia)
Christmas day was spent at the base writing entries in his journal.
Writing his memoirs had to take an inordinate amount of time, with revisions, multiple endings, strike outs, etc. Let us see that journal, Mr. sKerry.
Swift Boat Vets, I salute you.
The four month war "experience" is just a vehicle for his current political ambitions. Just as it served to gain him notoriety when he came out against the war, he is now conveniently using it to create a political persona to make him over as a war hero in order to contrast himself with Bush. He threw away medals when it served his purposes and now wants credit for earning those same medals. If he were a Republican, the leftwing media would be all over him. Look at how they went after Bush's National Guard service.
Try Mozilla as a browser. Pop-up blocker included and I never have problem with Drudge or any other site.
Bill Clinton’s draft dodging was a failure of personal character to be sure. John Kerry’s false claim of courage and heroism is an equally disgusting failure of personal character because it spits in the face of real heroes who faced great peril and paid a terrible price in blood. To dishonor the courageous few who made such great sacrifices is unforgivable.
John Kerry was in Vietnam? Who'd of figured that???
Sometimes the truth and reality is not what one wants. For those who massage the truth of their own history, beware; It's kinda hard after 30 years to keep all the lies straight. It's even harder when you've opened the door to scrutiny.
Using the swift boat guys without asking is what boggles my mind. He thinks he can say and do anything and no one is going to question. Guess he forgot Gore invented the Internet for us to research! :)
What recantation are you talking about? The only "recanting" I know of is Elliott change from his 1996 position (that Kerry's Silver Star was not improvidently granted), to his current position (expressed in affidavits dated July 21 and August 6, 2004) that had he known the extent of Kerry's action was to shoot a single Viet Cong in the back, he would not have recommended the awarding of the Silver Star. He explains how he came to change his mind in that regard.
On the BORDER of Cambodia on Christmas Eve instead of in Cambodia on Christmas day?
I got all breathless for nothing.
There's such a thing as shooting yourself in the foot, these small boat vets are doing it by putting out nonsense like this instead of sticking to the dispute about the Senate testimony etc
How about another lying psychopath sociopath..?
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