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Posted on 08/09/2004 3:56:59 PM PDT by One Point Of Light
Christmas In “Cambodia"
Vietnam, December 1968
JOHN KERRY’S STORY
If there is one story told over and over again by John Kerry since his return from Vietnam, it is the heart-wrenching tale of how he spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day illegally in Cambodia. From the early 1970s, when he used the tale as part of his proof for war crimes in Cambodia, through the mid-1980s and the 1990s, Kerry has spoken and written again and again of how he was illegally ordered to enter Cambodia. On the floor of the U.S. Senate on March 27, 1986, Kerry launched one of his many attacks against President Reagan—this time charging that President Reagan’s actions in Central America were leading the United States into yet another Vietnam, claiming that he could recognize the error of the administration’s ways because he had experienced firsthand the duplicity of the Nixon administration in lying about American incursions into Cambodia during the Vietnam War. Kerry charged that he had been illegally ordered into Cambodia during Christmas 1968:
"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."20
Kerry also described, for example, for the Boston Herald his vivid memories of his Christmas Eve spent in Cambodia:
"I remember spending Christmas Eve of 1968 five miles across the Cambodian border being shot at by our South Vietnamese allies who were drunk and celebrating Christmas. The absurdity of almost being killed by our own allies in a country in which President Nixon claimed there were no American troops was very real."21
As recently as July 7, 2004, Michael Kranish of the Boston Globe repeated Kerry’s Christmas in Cambodia story on FOX News Channel’s Hannity & Colmes, indicating that it was a critical turning point in Kerry’s life. Kranish had no knowledge, even after his extensive study of Kerry, that he was simply repeating a total fabrication by Kerry. And Kranish was right: Study of the Christmas in Cambodia story is central to understanding John Kerry.
The story is also in the pages of the 2004 biography written by Krahish and other Boston Globe reporters. As we have come to expect, the story is twisted at the end to provide justification for yet another of Kerry’s political ruses, this time used to justify what Kerry portrays as his noble and continuing distrust of government pronouncements:
To top it off, Kerry said later that he had gone into Cambodia, despite President Nixon’s assurances to the American public that there was no combat action in this neutral territory. The young sailor began to develop a deep mistrust of the U.S. government pronouncements, he later recalled.22
Even without minimal investigation, a critical press should have been able to spot the story as a total fabrication: Richard Nixon did not become president of the United States until twenty-six days after John Kerry’s Christmas in Cambodia.
WHAT REALLY HAPPENED: CHRISTMAS IN VIETNAM
Despite the dramatic memories of his Christmas in Cambodia, Kerry’s statements are complete lies. Kerry was never in Cambodia during Christmas 1968, or at all during the Vietnam War. In reality, during Christmas 1968, he was more than fifty miles away from Cambodia. Kerry was never ordered into Cambodia by anyone and would have been court-martialed had he gone there.
During Christmas 1968, Kerry was stationed at Coastal Division 13 in Cat Lo. Coastal Division 13’s patrol areas extended to Sa Dec, about fifty-five miles from the Cambodian border. Areas closer than fifty-five miles to the Cambodian border in the area of the Mekong River were patrolled by PBRs, a small river patrol craft, and not by Swift Boats. Preventing border crossings was considered so important at the time that an LCU (a large, mechanized landing craft) and several PBRs were stationed to ensure that no one could cross the border. A large sign at the border prohibited entry. Tom Anderson, Commander of River Division 531, who was in charge of the PBRs, confirmed that there were no Swifts anywhere in the area and that they would have been stopped had they appeared.
All the living commanders in Kerry’s chain of command—Joe Streuhli (Commander of CosDiv 13), George Elliott (Commander of CosDiv 11), Adrian Lonsdale (Captain, USCG and Commander, Coastal Surveillance Center at An Thoi), Rear Admiral Roy Hoffmann (Commander, Coastal Surveillance Force Vietnam, CTF 115), and Rear Admiral Art Price (Commander of River Patrol Force, CTF 116)—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 PCF 44 boat—Bill Zaldonis, Steven Hatch, and Steve Gardner—deny that they or their boat were ever in Cambodia. The remaining two crewmen declined to be interviewed for this book. Gardner, in particular, will never forget those days in late December when he was wounded on PCF 44, not in Cambodia, but many miles away in Vietnam.
The Cambodia incursion story is not included in Tour of Duty. Instead, Kerry replaces the story with a report about a mortar attack that occurred on Christmas Eve 1968 “near the Cambodia border” in a town called Sa Dec, some fifty-five miles from the Cambodian border.23 Somehow, Kerry’s secret illegal mission to Cambodia, which he recounted on the floor of the U.S. Senate in 1986, is now a firefight at Sa Dec and a Christmas day spent back at the base writing entries in his journal.
The truth is that Kerry made up his secret mission into Cambodia. Much like Kerry’s many other lies relating to supposed “war crimes” committed by the U.S. military in Vietnam, the lie about the illegal Cambodian incursion painted his superiors up the chain of command— men such as Commander Streuhli, Commander Elliott, Admiral Hoffmann, and Admiral Zumwalt, all distinguished Naval heroes and men of integrity—as villains faced down by John Kerry, a solitary hero in grave and exotic danger and forced illegally and against his will into harm’s way.
The same sorts of lies were repeated over and over in Kerry’s antiwar book, The New Soldier, a book filled with preposterous, false confessions of bogus war crimes committed by the participants (who were often not even real veterans) against their will and under orders from dishonest superiors. Kerry’s Christmas in Cambodia typifies the sort of lie upon which Kerry has built a false persona and a political career. The story of Christmas 1968 has one final chapter. When refueling his PCF near Dong Tam, Kerry and his crew were told that the Bob Hope USO show was at the Dong Tam base. So Kerry decided to leave his station on the river and go searching for the Bob Hope Christmas show.
Unable to find the show, he risked boat and crew by unknowingly blundering into one of the most dangerous canals in Vietnam, a canal that to those who knew the area was notorious for Viet Cong ambushes. Given the easy navigation by radar and map of the rivers involved—not much more difficult than driving a car—Kerry had just performed a feat of reverse navigation worthy of Wrong Way Corrigan. There is, of course, no record that Kerry ever informed anyone of what he did, where he was, or where he was going—all required by regulations for the safety of the boat and crew. He did, however, record the Bob Hope adventure in his journal so he could be sure to share it in Tour of Duty.24
It contains a lot of specifics that I see getting confused here and in the media. I can't wait for my copy to arrive.
This was on Fox New Channel's Special Report with Brit Hume at 5:00 p.m. CDT today. Carl Cameron said when the Kerry people were confronted today at Grand Canyon they said: "He never said he was IN Cambodia but NEAR Cambodia." When confronted with written documentation they said: "We'll get an explanation for you".
LOL!! I'm sure they will.
Kerry received failing grades from the Clinton school of lying!
IIII'mmm dreeeeaming of a Cambooooodian Christmas...
Swift Vets on Oreilly and Hannity tonight
Monday, August 9, 2004
8:00 pm: Steve Gardner will appear on the Bill O'Reilly Show (Fox News cable TV, national).
9:00 pm: John O'Neill will appear on the Hannity & Colmes (Fox News cable TV, national).
bump
I heard that also -- all this crap about the US being ILLEGALLY in Cambodia, and now it's that he was CLOSE!!
You can bet that right now the media is working on plans to come up with some totally new and unrelated "breaking news" to divert the pub's attention.
When will they be interviewed by Couric? :)
bttt
"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."
I have a memory seared in me too Senator Kerry. That of you and your friends up at Harvard Square flying the Viet Cong flag when I returned home. That memory is seared into me. And I'll enjoy pulling the lever to vote against you.
I think the memory that's really seared into him is the one where those three other officers (including Thomas Wright) came to him and told him to use his three PHs to bug the hell out of there. They didn't want him in their command.
I think that is when he turned against the US military--and the US in general. That's why he has supported every enemy of this country that has ever come down the pike. Staring of course with the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong.
Kerry gave a different story to the Washington Post, June 2003.
He said he was in Cambodia as part of a covert CIA mission.
Washington Post, June 1,2003
" John Kerry : Hunter, Dreamer, Realist "-Laura Blumenfeld
Tha last paragraphs of the piece.
" A close associate hints: There's a secret compartment in Kerry's briefcase.
He carries the black attache everywhere.
Asked about it on several occasions, Kerry brushed it aside.
Finally, trapped in an interview, he exhaled and clicked open the case."
"My friends don't know about this."
" The hat was a little mildewy. The green camouflage was fading, the seams fraying."
"My good luck hat,Kerry said, happy to see it. "
" Given to me by a CIA guy as we went in for a special mission in Cambodia."
"Kerry put on the hat, pulling the brim over his forehead."
"He pointed his finger and raised his thumb, creating an imaginary gun."
" He smiled and aimed his finger : " Pow."
Not only did Kerry tell the Washington Post, he went into Cambodia, he was part of a super secret CIA mission !!
Kerry is in a special LaLa Land, that even Gore wouldn't be able to get into.
Well, didn't Clinton fly into LaGuardia?
FOX is still waiting for for the explanation. Does the media not see they've been played like a fiddle by Kerry?
George Butler is a New Hampshire Film Maker and a long time friend with Kerry. He made such films as "Pumping Iron". Butler is currently making a film about Kerry's experiences in Vietnam, called "Going up River", expected to hit theatres this September. He is now suing The Vietnam Vets Against Kerry for unauthorized use of photos. I believe some of these photos are going to be in the book "Unfit to Command". This is one reason Kerry's campaign is against this book because it will blow his cover and bring questions to this films accuracy. This is a quote from Butler on WHDH TV Boston, Aired 7/21/2004.
"Everything John Kerry said about Vietnam applies to Iraq as well. So there's a message in the film that's very interesting film indeed."
Link to George Butler interview.
http://www1.whdh.com/features/articles/specialreport/DBM564/
George Butler is also the guy who issued the eleventh hour smear against Arnold Schwarzennegger--calling him a Nazi lover--in an attempt to lose him the election.
And of course if it wasn't for Arnold, this guy would be making porno in the Valley.
Butler is a total America-hating slime, just as you would expect from a lifelong pal of Kerry's.
I heard it too and almost exploded!! Since the DNC and Kerry have made this the MAIN EVEnt, I DON'T THINK IT SHOULD GO DOWN THE TUBES LIKE THEY WANT IT TO!!
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