Yes, but Johnson said he never meant Kerry. He didn't say "he didn't meet him in Vietnam."
Maybe I'm being Clintonian about it. But Hack Johnson should have just said, O'Neil and Kerry didn't even serve together.
The conversation was about Viet Nam and that time period. We have probably seen the Dick Cavett show tape of the debate between O'Neil and sKerry - so of course they had met be then. O'Neil said he never knew sKerry in VN, because he got kerry's boat after he left.