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Winter in Cambodia? By Michael Barone This month the Kerry Campaign abandoned one claim that John Kerry had made for years about his Vietnam War service and put another into question. The claim that has been dropped: that Kerry was in Cambodia at Christmastime in 1968. In a 1979 review of the movie Apocalypse Now in the Boston Herald, Kerry wrote, "I remember spending Christmas Eve of 1968 5 miles across the Cambodian border being shot at by our Vietnamese allies." In a 1986 speech on the Senate floor, Kerry said, "I remember Christmas of 1968 sitting on a gunboat...

The explanation for Senator John Kerry that he was in “Cambodia on Christmas 1968” is by now a famous if not humorous footnote to his overall portrayal of hi own Vietnam War experiences. It is seared in his own, and now our own, memories. However the statement by John Kerry of his whereabouts at that time begs a very important question. Did Kerry in fact violate a secret oath, made official by his signature, under penalty of severe punishment?William Shawcross, in his 1979 book Sideshow, detailing covert U.S. operations in Cambodia during the period of the Royal Cambodian government...

Cambodian Reds were no military factor while young lieutenant was in Vietnam! WASHINGTON – Did Lt. John Kerry really take his gunboat up the river into Cambodia territory as he continues to insist despite growing contradictions in his stories? In the most celebrated telling of this story before the U.S. Senate in 1986, Kerry said: "I remember Christmas of 1968 sitting on a gunboat in Cambodia. I remember what it was like to be shot at by Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge and Cambodians, and have the president of the United States telling the American people that I was not there;...

[Excerpt from full transcript. Russert is speaking with Tad Devine, Senior Adviser, Kerry-Edwards '04. -- ajf]http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5772535/ MR. RUSSERT: He didn't take office until January '69. Does Senator Kerry stand by that statement that on Christmas Eve of '68 he was physically in Cambodia? MR. DEVINE: Right. Well, his memory, Tim, is being there, around there. And I'll tell you what happened on December 25th... MR. RUSSERT: No--being there or around there? MR. DEVINE: No, being right at the Cambodian border, over the Cambodian border. That's what he remembers. That's his clear memory. Now, Tim... [end excerpt] So according to Devine,...

Some people wondered how long the major media would be willing to ignore the Christmas-in-Cambodia story. Well, the answer is in: at least 10 or 11 days. I first noticed the story August 6 on Glenn Reynolds's Instapundit blog. Soon it was all over the Internet, the conservative press, talk radio, and some cable shows. But the networks, the New York Time s , the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and other major media didn't run the story. Some papers, like the Kansas City Star, got protests from readers on what appeared to be a news blackout. Finally, after...

The leader of the group Vietnam Veterans for John Kerry said Sunday that Kerry's claim he invaded Cambodia during the Vietnam War was absolutely true, though it wasn't on Christmas Eve 1968, as Kerry originally insisted. But when asked to produce documentation of the mission, VVFJK director John Hurley told "Fox News Sunday's" Chris Wallace that the only evidence to support the claim was "John Kerry's word." HURLEY: He was five miles into Cambodia, but not on that night. He was five miles into Cambodia on a different occasion. What's been confused here is the night. He was near Cambodia...

John Kerry took the floor of the United States Senate on March 27, 1986, and delivered a dramatic oration indicting the foreign policy of the Reagan Administration. As is his habit, Kerry drew on his Vietnam war experience in explaining his opposition to the policy. "I remember Christmas of 1968 sitting on a gunboat in Cambodia," he said. "I remember what it was like to be shot at by Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge and Cambodians, and having the President of the United States telling the American people that I was not there." To emphasize the importance of this incident to...

[concluding paragraph] Character counts. On the Christmas story (which even the pro-Kerry New York Times admits Kerry has not "put to rest"), perhaps Kerry was just confused about dates, or perhaps he convinced himself that an untrue story was true, as people sometimes do, and had no intent to mislead. A more unsettling possibility is that he consciously leapt the bounds of truth to make his experience seem more spectacular or to score political points. Those are not the sort of things most people want in a president. Will Kerry's evidently untrue statements about Christmas in Cambodia raise doubts about...

Monday, August 16, 2004 SEALs & Swift boats Apparently, the latest version of Kerry's Cambodia Chronicles includes the insertion of Navy SEALs by Swift boat into Cambodia in the early part of 1969. Well, I am a former Navy SEAL that served in the 1990s, my father in law is a former SEAL and he served in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam in 1970. I spoke with him about the likelihood that this story could be correct. My contention was that Swift boats were too large to be routinely used as an insertion platform for SEALs. SEALs typically used the...

Under Cover:covering Kerry, instead of the news...Coming just short of declaring the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth group of being aliens from another planet, the New York Times, Washington Post and Boston Globe jot and trot out their latest cover-ups for cover boy John Kerry.

It never stops with the Kerry campaign. The spin, the vagueness, the insincerity, it never stops. If John Kerry isn’t voting for funding the troops before he is voting against it he’s protesting a war and claiming he and others committed atrocities and war crimes while later making all of his actions during the “illegal war” the centerpiece of his presidential campaign. Now comes the impossible -to verify contention that John Kerry’s 1968 “mission” to Cambodia was so top, top secret that even the Pentagon wouldn’t dare keep paperwork on the “mission.” How stupid does the Kerry campaign think the...

The new version of Sen. John Kerry's Cambodia experience is also not true. Sen. Kerry patrolled from An Thoi on the 94 boat and also from Cat Lo on the 44 boat. There was no way to enter Cambodia from the An Thoi patrol area. That patrol area started at the coastal fishing village of Ha Tien and ran parallel to the Cambodian border, but there was no way into Cambodia. Any good map will show this to be true. From the Cat Lo patrol area around Sa Dec, it would have been possible for a boat to enter Cambodia,...

"KERRY WENT into Cambodian waters three or four times in January and February 1969 on clandestine missions," historian Douglas Brinkley told the London Telegraph last week. "He had a run dropping off U.S. Navy Seals, Green Berets, and CIA guys. . . . He was a ferry master, a drop-off guy, but it was dangerous as hell. Kerry carries a hat he was given by one CIA operative. In a part of his journals which I didn't use he writes about discussions with CIA guys he was dropping off." John Kerry was obliged last week to recant a number of...

Secret missions in Cambodia By Andrew Antippas Washington Times, 8-18-04 I understand that the campaign of candidate John Kerry is now asserting that not only did Navy Lt. Kerry visit Cambodia in his swift boat in 1968-69, but he performed four missions to drop off agents inside Cambodia. Perhaps, but I don't think so. In my Aug. 13 column in this paper, I described my job in the American embassy 1968-1970 as the "Cambodia man." My job was to follow events in Cambodia as they impacted the United States in Vietnam. This related in most part to border incidents. However,...

MIDI - MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR It's John's...Cambodian Mystery Tour Come on...you all will enjoy it, for sure Here is your invitation...Cambodian Mystery Tour He's taking reservations...Cambodian Mystery Tour Cambodian Mystery Tour, a once in a lifetime event John is providing a tent It's John's...Cambodian Mystery Tour Come on...you all will enjoy it, for sure You can pretend you are a spook...Cambodian Mystery Tour Wear foil hats like you're a kook...Cambodian Mystery Tour Cambodian Mystery Tour takes off on November the third John hopes you're passing the word If you fall from the boat...you know he'll take note Cambodian Mystery...

For Immediate Release August 18, 2004 Kerry In Cambodia Debunked By Kerry Crewmate What's Next? Kerry Crew Member and Supporter Does Not "Recall" Senator In Cambodia Washington, DC - Swift Boat Veterans for Truth today, again, called on Democratic presidential candidate Senator John Kerry to set the record straight on whether he was, or was not, in Cambodia. In today's Boston Globe, an article by Michael Kranish further calls into question whether Kerry was ever in Cambodia. "Michael Medeiros, who served aboard the No. 94 with Kerry and appeared with him at the Democratic National Convention, vividly recalled an occasion...

Every war has them. The combat bullshit artists who go to elaborate extremes aggrandizing their military exploits for profit or promotion. In the Battle of the Little Big Horn, there were hundreds of these pathetic individuals but none with the creative flair of Theodore W. Goldin. Mr. Goldin enlisted as a private in the 7th Cavalry on April 8th, 1876, just two months before that fateful Sunday when Custer's five companies would face off with 3000 Sioux and Cheyenne warriors. He would be assigned to Company G, commanded by Lieutenant Donald MacIntosh who served under Major Marcus Reno during the...

The Kerry in Cambodia fairy tale continues to unravel. I've already reported that Kerry's own accounts of Christmas 1968 in Cambodia contradict each other. Tony Snow wrote, Kerry's account of this list has shifted and changed constantly over the last 35 years. Some versions have him spending the day in Cambodia, dropping off spies. Others have him in a barracks, 55 miles from the Cambodian border, scribbling entries into his diary. [Kerry advocate Jim] Hurley offered a hybrid today, saying Kerry was ordered onto the water Christmas day, made his way to the Cambodian border, endured three separate engagements with...

Cambodian Rhapsody Have you got a load of this latest nonsense drummed up by the dhingers against Kerry? From what I can gather, apperently the "so" called "charge" against him this time is that he didn't fight in Cambodia too. Talk about gaul! While they're guy was hiding in a Texas jet plane Kerry was dodging bullets skippering a swiftvet boat on the plumes in Vietnam, and they have the nerve to accuse Kerry of cowardace/duty avoidance? It's almost unbelievalbe! (not quite) what the dhingers will stoop too. Listen you numskulls the war was in V-I-E-T N-A-M Say it with...