SwiftVets.com

[Doc Farmer]

Christmas in Cambodia


John Kerry was in Vietnam for four months. Is there anybody on the planet who doesn’t know that yet? He did not spend Christmas 1968 in Cambodia. Until very recently, he said he did; in fact, he described it as an incident that was “seared” in his memory and induced a psychological turning point that changed the way he viewed his country and the war. Does the documentation of that lie now cast doubt on the whole “Kerry as war hero” narrative, showing it to deserve at least as much scrutiny as, oh, say, the “George Bush was AWOL from cushy National Guard duty” mythology? Or should we just call it nasty politics of personal destruction and hope it all goes away?

The latter, it seems, if press coverage is any indication. The book by Vietnam veterans – “Unfit for Command” – detailing this and other charges about Kerry’s war service is already No. 1 on Amazon.com, though it hasn’t even been published yet. It includes first-person accounts by credible witnesses, and those who have read it say it seems thoroughly researched and documented. It would at least seem worthy of an objective analysis. But so far, the few references on TV and in print have barely gone beyond one-side-says-this and the-other-side-says-that polemics. The character and reliability of the Vietnam Veterans Against Kerry, the group responsible for the book, have been called into question, and there have been startling revelations: Some of these men are – gasp! – Republicans. Even the Bush administration is so far taking a pass on the issue.

This is understandable and, at least in part, justifiable. Whatever else may be said about Kerry as a potential commander-in-chief, he did volunteer for duty in his generation’s war, which a lot of men, including President Bush, actively sought to avoid. It can appear unseemly to question whether someone actually deserved his medals and Purple Hearts. A lot of soldiers caught up in the heat of war might do things they would do differently in calmer times, and a lot of old soldiers are less than accurate both in their memories of war and their telling of war stories. Besides, there is a very important war in the here and now we have to wager. The important thing is what John Kerry would do against terrorism. Why make such a big deal about something that happened more than 35 years ago?

Because John Kerry chose to make it a big deal.

When he stood on the stage at the Democratic National Convention, he could have put strong emphasis on the biggest chunk of his public life – a 20-year-voting record in the United States Senate. And it’s more than a little odd that he did not elect to. If what all the critics were saying – that Kerry voted over and over to weaken the very military he now proudly embraces and to eviscerate the intelligence services whose shortcomings he now blames for 9/11 – was wrong, why not use the speech to say so? Instead, he trotted out his four Vietnam months – bringing on the “band of brothers,” starting the speech off with that silly little salute and “I’m John Kerry, and I’m reporting for duty” – as proof that he has the credentials to be commander-in-chief.

That made Vietnam fair game, and the claims in “Unfit for Command” fair comment. So far, the only allegation from the book that’s getting any traction is the Christmas in Cambodia story, perhaps because it is a specific incident that can be easily fact-checked, perhaps because Kerry has made so much of it.

Kerry has had several versions of the story. Here’s one, from a 1979 letter to the editor in the Boston Herald: “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.” Here’s another, from 1986 comments on the Senate floor: “I remember Christmas of 1968 sitting on a gunboat in Cambodia. I remember what it was like to be shot at by Vietnamese and Kmer Rouge and Cambodians, and have the president of the Untied 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 . . .”

The story has been discredited in so many ways – not the least of which is that Nixon wasn’t even the president yet – that the Kerry campaign is now reduced to claiming Kerry had always meant to claim he was “near” Cambodia. But that undercuts the whole point of the story, the kind of disillusionment that caused him to always question America’s foreign entanglements.

Kerry spent the first part of his political career passionately speaking against the Vietnam War, including testifying before Congress and speaking out in such venues as the Dick Cavett show, saying despicable things about the very soldiers he now calls his band of brothers. When he stood at the convention and said he was proud of “defending his country” in a war he had long claimed was the blackest spot on the nation’s soul, it took a lot of chutzpah. No one called him on it.

The Kerry campaign has made “John Kerry, war hero” the part of his resume that qualifies him to lead the war on terror. John Kerry has made Vietnam a valid and debatable part of the presidential campaign.

Fine. Let’s talk about that.


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By Leo Morris for the editorial board

http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/9394046.htm
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Fat, Bald and Ugly - And PROUD Of It!

[stylin19]

as of yet, a retraction/correction on Cambodia, has not personally publically come out of John Kerry's mouth.
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U.S.M.C. - 1969-1971
RVN- 1970-1971

[You GottaBeKidding]

He doesn't credit the right group. He says Vietnam Veterans rather than Swift Boat veterans.

[Beatrice1000]

[You GottaBeKidding]

I've already e-mailed the author:

News of your op-ed piece has reached the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth discussion board. There's one minor correction. The group behind the book is the aforementioned Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, not the Vietnam Veterans Against Kerry.

Thank you for not dismissing the Swifties' claims as smear tactics.

[Beatrice1000]

[Scott]

I just sent the following feedback to the Fort Wayne News Sentinal regarding the editorial posted above:

[sixdogteam]

I have just a little problem with this "volunteer " for duty in Viet Nam deal, and how it is praised. The implication is that volunteer service is somehow more honorable than the service of draftees, and I just don't see it. When I had my college deferment, 1965-69, it didn't seem to me that huge hordes of young people were clammering to go to Viet Nam. Most people
DIDN'T want to go. Kids went to college, joined the NG or went to Canada. Remember the phrase "What are you going to do, send me to Viet Nam?" as a way of expressing extreme punishment? I think most soldiers, in my opinion and experience, in the sixties, if given the choice, would choose a tour of duty in Germany over one in RVN...After all, the Viet Nam war was not a personal thing to most Americans like the Revolution, the Civil War or even WWII...The point is, that hundreds of thousands of ordinary teenagers, didn't want to go, but when called to serve their country, did so honorably and without wimpering and gnashing of teeth, as a patriotic duty...most of them knowing that a certain large percentage of the American people didn't agree with them for going, or worst, believed them to be of the bad character that John Traitor Kerry claimed them to be. Viet Nam veterans have had to live with a bad rep for 35 years, due to the politicians giving up on victory, and communists and communist sympathizers like Jane Fonda and John Traitor Kerry...And to me it is a twilight zone nightmare, when a guy like John Traitor Kerry wraps himself in the flag and plays war hero when he helped destroy the reputations of three millions of his "brothers"...
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HHC 212th CAB MMAF RVN '70-'71

[producehawk]

This story has survived a weekend in competition with killer herricane, a homo gov and of course Laci P. It is still going strong. Nothing is going to silence the truth. I was worried for a while when Bill O limped out, but it seems even the middle of the road orielly will have to start pumping the facts. Sign your 180 Kerry.