SwiftVets.com

[Sue Bob]

Trolls are commenting on this at various blogs. What did O'Neill actually say and how can the claim that he told Nixon he was IN Cambodia be countered? I hope this isn't a repeat thread--I haven't mastered the search function.

Thanks

[Sue Bob]

Here is the context of my request. This is a quote from the troll on another site:

[Reg]

This was addressed in "Who's Telling the Truth in the Kerry Ad Controversy?", Hannity and Colmes, 8/25/04

Check this page and especially the map of Bernique's Creek. Kerry had at least one mission along the same waterway (See Kerry spot report 12-14 Feb 1969 anf "TofD" p324-328).

http://www.pcf45.com/sealords/hatien/hatien.html

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ALAN COLMES, CO-HOST: Mr. O'Neill, just in the interest of time, look, there are so many inconsistencies here, in my view, in the swift boat story.

I thank you for being on the show, and again, as you know, I admire your service, as I do all those who served their country, although we may disagree on this issue.

Look, this issue of Cambodia, you said, on George Stephanopoulos' show over the weekend that you knew that Kerry was not in Cambodia, that you could not have been in Cambodia on a swift boat, that he didn't go north of Sadak. They just didn't go that far. You were 15 miles away.

There's a tape of you, as you now know, in the Oval Office, saying you were in Cambodia, you said to Richard Nixon. You worked along the border or you were in Cambodia.

That seems very different than being 15 miles away and saying the swift boats didn't go to Cambodia. So they can't both be true.

O'NEILL: Alan, yes, they are, Alan. It's two different places, Alan. One place is along the Mekong River, right in the heart of the delta. The second place is on the west coast of Cambodia at a place called Ha Tien, where the boundary is right along that border.

Where Kerry was in Christmas of 1968 was on this river, the Mekong River. We got about 40 or 50 miles from the border. That's as close as we ran.

Later, Kerry went, and I went, to a place called Bernique's Creek — that was our nickname for it — at Ha Tien. That was a canal system that ran close to the border, but that wasn't at Christmas for Kerry. That was later for him.

So it's two separate places, Alan, and the story is correct.

COLMES: All right. Well, either you were in Cambodia or Kerry was in Cambodia and you claim he wasn't in Cambodia. You claimed at one point you weren't and then you claimed you were. This is very confusing to people.

O'NEILL: Well, it shouldn't be confused. I was never in Cambodia and Kerry lied when he said he was in Cambodia.

COLMES: You said to Richard Nixon you were in Cambodia.

O'NEILL: And it was the turning point of his life.

COLMES: You said to Richard Nixon, "I was in Cambodia, sir."

HANNITY: On the border.

COLMES: There's a tape of you saying that to Richard Nixon.

O'NEILL: What's the next sentence? I was along the Cambodian border. That's exactly right. What I told Nixon and was trying to tell him in this meeting was I was along the Cambodian border. As Sean clearly read...

COLMES: "I was in Cambodia," Those are your words.

O'NEILL: Yes, but you missed the next sentence. You're not reading the next sentence, Alan.

COLMES: Yes, along the border. But you're in Cambodia or you're not in Cambodia.

O'NEILL: Well, I'm sorry, Alan. I was talking in a conversation. And the first thing, by the way, I told him in the conversation, as you know, was that I was a Democrat and I voted for Hubert Humphrey.

[Sue Bob]

Thank you Reg.

Does this mean--looking at the map--that because this waterway BORDERS Cambodia it meanders into Cambodian territory? Therefore, this would be a distinction from a claim of going INTO Cambodia like Kerry claimed.

I think that I have a lack of spatial ability here.

[Reg]

The waterway in question (Bernique's Creek aka RACH GIANG THAN) is on the Vietnam side of the border.

Kerry is quoted in TofD p.324 that at some points the Cambodian border is about 50 yards away from the waterway. But the patrol route (called in the spot report RACH GIANG THAN/KINH VINH TE PATROLs) was always on the Vietnam side of the border.

So Kerry and O'Neil were "very near" but not "in" Cambodia.

To get a better view of the border area in question scroll down on this map:

http://www.nexus.net/~911gfx/vietnam/maps/nc48-06/nc48_06b.html

The RACH GIANG THAN patrol starts bottom left goes up river to Giang Thanh. If your interested in this look at PCF-94 12-14 Feb spot report at the kerry web site. It gives clear position coordinates as to where Kerry was along this riverway.

Obviously, this is a totally different area of operations than the X-mas eve Sa Dec mission with PCF44.

See my post below as to why this waterway will probably be THE deciding issue regarding Cambodia:

http://www2.swiftvets.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=4254

[Sue Bob]

Thanks again Reg.

What I am gathering with regard to John O'Neill's statement is that the context makes it clear that he was speaking of being on the border--not on some mission in Cambodia and he was trying to clarify that point with his second sentence.

The information you gave me as to the border clarifies things.

[jrsdad]