FPM: John, you’ve witnessed the politics of the Clinton Administration. You know what now happens when anybody criticizes a prominent Democrat in the United States. He immediately becomes a target for this well-organized hit-and-smear, kill-the-messenger machine the Democrats have developed. I watched Chris Matthews foaming at the mouth trying to crucify you, asking you questions, cutting off your answers and then accusing you of not answering. Is this what you expected?

O’Neill: Yes, I really did, Lowell. It’s a shame. The problem they have is when you study the book Unfit For Command, the conclusions in the book are really difficult to assail. It’s pretty obvious that they’re the truth. And so, rather than attack the conclusions and the facts, what they try to do is attack the messenger. I didn’t mind so much Chris Matthews attacking me, but bitterly resented Chris Matthews’ treatment of Larry Thurlow, probably the greatest hero we ever had in swift boats. And I also thought that he acted like a clod in attacking Michelle Malkin, who defended us on his show and throwing her off. I think he should be ashamed of himself.

FPM: Well, he clearly should be. But he is a classic Democrat partisan, and frankly, to be fair to Matthews, Rick Kaplan was named the head of MSNBC a few months ago, so Matthews’ boss is someone who routinely used to sleep in the Lincoln Bedroom with the Clintons. He is a far-left partisan, and this is the guy who runs MSNBC now.

O’Neill: I can tell you after what I saw on the Chris Matthews show, it’s not a place I’d ever go to anymore to pick up information or to get to the truth.

FPM: You’re a U.S. Naval Academy graduate, something leftist interviewers somehow go out of their way not to mention, and you commanded the same Swift boat as John Kerry, although not at the same time he was there.

O’Neill: That’s exactly right. Kerry bailed out of Vietnam after three months of combat, and one other month. Four months. In a strange sort of way I guess you could say I’m the guy who finished off his tour because I’m actually the guy who took over the swift boat PC94 that he would have otherwise been on. I actually finished up and served a whole year, as did everybody else in this swift boat division. Everybody else except Kerry.

John Kerry has presented his Vietnam record as his major qualification to be president of the United States. It is, therefore, the duty of the American public to scrutinize that record carefully. And it is the duty of candidate John Kerry to facilitate that scrutiny. If all the senator's claims about his four months in Vietnam are factual, it would be to his great advantage to facilitate such scrutiny.

Before we get to his record in Vietnam, however, we should examine the widespread misconception about how he got to Vietnam. The oft-repeated claim that Mr. Kerry volunteered to go to Vietnam misleads: He apparently volunteered only after the draft deferment he had applied for was turned down — thus allowing him to choose service in the Navy to avoid being drafted into the Army.

Interesting media developments in the Swift Boat ad controversy.

Check out the New York Times front page story from Friday. The Times' aggressive expose on the 260 decorated Vietnam veterans who make up "Swift Boat Captains for Truth" came complete with a do-it-yourself Vast Right Wing Conspiracy chart. All that was missing was the suggestion that Karl Rove and Meryl Streep implanted chips in their brains while these war heroes were serving in Vietnam.

Funny how attack ads by left-wing groups like moveon.org didn't provoke the same moral outrage as this vet ad.

As the authors of Fake Warriors: Identifying, Exposing and Punishing Those Who Falsify Their Military Service, we receive scores of emails on our website either asking questions about the Fake Warrior phenomenon (which has reached epidemic proportions), or reporting sightings which sometimes lead to exposure and even fines or jail terms.

One Vietnam vet with nearly forty years of military service who retired as a major, spurred on by the revelations in our book, and, in his words. “having seen hundreds of DD 214s” (a veteran’s Record of Transfer or Separation), recently decided to take a close look at John Kerry’s DD 214, which is posted on his website. What the major called to our attention, which we have since verified, raises some extremely troubling questions about John Kerry’s Silver Star. Keep in mind that the Silver Star is the third-highest medal our Nation can bestow (after only the Medal of Honor and the three service “Crosses”).

WASHINGTON - Vietnam veterans opposing John Kerry have scored a hit with a tough TV ad that claims he lied about his war record - it makes swing voters think twice about backing Kerry, an independent study has found.

The ad planted doubts in the minds of 27 percent of independent voters who planned to vote for Kerry or leaned pro-Kerry. After seeing it, they were no longer sure they'd back him, the study found.

America has no kings or queens but we do have nobility – our nobility is called Veterans. That nobility is responsible for the bounty that is America but tragically their influence has faded in recent years and the values they died for are under attack. But this election year they are back in demand and some have said the veteran vote could decide this election. It may have put Bush in the White House. With this in mind, John Kerry is seldom seen with out his band of brothers and constantly plays the” hero” card as a cornerstone of his bid for president, indeed, as the definition of who he is. Kerry defines patriotism as “keeping faith with those who wear the uniform of this country. He also brags that he “defended this country as a young man”. If Missouri is the show me state, Veterans are the show me voters – we are not much for words, deeds are our stock in trade. Lets look at Kerry’s deeds.

I was startled to read the Aug. 10 issue of the editorial page of The Washington Times concerning the assertion attributed to Sen. John Kerry that he had spent Christmas 1968 aboard his swift boat some five miles inside Cambodia and had been shot at by our Vietnamese allies, as well as the Khmer Rouge.

I would like to offer some insights and some background about the subject of Cambodia as it related to the U.S. war effort in Vietnam in that period. I served as a Foreign Service officer in the American embassy in Saigon from March 1968 to February 1970 and subsequently at the American embassy in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, from 1970 to 1972.

Presidential nominee John Kerry is working overtime to blunt growing criticism of his Vietnam service and simultaneously reassure uncommitted voters that his acts of alleged heroism as a Swift boat officer—over 30 years ago—far outweigh his antiwar history. He has made his medals—a Silver Star, a Bronze Star, and three Purple Hearts—a central focus of his candidacy. He has made a colossal mistake.

No surprise, then, that Swift Boat Veterans For Truth, an organization unaffiliated with any political party—whose members were no strangers to Lieutenant Kerry 30 years ago—last week began airing a dramatic, highly effective TV spot that flatly disputes Kerry’s claims, and, worse for Kerry, his integrity.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The television ad that aroused the wrath of John McCain and journalist supporters of John Kerry just begins deconstruction of the Democratic presidential candidate's war record. "Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry," a 214-page critique of his performance in Vietnam and the antiwar movement, is off the presses ahead of schedule.

I have read the book and found it is neither the political propaganda nor the urban legend that its detractors claim. It is a passionate but meticulously researched account of how Kerry went to war, what he did in the war and how he conducted himself after the war. The very serious charges by former comrades deserve answers but so far have produced only ad hominem counterattacks.

Not since Fox News sued Al Franken over his rip-off of their trademark on “fair and balanced” has anyone committed such a tactical blunder as Senator Kerry and the Democrats bringing in legal heavies to threaten broadcast stations that want to air the advertisement by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.The advertisement features veterans who served on Shallow Water Inshore Fast Tactical boats in the Mekong Delta, asserting that Mr. Kerry lied about Vietnam and betrayed the Swift boat sailors who carried America’s cause into those dangerous waters not so long ago.