SwiftVets.com

teach-u · Seaman Recruit Joined: 16 Aug 2004 Posts: 14

The Swift Boat Controversy: New Witnesses
October 14, 2004

John Kerry's service in Vietnam has become a campaign issue. The group calling itself Swift Boat Veterans for Truth alleges that Kerry has distorted the truth about what happened during the war and questions whether he deserved the medals he received. Tonight, you'll hear from eyewitnesses who have not spoken before: the Vietnamese who fought against him.

We've had the debates and the race is a virtual dead-heat. This is the part of a campaign when there are daily fires--issues that rise, flare, and then go away, only to be replaced by a new one the next day. But for a while, this campaign was dominated by Vietnam, a war that ended, at least the fighting, thirty years ago. John Kerry made his service in Vietnam a major part of his campaign. The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth fired back. They have alleged that Kerry was not truthful about his actions in Vietnam. Then questions were raised about the group's connections to people linked to the GOP. And so the story just kept spiraling in different directions. But the polls clearly showed that Kerry was hurt by allegations that he was not candid about his actions in Vietnam.

Which brings us to an old _expression: the fog of war. People, in general, are not always great eyewitnesses. Memories fade, especially as the years go by. Two people standing next to each other may have very different recollections of something that happened right in front of them. But in the whole Swift Boat controversy, there is one group that hasn't been heard from at length: the Vietnamese. Producer Andrew Morse went to Vietnam, to the coordinates taken from the U.S. military after-action report from Kerry's battle for which he won the Silver Star. And there Andrew found several people who had either witnessed the events of that day, or in some cases, had actually fought against the swift boats. And it is their accounts that you will hear tonight. Do their accounts favor one version or the other? Can these questions be definitively settled? You'll have to judge. One of the surprising stories we were told? One of the Vietnamese men in the area says he was visited by a man claiming to be a swift boat veteran and a cameraman. He says the veteran was disparaging towards Kerry's conduct in the war, and asked him in an interview about the events of that day. We do not know who that man is, or whatever happened to that tape.

Ted will be anchoring tonight, and he will be joined by John O'Neill, a leader of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and the author of Unfit for Command, a book critical of Kerry. I hope you'll join us.

Leroy Sievers and the Nightline Staff
Washington D.C.

Sorry, I found this on the DU with no link and couldn't find the page on ABC website.

Be sure to watch!

Note: Topic amended to focus forum comment. Thanks
_________________
“Don't hit at all if it is honorably possible to avoid hitting; but never hit soft.”
~ Teddy Roosevelt

one more captins mast · LCDR Joined: 10 Aug 2004 Posts: 438 Location: Texas

This thing "kobble" of nite lie, remember him,

think, the "old monk burning in Sigon" the French "journlist", the

two "commie monks" the old man , the phone call to the

AP about the "something is about to happen" the car in the back

ground, the "french guys car" who gave the old burned monk a ride?

?WAS THE OLD MAN DRUGED THE NITE BEFORE?

who's gas was pourd on him, who set the fire, ?

here we go "another old monk burning"

from the "nite lie guy"

ps he has been getting some very "specfic e-mails from "someone"

in Texas about his "soul" and the Demon on a huge white horse

the Demon's name is History and he comes to "see" and he is

looking only at the guilty, as they scurry away, they look back

only to see the HUGE RED EYES OF THE DEMON AND THEY ONLY

SEEM TO BE LOOKING AT THEM.

clop, clop, clop, ------- CLOP , CLOP, CLOP
SICK
_________________
the strange mr aj

Rdtf · CNO Joined: 13 May 2004 Posts: 2209 Location: BUSHville

is it too much to wish that this has a fair spin?

gilliam · Seaman Apprentice Joined: 09 Aug 2004 Posts: 97

Here is a story on it with a lot of detail

What Happened in Kerry's Vietnam Battles? ABCNEWS 'Nightline' Speaks to Witnesses of Disputed Firefights...

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Nightline/Vote2004/story?id=166434&page=1

Truegrit

ABC's Nightline online has a summary of the story about Kerry's Silver Star. They found some Vietnam villagers who will claim that there was in fact a serious firefight.

Well, I wasn't there personally, but I will take the word of our Naval officers (O'Neill and other Swiftees) over Vietnamese villagers who have may have been prompted to come up with a tall tale by whatever inducements a news organization can provide -- perhaps with encouragement from the government in Hanoi.

If you read this, know the facts, and dispute ABC's account, here's the email address to comment:

niteline@abc.com
_________________
Ted Harwood, Ph.D.
Enlisted, U.S. Army ('57-'60)

ThanksVets · Posted: Thu Oct 14, 2004 11:25 pm Post subject:

From the ABC report

"On Feb. 28, 1969, a convoy of three American Swift boats came up the river under the command of Lt. John Kerry, arriving at the village of Tran Thoi. According to Kerry's medal citation, the boats "came under intense automatic weapons and small arms fire from an entrenched enemy force less than 50 feet away. Unhesitatingly, Lieutenant [junior grade] Kerry ordered his boat to attack."

The Swift boats, which were transporting a group of the Americans' South Vietnamese allies, turned into the ambush and beached."

Don't the boat damage reports from after this incident strongly repute this account?

Paul R. · PO3 Joined: 03 Sep 2004 Posts: 273 Location: Illinois

Hmmm... was there a village right by the river at that location? If not, then the villagers might have heard a lot of shooting...

My wife and I were watching a show on National Geographic a few nights ago. Some place (village) in India, not long ago, wolves started attacking and killing 4,5, 6 year old children at night. Next thing you know, there were "eyewitness" reports from parents who "saw" their child attacked and taken away by human-like (but superhuman) monsters. Following that, a squad of the police trying to find the killers were attacked by a mob of the villagers for not offering sufficient protection from the monsters! In the end, of course, the wolves were eventually found and killed. But, it'd be interesting to hear the stories of the villagers in 30 years!

The damage reports are the best evidence. Maybe John can provide a little graphics help for the Nightline viewers? (a drawing worth 1000 words...?) Throw a rock at a semi 30-40 yards away? (Good grief, I'm no athlete and I could hit a trash can with a hickory nut @ 50 feet!)
_________________
Paul R.

jim_nyc · Seaman Joined: 13 Sep 2004 Posts: 198

Intersesting sentence from Page 80 of Unfit for Command - The Silver Star. In each campaign, a new participant in Kerry's medal stories is discovered,.................

How can ABC or any other network possibly consider villagers as credible witnesses to the events of 35 years ago? Why would they believe them over our soldiers? What is this business about a swift boat guy coming some months ago to interview the villagers? Please!

Let's hope O'Neill is permitted to make his case. Let's hope he at least gets to mention the three seperate citations and the V for valor.

I have a feeling it will all revolve around wether or not the man was a teenager and what he was wearing.

Has the bias in the media .....not even bias ....but blatant propaganda from the media ever been more clear as it has been with this whole John Kerry Vietnam episode?
_________________
NEED SOME WOOD?

BrianC · PO2 Joined: 02 Jun 2004 Posts: 364

As far as I'm concerned, ABCNews has chosen to believe a small band of elderly communists rather than the words of decorated American heroes.

To HELL with ABCNews. This is just the trolls doing Halperin's bidding.

Rdtf · CNO Joined: 13 May 2004 Posts: 2209 Location: BUSHville

Anker-Klanker · Posted: Thu Oct 14, 2004 11:59 pm Post subject:

You know where they're going with this, don't you? Find one questionable detail in the SBVFT account - did he wear a loin cloth or black pajamas - and the hue and cry will go up that the SBVFT have been discredited again.

I don't know why John has to go through all this alone. I hope that he comes loaded for bear, and that he's had some really good help from his friends beforehand in brushing up on what really happened.

Me#1You#10 · Site Admin Joined: 06 May 2004 Posts: 6503

Note...this Nightline story was first reported by Margie Mason, People's Weekly World.

http://www.swiftvets.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=96767#96767

'Nuff said.

ThanksVets · Posted: Fri Oct 15, 2004 1:20 am Post subject:

My Letter to Niteline:

In regard to your recent in depth story you have released, I find it quite troubling that you fail to reasonably explain how, when all these boats come under such "intense automatic weapons and small arms fire from an entrenched enemy force less than 50 feet away" there is absolutely nothing on the boat damage reports to even closely support this. By simply printing a supposed statement from someone you "found" who "didn't see anything because I was hiding from the bullets and the bombs", are you are trying to make us believe that not one of these enemy forces with machine guns could hit any of these boats from 50 feet away?. WOW! Seems to me that if you add up the size to the number of these boats, the entire entrenched force would have to have been off on their shooting by something like 180 degrees the entire time!

I and many other good Americans look forward to your explanation this evening and do hope you treat Mr. O'Neill with the utmost respect. We happen to view these men as the true American Hero's who are once again trying to stand for what's right for our great country, and who gave us the freedom and wisdom to do the same. It fills us with disgust when you and your collogues in the media don't give them the fair shake they deserve for the sake of your own selfish agendas.

ashter · Seaman Joined: 22 Aug 2004 Posts: 185

What time will it be on?

Wynne · Lieutenant Joined: 19 Sep 2004 Posts: 228

I admire John O'Neill's courage more than I can say. When I first read about his being on Koppel's show and what ABC was going to pit against him, I thought, Why would he put himself through that? But I believe O'Neill will go on any show that will have him so that he can stand up for the Swift Boat Veterans publicly before the whole world and so that he can publicize their stories and so that he can hold up the book, 'Unfit for Command'. The good work he is doing by going on these shows, most of them terribly prejudiced against him, is enormously powerful. I am so grateful for John O'Neill. He embodies everything I was taught as a child -- to stand up for what is right no matter what the personal cost. What a wonderful man he is, a great role model.
_________________
TRUTH IS ALWAYS THE VICTOR