SwiftVets.com

[Doc Farmer]

Kerry said he was mistaken about Christmas in Cambodia, he meant he was there being fired at by the Kmer Rouge in January/69. Mr. Antippas gives us some facts about Khmer Rouge:


Fact and fiction
By Andrew Antippas
Published August 13, 2004


http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20040812-090520-8656r.htm

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

<<snip for space>>

Finally, concerning the assertion that Mr. Kerry was shot at by the Khmer Rouge during his Christmas 1968 visit to Cambodia, it should be noted that the Khmer Rouge didn't take the field until the Easter Offensive of 1972, when the Vietnamese forces that had attacked the Cambodians initially in March 1970 pulled out of Cambodia to attack the U.S. and Vietnamese forces in Vietnam. Only Vietnamese Communist soldiers were found on the battlefields of Cambodia in 1970-72.

<<snip for space>>

Andrew Antippas served as a Foreign Service officer in the U.S. Embassy in Saigon (March 1968 to February 1970) as the "Cambodia Man" and at the U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh, Cambodia (1970 to 1972). He spent 32 years with the State Department (1960-92) .
_________________

Fat, Bald and Ugly - And PROUD Of It!

[Fabius Cunctator]

Exactly.

I had two hours to contemplate that while on a flight to Washington DC this afternoon, as I had heard that remark on the radio while driving to the airport.

But, that is true, the Khmer Rouge did not exist until the early 1970's. Methinks Kerry continues to have a truth deficit issue......

My momma used to say, it pays to tell the truth. If you lie, you have to remember it all so that your story will always be consistent. Even the smartest people I have ever known could ever get it right if they were so disposed.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Quintus Fabius Maximus Cunctator
USMCR – 1974 to the present.

"Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum; qui victoriam cupit, milites inbuat diligenter; qui secundos optat eventus, dimicet arte, non casu. Nemo provocare, nemo audet offendere quem intellegit superiorem esse, si pugnet." - F. Vegetii Renati Epitoma Rei Militaris, AD 390

[GenrXr]

During 1968 Pol Pot was nothing more then a high level communist political leader. To elaborate on this I will quote Ben Kiernan from his book 'The Pol Pot Regime'

Kiernan writes, "Richard Nixon's May 1970 invasion of Cambodia (undertaken without informing Lon Nol's new government) followed simultaneous invasions by saigon and Vietnamese communist forces. It created 140,000 new Khmer refugees, according to the pentagon." he further writes "From the ashes of rural Cambodia arose Pol Pot's Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK). It used the bombing's (which was 70-73') devastation and massacre (I take issue with Kiernan here) of civilians as recruitment propoganda and as an excuse for its brutal, radical policies and its purge of moderate communists and Sihanoukists."p.19

Ok so CPK was not around until after 1970, and I want to also stress that the name Khmer Rouge was something the Cambodias began to call the CPK peoples since they wore red and were of mainly Khmer origin. From most available sources the name does not appear fequently until 74'. This is years after Kerry was out of Vietnam.

The Washington Times article failed to point this out but thats why I am here.
_________________
"An activist is the person who cleans up the water, not the one claiming its dirty."
"All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to stand by and do nothing." Edmund Burke (1729-1797), Founder of Conservative Philosophy

[BlueLotus]

Yep,

I am not an expert on Cambodia, but at the time of Lon Nol's coup, they were strictly a political group, correct?

And it seems to me that until their formed an "alliance" (Not really, but that's another story...) with Sihanouk in order to get better name recognition and peasant backing for their efforts, their membership was pretty small, wasn't it?

Of course, Sihanouk was not deposed by Lon Nol until March 18, 1970...

Hmm.. that's a long time after Christmas, 1968.....

[GenrXr]

During this period Pol Pot was using the deposed Prince for his advantage amongst certain peoples, but mainly working on getting support from China for his communist party, which he named CPK not long after Lon Nol came to power.
_________________
"An activist is the person who cleans up the water, not the one claiming its dirty."
"All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to stand by and do nothing." Edmund Burke (1729-1797), Founder of Conservative Philosophy

[MadIvan]

"Khmer Rouge" was a generic term for left wing parties in Cambodia, I believe, up until the formation of the guerillas...in the 1970's.

I'm beginning to wonder if Kerry didn't ingest certain illicit substances during or after his tour of duty which has scrambled his brain cells governing memory.

Regards, ivan
_________________

[integritycounts]

even if the term existed as term before 68-69, they were not a military force until far after Kerry's claims

[FireBoss59]