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http://www.gopusa.com/news/2004/august/0818_kerry_cambodiap.shtml
By Steve Roeder
Talon News
August 18, 2004

WASHINGON (Talon News) -- For over three decades, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) has spoken and written of how he was illegally ordered to enter Cambodia. Now, the accuracy of those claims is being called into question.

"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," Kerry wrote in a letter to the editor of the Boston Herald published on October 14, 1979.

According to the Congressional Record for March 27, 1986, Kerry again mentioned his Cambodia experiences while charging that President Reagan's actions in Central America were leading the U.S. toward another Vietnam.

"I remember Christmas of 1968 sitting on a gunboat in Cambodia," Kerry said. "I remember what it was like to be shot at by Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge and Cambodians, and have the president of the United 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."

In 1992, Kerry recalled a "black mission" near Cambodia to the States News Service.

"On Christmas Eve of 1968, I was on a gunboat in a firefight that wasn't supposed to be taking place," Kerry recalled. "I thought, if I'm killed here, what will my family be told?"

Now, some Swift boat officers and Kerry's crewmembers concur with "Unfit for Command" co-author John O'Neil's claim that Kerry was never in Cambodia.

"Despite the dramatic memories of his Christmas in Cambodia, Kerry's statements are complete lies," said O'Neil, the Swift Boat commander who took over Kerry's boat. "Kerry was never in Cambodia during Christmas 1968, or at all during the Vietnam War. He was more than fifty miles away from Cambodia."

"Kerry was stationed at Coastal Division 13 in Cat Lo. Coastal Division 13's patrol areas extended to Sa Dec, about 55 miles from the Cambodian border," O'Neil added. "Tom Anderson, Commander of River Division 531, who was in charge of PBRs (small river patrol crafts) confirmed that there were no Swifts anywhere in the area and they would have been stopped had they appeared."

"All the living commanders in Kerry's chain of command ... deny that Kerry was ever ordered to Cambodia," O'Neil said. "They indicate that Kerry would have been seriously disciplined or court-martialed had he gone there. At least three of the five crewmen on Kerry's boat, Bill Zaldonis, Steven Hatch, and Steven Gardner, deny that they or their boat were ever in Cambodia."

"I was on that boat with him that Christmas, and we were not anywhere near Cambodia," said Gardner, Kerry's gunner's mate on PCF-44 (patrol craft fast).

Kerry said his "deep mistrust of U.S. government pronouncements" began on this night, as he spent his night in Cambodia listening to President Richard Nixon claim that no American troops were there. However, Nixon wasn't president in 1968; Democrat Lyndon Johnson was.

In an affidavit, the commander of the Swift boats in Vietnam, Admiral Roy Hoffmann, disputes Kerry's claim to be in Cambodia for Christmas Eve and Christmas of 1968.

Kerry has now turned to Tour of Duty author and John Kerry historian Doug Brinkley for a "modification." Brinkley is providing the "New Yorker" with an article that says Kerry was not in Cambodia during Christmas, but rather in January.

The Cambodia incursion story is not included in Tour of Duty, Kerry's recent biography. It is replaced by a story about a mortar attack on Christmas Eve 1968 "near the Cambodian border" near Sa Dec, and Christmas day was spent at the base writing entries in his journal.

Commenting on the "clarification," O'Neil, author of Unfit for Command, said, "John Kerry describes Christmas Eve in Cambodia as a critical turning point in his life. We now know that his story is completely false. My question is how many people do you know have invented a turning point, one that is seared in his memory?"

"By claiming we were engaged in a war crime and crossing international borders, John Kerry damaged the credibility of all the commanding officers above him and insulted the sailors who served with him," O'Neil added.

Authors of Unfit for Command conclude, "The truth is that Kerry made up his secret mission into Cambodia. ... The lie about the illegal Cambodian incursion painted his superiors up the chain of command ... as villains faced down by John Kerry, a solitary hero in grave and exotic danger and forced illegally against his will into harm's way."

Initially, the Kerry campaign said that he never claimed to be in Cambodia, only that he was near Cambodia. But when presented with a copy of the Congressional Record and asked about Kerry's letter-to-the-editor in the Boston Herald, the Kerry campaign said it would come up with an explanation.

They have yet to do so.
_________________
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