SwiftVets.com

FredRum · Lt.Jg. Joined: 14 Aug 2004 Posts: 118 Location: Reston, VA

Haven't seen this referenced in the main forum yet so I thought I'd toss it up here. It's up on the main site at:

http://swift4.he.net/~swift4/article.php?story=20040831145849995

August 31, 2004

Senator John Kerry
901 15th Street NW
Washington, DC 20005

Dear Senator Kerry:

As you prepare for your address before the American Legion in Nashville, Tennessee, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth encourages you to use this opportunity to clarify your actions in Vietnam and your statements about your fellow Veterans and shipmates when you returned home. Since you have made your four-month tour in Vietnam the centerpiece of your campaign, we respectfully insist that you be truthful. The public is owed a full and honest accounting of your actions. Veterans are owed an apology from you and an acknowledgement that there was no basis in fact for the accusations you made against them.

We urge you to:

1. Apologize for your conduct once you returned from Vietnam. Your exaggerated testimony before the US Senate; the blanket indictment of your fellow veterans; throwing away medals and ribbons; all of these actions dishonored America and the armed forces. Your rhetoric and actions were not only wrong, they aided the enemy and brought great pain to POW's, veterans and their families.

2. Clarify the conflicting accounts involving the Bay Hap River incident of March 13, 1969 (Bronze Star and 3rd Purple Heart). You have now described three different versions of this incident. In the first version of this incident presented during the Democrat National Convention, you stated: "No man left behind," suggesting to the American people that you alone stayed on the river to rescue Mr. Rassmann. Later, when forced to acknowledge conflicting eyewitness testimony from fellow swift boat veterans, you said that your boat left the scene to return moments later to retrieve Jim Rassmann from the water. Yet, in another version of the same incident discovered in the Congressional Record, you reported that your boat struck a mine and Rassmann fell off the boat. Mr. Kerry, please explain to your fellow veterans and the American people which version is the truth.

3. Affirm that the injuries for which you received your purple hearts never required any medical treatment beyond perhaps a bandage and that, in all instances, these injuries were self-inflicted and came from your own weapon. Further, that if any of these purple hearts were falsely awarded, that you would not have been eligible to leave Vietnam after serving only four months.

4. Acknowledge what your own biographer is now saying, that the Christmas in Cambodia claim is "obviously wrong,” that you were never in Cambodia over Christmas or any other time during your brief, four-month tour in Vietnam and that your statements before the United States Senate in 1986 were false.

If you undertake these steps we will be satisfied that the American public has been sufficiently apprised as to these aspects of your career, and we will discontinue the media advertisements you have sought so fervently to silence.

Please know that Swift Boat Veterans for Truth are eager to close our own personal chapters on Vietnam and instead focus on the war we're currently fighting—the ongoing war on terrorism. In the absence of full public disclosure and a public apology, we will continue efforts to carry our message to an ever-expanding base of grassroots supporters.

Senator Kerry, we want to get Vietnam behind us. But, we can only do so if the truth is told.

We respectfully await your reply.

Sincerely,

Swift Boat Veterans for Truth
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Tony · Posted: Tue Aug 31, 2004 11:44 pm Post subject:

I'd like to see that read in prime time....wow!
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http://tonyk.smugmug.com/photos/1822816-L-1.jpg
USN 1983-1992

BB Stacker · Seaman Joined: 20 Aug 2004 Posts: 150 Location: Eustis Fl

I believe he will do all of these things...... when pigs fly!

noc · PO1 Joined: 24 Aug 2004 Posts: 492 Location: Dublin, CA

I hope many in the media pick up on this. Seems very reasonable, I would think, to anyone who reads it.

Most of all, I would like to hear from Kerry directly.

ord33 · Rear Admiral Joined: 11 Aug 2004 Posts: 670 Location: Ohio

I'm not trying to be a critic here, or dispute anything of the SwiftVets, but I thought only 2 of Sen. Kerry's PH were self-inflicted with his own weapon? Perhaps, I am misunderstanding this statement in the letter?

"2. ...Affirm that the injuries for which you received your purple hearts never required any medical treatment beyond perhaps a bandage and that, in all instances, these injuries were self-inflicted and came from your own weapon."

snowy251 · Seaman Recruit Joined: 20 Aug 2004 Posts: 11

Kerry will never apologize for what he said or did. I would love to see it.
Maybe someday when pigs fly.

USMC
80-84

Nomorelies · Posted: Tue Aug 31, 2004 11:51 pm Post subject:

He can't do it. It's all he [is]. He will be nothing if he admits the truth.
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milspec · Seaman Recruit Joined: 12 Aug 2004 Posts: 13

A copy of this letter should be sent to all media as an open letter to Senator Kerry... The letter shows a willingness to end the ads if the truth is spoken by JK. However I'd add a statement regarding the Paris meetings with the VC/NV.

D H C
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TRUST MUST BE EARNED. JOHN KERRY HAS A ZERO BALANCE IN HIS TRUST ACCOUNT....

ord33 · Rear Admiral Joined: 11 Aug 2004 Posts: 670 Location: Ohio

In my opinion a great analysis and comparison of the Swift Vets offer by this blogger
http://beldar.blogs.com/beldarblog/2004/08/swiftvets_offer.html

Becky · Seaman Joined: 24 Aug 2004 Posts: 179 Location: Georgia

RobD · Lt.Jg. Joined: 25 Aug 2004 Posts: 147 Location: Reno Nv

ord33,
In the book O’Neill makes the point that they only feel confident that they have enough witnesses to make a solid case that two of the three purple harts were self inflected but they believe that the third one was also. They just don’t have enough evidence or witness to make the case. The story is that he was again playing around with the M-79 grenade launcher and again got some shrapnel. You would think he would learn his lessen.
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6 Year Navy

greenvale · Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2004 1:14 am Post subject:

I sure would like to see that read in the media..what an awesome group these SBVT are Very Happy

Makes me so proud to be an American!
God Bless America,
Greenvale

sevry · Commander Joined: 13 Aug 2004 Posts: 326

7rrfs · Seaman Apprentice Joined: 21 Aug 2004 Posts: 99

Well this gets bookmarked and spread to the left wing sites I like to torment....
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"I served admirably in Vietnam" John Kerry
"Yes, I committed atrocities in Vietnam" John Kerry

FF1047 · Lieutenant Joined: 11 Aug 2004 Posts: 222

I think the part about ALL 3 PH's being self inflicted is the perfect trap ...

Why ... because if Kerry says, "Wait only 2 of my medals were self inflicted", the Swifties can say, "OK we'll give you one of three".

Kerry can't get into a back and forth discussion about this because the more he talks to the Swift Vets the more it looks like the charges are valid.
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JJC
USNA class of 1980