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JOHN
KERRY AND CAMBODIA
SUMMARY
FACTS
(For detailed proof, scroll down or click here)
-
SBV claims that Kerry
could not have been inside Cambodia on Christmas Eve of 1968 as
Kerry claims. However, there is no evidence validating their
assertion. Kerry was known to be very close to the Cambodian
border on Christmas Eve of 1968 and he was independently reported
to have been inside Cambodia in January and February of 1969. No
one can prove that he was NOT across the Cambodian border on
Christmas night in 1968. Two of his own crewmates confirm they
were near the Cambodia border on Christmas eve 1968. Navy records
and calculations suggest Kerry's boat could have very well been
inside Cambodia on that night. There is additional evidence to
suggest that SBV's claims are false. Indeed, SBV member John
O'Neill showed himself to be a liar extraordinaire since he had
stated to then-President Richard Nixon that he was "in
Cambodia" himself, in a swift boat, even though he keeps
claiming today that he was never in Cambodia!
- Even though SBV claims that three of
Kerry's crewmen disagree that they were inside Cambodia, only one
crewman (Steve Gardner) has stated a disagreement publicly - and
his recollection contradicts that of another crewmate of Kerry's
as well as the documented history.
- SBV's claim that Kerry's own diary
shows he was 55 miles from the Cambodian border on Christmas Eve
1968 selectively omits the part that refers to Kerry having been
at or near the Cambodian border the same day - thus, falsely
impugning Kerry as a liar.
- SBV's claims that Kerry would have
been court-martialed if he had indeed been inside Cambodia is also
false. The military record shows that inadvertent or intentional
incursions into Cambodia back then, with no court-martials and
sometimes with awards - were not unusual .
DETAILED
FACTS
1. SBV claim on
Kerry's presence (or lack thereof) inside Cambodia
1A. SBV claim
on Kerry being 55 miles from the Cambodian border per his own
"diary"
2. SBV claim
that Kerry could not have been inside Cambodia because no swift boats
would have been able to get inside Cambodia
3. SBV claim on
Kerry's " crewmates' " position on Cambodia
4. SBV claim
that Kerry would have been court-martialed if he had indeed been
inside Cambodia
1.
SBV CLAIM ON KERRY'S PRESENCE (OR LACK THEREOF) INSIDE CAMBODIA
[Fox
News report, via Campaign
Desk]: A new book called "Unfit
for Command" (search)
raises questions about Kerry's claims that he was in Cambodia on
Christmas Eve 1968 at a time when the U.S. government was insisting
that there was no American military presence in that country.
[SBV,
via Kevin
Drum]: All the living commanders in
Kerry’s chain of command . . . deny that Kerry was ever ordered to
Cambodia.
[Media
Matters]: The Regnery
book Unfit
for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry,
co-authored by O'Neill and Jerome
R. Corsi, states that "Kerry was never in Cambodia during
Christmas 1968, or at all during the Vietnam War. In reality, during
Christmas 1968, he was more than fifty miles away from
Cambodia." On the August 10 edition of MSNBC's Scarborough
Country, O'Neill stated that it "is a total and
complete lie" that John Kerry was in Cambodia on Christmas Eve
and Christmas Day of 1968 and sourced Douglas Brinkley's book Tour
of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War as evidence that on
Christmas Eve Kerry was "55 miles" from Cambodia in Sa Dec
writing a letter "about how he had visions of sugar plums in
his head, literally."
[Balta
paraphrasing SBV]: Having read this
excerpt of the book by the Swift Boat people who might have
known Kerry, here is a brief summary of the group's argument. First,
Kerry has said repeatedly that he was in Cambodia for Christmas,
1968, and that this was an example of a war crime on the part of the
U.S. - violation of the territory of a soverign country. He attacked
Reagan with that memory in the 80's. It was also discussed in a
Kerry Documentary book that came out earlier this year. Supposedly,
Kerry even has a souvenir from his trip there.
However, according to the book, there are several reasons to
question this story. First and foremost, the Swift boat people's
suggest that there were obstacles in the way to prevent border
crossings. Secondly, at the time, Kerry's boat was supposedly
stationned/on patrol up to a city called Sa
Dec, 55 miles from the Cambodian Border. And Third; the records
of many of the officers that commanded the Swift Boats say that
there weren't troops heading across the Cambodian border at the
time, and Mr. Kerry would in fact have been punished for going
there. These elements combine to suggest that Kerry has been lying
about his voyage into Cambodia for Christmas, 1968. If you want more
details, read the excerpt cited above.
FACT
Just because the U.S. Government did not announce a formal military
presence in Cambodia during the Vietnam-era does not mean there were
no American military personnel inside Cambodia at that time. It's not
as if Nixon and Johnson were the pinnacles of truth! Moreover, do you
want a believe a bunch of demonstrated liars? Especially when past
news articles have reported Kerry being in Cambodia?
The bottomline is that Kerry was known to be very close to the
Cambodian border on Christmas Eve of 1968 and he was independently
reported to have been inside Cambodia in January and February of 1969.
No one can prove that he was NOT across the Cambodian border on
Christmas night in 1968. Two of his own crewmates confirm they were
near the Cambodia border on Christmas eve 1968. Navy records and
calculations suggest Kerry's boat could have very well been inside
Cambodia on that night. Additionally, there is evidence to suggest
that SBV, as usual, is lying.
REFERENCES
Thomas
Lang, Campaign Desk:
As Fox sees it, that
36-year-old government denial casts doubt on Kerry's stated
remembrances. But given the mudded history of Vietnam, an official
government stance should hardly translate into certain fact --
especially now that it's known that the U.S. government conducted
numerous secret operations throughout Cambodia during the Vietnam
War as early as 1967 (as PBS's "Frontline," among myriad
others, has reported).
John
Gonzales, Dallas Observer
(bold text is eRiposte emphasis):
In 1986, Kerry made a
speech on the Senate floor urging then-President Ronald Reagan not
to allow the United States to aid the Nicaraguan Contras, likening
it to the slippery slope that daunted American forces in Vietnam.
"Mr. President, I remember Christmas of 1968 sitting on a
gunboat in Cambodia. 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."
The Swift Boat
Veterans for Truth point to that speech as an example of what they
allege became Kerry's pattern of behavior following the war – to
distort and twist the facts to suit his purposes.
...
There were, of course, covert operations that the government has
since acknowledged – operations that sent American soldiers to
illegally infiltrate Cambodia and other neighboring countries. The
problem, SBVT contends, is that Kerry wasn't part of any of them.
...
Jim Wasser disagrees. He was a radarman who was second in command
under Kerry on PCF-44 and is now affiliated with his campaign as
part of Veterans for Kerry. Wasser, who now lives in Illinois, says
that it would be unusual for an enlisted gunner's mate to
specifically know the boat's position at any given time.
"I had to go on
[Fox News show] Hannity & Colmes with him, and even
though he's wrong, and I truly believe that, he's my brother, and
veterans should never say anything about each other," Wasser
says of Gardner. "[Swift Boat Veterans for Truth] say they're
about the truth; that's a falsehood.
"On Christmas
in 1968, we were close [to Cambodia]. I don't know exactly where we
were. I didn't have the chart. It was easy to get turned around with
all the rivers around there. But I'll say this: We were the farthest
inland that night. I know that for sure."
Maria
L. La Ganga and Stephen Braun, Los Angeles Times
(bold text is eRiposte emphasis):
But two of Kerry's
crewmates — Wasser and Zaladonis — both told The Times the boat
was in the vicinity of the Cambodian border and even fought an
engagement with a Viet Cong sampan on Christmas Eve day.
"We patrolled a river on the border," Zaladonis said last
week. "Unless I'm out of my mind or mistaken, that river was
part of the border."
There are no after-action reports that pinpoint where Kerry's boat
was in late December 1968. But a file from Navy archives in
Washington obtained by The Times provides support for both sides.
An entry in a monthly summary of engagements for December 1968
reports that on Christmas Eve, "PCF-44 fired on junk on beach.
Results: 1 sampan destroyed."
The entry was made by then-Capt. Roy Hoffmann, the overall commander
of Swift boats and now one of Kerry's most vocal critics. There is
no written location for the engagement, but it contains a coordinate
used by the military to plot locations. The coordinate points to an
area about 40 to 50 miles south of the Cambodian border, near an
island called Sa Dec.
The entry also notes that the incident took place about 7 a.m.,
which would have given Kerry's boat another 12 hours to make it to
the Cambodian border by nightfall. At a cruising speed of 23 knots,
the boat could have covered the distance in about two hours.
This would be consistent with the contention of Kerry spokesman
Michael Meehan that Kerry was in Sa Dec but reached the Cambodian
border later the same day.
Atrios
(Eschaton):
From
Frontline
- By 1967, the North
Vietnamese Army and the Viet Cong were operating along
Cambodia's border with South Vietnam, with Sihanouk's approval.
The United States and South Vietnam responded with cross-border
operations, which Sihanouk publicly protested.
Atrios
(Eschaton):
New York Times:
12/13/67:
- ..Government
sources acknowledged that the Administration was considering
giving field commanders in South Vietnam authority for "hot
pursuit" into the country."
...The present interpretation of the policy of self-defense
generally bars hot pursuit, but in practice American commanders
have engaged in it on occasion during the heat of battle."
12/12/67:
- ...a plan to this
effect, allowing for follow-up by American forces, was
"under active consideration..." ..."the decision
to move into Cambodia was all but made."
11/16/68:
- Since last July
Cambodia has been holding eleven American crewmen from an Army
river supply vessel that strayed inadvertently into Cambodian
territory.
...Cambodia has finally recognized the two-sided nature of the
border incidents and has asked the International Control
Commission to investigate the Communist incursions that provoked
allied attacks across the border."
1/22/68:
- Cambodia said
today that equipment was abandoned on the battlefield by the
"American-South Vietnamese" force that, Cambodia
maintains, crossed into her territory Thursday....
...He said that the abandoned items included red scarves worn by
paratroop commandos, a United States officer's helmet, weapons,
and radio sets.
Cambodia regularly
charged that forces attacked targets, military and civilian, in
their territory throughout this time period. I'll leave it to
contemporary scholars to unravel the truth/lack of truth of those
claims. But, it's quite clear that at this time the US was in
possession of quite a bit of intelligence about North Vietnamese
troop positions and strongholds in Cambodia which would have been
difficult to derive without some cross-border surveillance.
Kevin
Drum, Political Animal:
In 1979 Kerry wrote a
letter to the Boston Herald in which he said, "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."
In 1986 Kerry gave a
speech in the Senate in which he said he spent Christmas Day of
1968 "sitting on a gunboat in Cambodia."
In 1992, an
AP story about missing POWs filled in further details: "One
of the missions, which Kerry, at the time, was ordered not to
discuss, involved taking CIA operatives into Cambodia to search for
enemy enclaves."
In 2000, US News
& World Report ran a
brief piece that said Kerry "made his first forays into
Cambodia during the Vietnam War as a Navy lieutenant on clandestine
missions to deliver weapons to anticommunist forces."
In 2003, the Washington
Post ran a story about Kerry in which he explained that he
carries around an old hat in his briefcase:
"My good luck
hat," Kerry said, happy to see it. "Given to me by a CIA
guy as we went in for a special mission in Cambodia."
Now, it's not
immediately clear to me why any of this is "pure fantasy."
Kerry certainly operated in the area of the Cambodian border in late
1968, Americans were definitely making border incursions at the
time, and the CIA certainly had a lot of people in Vietnam in 1968.
That doesn't mean Kerry's story is true, but it's certainly
plausible.
The serious evidence
against Kerry seems to consist of two things. First,
the Swift Vets group claims that "All the living commanders in
Kerry’s chain of command . . . deny that Kerry was ever ordered to
Cambodia." Second, both Douglas
Brinkley's biography of Kerry and Kerry's
war journal mention only that he was near the Cambodian border
on Christmas Eve, not across it. (Although the journal entry ends
with a sarcastic message to his superiors: "Merry Christmas
from the most inland Market Time unit" — at a minimum a
reference to being right on top of the Cambodian border. Then:
"You hope that they'll court marshal you or something because
that would make sense" — possibly a reference to crossing the
border.)
Conclusions? Beats
me. Kerry has mentioned this story several times, so it's not a slip
of the tongue. And it's plausible on its surface. Contrariwise, the
evidence against him is pretty thin: not much more than the fact
that no one else has verified it — and keep in mind that the Swift
Vets guys are not exactly disinterested witnesses in this matter.
What's more, since there is exactly zero in the way of documentary
evidence one way or the other, it seems unlikely that this little
teapot-sized tempest will ever be conclusively resolved. Which, I
suppose, suits Kerry's detractors just fine.
eRiposte comments:
Unlike Kevin's conclusions ("beats me"), it is plainly
obvious that there is sufficient evidence over a long time now that
Kerry has been in Cambodia. Also, if Kerry was a few miles across
the Cambodian border he could very well have been at the border or
outside the border on the same day!
Kevin
Drum (Political Animal):
KERRY IN
CAMBODIA....Instapundit
links today to a piece in the Telegraph that quotes John
Kerry biographer Douglas Brinkley about the "Christmas
in Cambodia" kerfuffle:
"On Christmas
Eve he was near Cambodia; he was around 50 miles from the
Cambodian border. There's no indictment of Kerry to be made, but
he was mistaken about Christmas in Cambodia," said Douglas
Brinkley, who has unique access to the candidate's wartime
journals.
....He said:
"Kerry went into Cambodian waters three or four times in
January and February 1969 on clandestine missions. He had a run
dropping off US Navy Seals, Green Berets and CIA guys." The
missions were not armed attacks on Cambodia, said Mr Brinkley, who
did not include the clandestine missions in his wartime biography
of Mr Kerry, Tour of Duty.
"He was a
ferry master, a drop-off guy, but it was dangerous as hell. Kerry
carries a hat he was given by one CIA operative. In a part of his
journals which I didn't use he writes about discussions with CIA
guys he was dropping off."
So let me get this
straight. Kerry did go to Cambodia — even though that was
supposedly impossible, he did take CIA guys in — even
though that was supposedly absurd, and he did get a hat from
one of them — even though that was supposedly a sign of mental
instability. The extent of Kerry's malfeasance is that instead of
doing it in December, he actually did it in January and February.
Considering that he's
mentioned this story only twice, most recently 18 years ago, and it
turns out that his only crime is to have tarted it up with a bit of
holiday pathos, I think I'll pass on following it any further down
the Swift Vets rabbit hole. But thanks to everyone who displayed
their deep unseriousness about this election by participating in
this smear. It will be remembered.
Also see
DailyKos for more.
Balta:
First, I am going to
deal with the easiest question in this; is it possible that Mr.
Kerry could have been in Cambodia given his other whereabouts around
that time. The answer to that is simply yes; it is possible. The
only way it would have been impossible is if a.) he had put in for
supplies or fuel at a location so far away from Cambodia where he
could not have reached it given the fuel or the time or b.) his
location could firmly be documented to be somewhere else on that
day.
The first question is answered simply yes; these
swift boats carried supplies and fuel to run about 400 miles,
and could travel at speeds up to 20-25 knots. If Kerry had been at
the location they suggest he was based at, he could have reached
Cambodia in a roughly short trip, operated there for quite some
time, and returned, without having to worry about fuel or food
status in the least. Secondly, and this is the first time we are
going to hit upon this problem which will come up repeatedly; there
are no documents that say exactly where Mr. Kerry's boat was at the
time. If there were, the Swift Boat vets would have had them; they
have basically as much access as Kerry does (even more if you assume
Bush support). If those documents existed that proved conclusively
that Kerry refueled in Saigon at 3:00 a.m. on Christmas morning,
we'd have seen them by now.
Therefore, it is not totally impossible that Kerry's boat was in
Cambodia that night.
...
The Swift group alleges that there were significant obstacles to a
boat crossing into Cambodia. Specifically, they allege that there
were signs, boats, and even a landing craft in the way that would
have stopped any boat from crossing the border.
But wait 1 second, let's think about the nature of the Mekong River
in this area. If the Mekong were like the Mississippi around St.
Louis, it would be easy to block off in this manner - there would be
1 channel and you'd just have to block it with 1 boat and a few
signs. However, the Mekong is not like the Mississippi, in fact its
actually far worse than even the Mississippi delta...In fact, there
are a large number of channels, with marshes, swampland, oxbow
lakes, islands, and almost every other marine feature you could
imagine in between them.
...
Now, this does suggest a major problem with the Swift boat people's
story; they say that there was an LCU (Landing Craft Utility) in the
way that blocked the border. But wait just a second, given the large
number of variable channels, islands, marshes, and different paths
one could take across the Cambodian Border, how exactly would a
single LCU be able to actually block the border? Short answer - it
couldn't. You would need dozens of them. The swift Boats were
small, floated light, and could go in shallow water - they could go
through a huge number of channels without trouble. This passage in
the book is designed to appeal to people who think of rivers like
the Mississippi - 1 giant stream easy to block, when in reality this
area would have more water-based paths through it than I can count.
The maps prove that.
More likely, either there wasn't really an LCU there, or the U.S.
really wasn't interested in blocking off the border
completely...Besides, given the sheer number of VC troops in the
area of the delta at this time, an LCU sitting there would probably
have been committing suicide.
...
The Swifty people also say that at the time there were other boats,
PBR's which were assigned the area near Cambodia. This part I can
confirm - the U.S. operated dozens of PBR's in the Mekong. However,
given the fairly limited supply of PBR's, it is hard for me to say
that their list of duties would have consisted of sitting next to
the border to make sure no Americans crossed it.
...
Does that mean that there were never boats that sat on the border
waiting for the enemy? Of course not. But I really have trouble
believing that it was standard U.S. policy to leave these boats
sitting ducks on the border without having them moving around a lot.
In particular, I can cite this
report from the U.S. navy...
it seems as though PBR units were often overstretched - for all the
canals and miles of waterways in the Mekong, there were simply not
enough of them to monitor every canal. So even this suggests that
there were plenty of ways through if a boat was ordered to get
around them, and on top of that, it is even harder to believe that
there were ever PBR's permanently stationned on or even near the
border. It is far more likely that they were used as patrol craft.
...
Unfortunately I cannot prove this beyond a reasonable doubt, as I do
not have the duty records for every single boat at my disposal. But
at the same time, the only source they cite for it is the commanding
officers at the time - they do not cite documents either. They cite
1 person, the commander of the smaller boats alleged to be assigned
the area closer to the border. However, as with another point which
I will discuss more in a moment, many of the operations dealing with
Cambodia actually were operations where people had reason and even
orders to lie. Is this man telling the truth? I cannot say, I am not
him. But I can tell you that others dealing with Cambodia did not
tell the truth about these matters.
...
This leaves 1 remaining point - the people interviewed who say that
there were standing orders not to go into Cambodia. If they cannot
be questionned, then Kerry would be the one lying.
Fortunately for Mr. Kerry, there is good reason to question the
statements by many of the people who said the U.S. was not involved
in Cambodia. Specifically, there is a huge track record during the
Vietnam conflict of the U.S. putting troops into bordering nations
where they were not supposed to be, and then denying it up and down
the ranks.
...
In fact, there is 1 more perfect example of something which was
supposed to remain a secret from the American public with regards to
Cambodia. In 1970, the U.S. and the ARVN launched a full-out
offensive across the Cambodian border, supposedly aimed at VC
strongholds. They attempted to do this in complete secrecy. But this
time, the secrecy failed, and a short time after the invasion was
launched the story got out. You might have heard of what happened in
the U.S. when that story broke. Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young
did a classic song about the results among the people. And Congress
got so pissed that they rescinded the Gulf of Tonkin resolution over
the invasion.
...
it is clear that there were U.S. forces openly fighting in both Laos
and Cambodia in 1969. Christmas 1968 is in fact very close to 1969.
This suggests that its at least possible that the U.S. was operating
in Cambodia in Christmas, 1968.
Equally valuable is this report of Cambodian
leader Sihanouk from 1967, who in at least 1 press conference
criticized the fact that U.S. forces were crossing the Cambodian
Border.
...
So in the end, where have I built myself back to? Given every piece
of information I have seen, it is entirely possible that Mr. Kerry
was in Cambodia on Christmas, 1968.
Steve
Gilliard (via Hesiod):
The Swift Boat folks
are trying to say that John Kerry is lying about being in Cambodia on
Christmas, 1968. The odds are he is telling the truth.
Why?
Because of the history of SOG, the Study and Observations Group,
really a small, black ops unit created independently of the Special
Operations structure, but drawing people from their units.
Members of the Riverine Force often faced serious danger in combat,
often working with Navy SEALS, Special Forces, and MACV-SOG.
...
So what exactly was
Kerry doing in vietnam?
The SEALORDS
Campaign
As U.S. forces prepared the South Vietnamese military to assume
complete responsibility for the war, they also worked to keep pressure
on the enemy. In fact, from 1968 to 1971, the allies exploited the
Communists' staggering battlefield losses during the Tet attacks by
pushing the enemy's large main force units out to the border areas,
extending the government's presence into Viet Cong strongholds, and
consolidating control over population centers.
The Navy in particular spearheaded a drive in the Mekong Delta to
isolate and destroy the weakened Communist forces. The SEALORDS
(Southeast Asia Lake, Ocean, River, and Delta Strategy) program was a
determined effort by U.S. Navy, South Vietnamese Navy, and allied
ground forces to cut enemy supply lines from Cambodia and disrupt
operations at his base areas deep in the delta. It was developed by
Vice Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt, Jr., appointed COMNAVFORV in September
1968.
When Admiral Zumwalt launched SEALORDS in October 1968 with the
blessing of the new COMUSMACV, General Creighton Abrams, allied naval
forces in South Vietnam were at peak strength. The U.S. Navy's Coastal
Surveillance Force operated 81 Swift boats, 24 Coast Guard WPBs, and
39 other vessels.
...
In the first phase
of the SEALORDS campaign allied forces established patrol
"barriers," often using electronic sensor devices, along the
waterways paralleling the Cambodian border. In early November 1968,
PBRs and riverine assault craft opened two canals between the Gulf of
Siam at Rach Gia and the Bassac River at Long Xuyen. South Vietnamese
paramilitary ground troops helped naval patrol units secure the
transportation routes in this operational area, soon named Search
Turn. Later in the month, Swift boats, PBRs, riverine assault craft,
and Vietnamese naval vessels penetrated the Giang Thanh-Vinh Te canal
system and established patrols along the waterway from Ha Tien on the
gulf to Chau Doc on the upper Bassac. As a symbol of the Vietnamese
contribution to the combined effort, the allied command changed the
name of this operation from Foul Deck to Tran Hung Dao I. Then in
December U.S. naval forces pushed up the Vam Co Dong and Vam Co Tay
Rivers west of Saigon, against heavy enemy opposition, to cut
infiltration routes from the "Parrot's Beak" area of
Cambodia. The Giant Slingshot operation, so named for the
configuration of the two rivers, severely hampered Communist resupply
in the region near the capital and in the Plain of Reeds. Completing
the first phase of the SEALORDS program, in January 1969 PBRs, assault
support patrol boats (ASPB), and other river craft established patrol
sectors along canals westward from the Vam Co Tay to the Mekong River
in Operation Barrier Reef. Thus, by early 1969 a patrolled waterway
interdiction barrier extended almost uninterrupted from Tay Ninh
northwest of Saigon to the Gulf of Siam.
...the
main mission of SOG was to do illegal cross border operations. The
Camboidans complained frequently about violations of their borders by
US planes and troops and boats.
Here's a simple tautology: SOG teams often infiltrated Cambodia using
water borne craft, sometimes sampans, sometimes, Swift Boats and PBR's.
Often, teams would be dropped by helicopter, and then make their way
back to a Swift Boat or PBR.
...
So it's hardly like
Kerry is saying he flew missions to rescue POW's or some of the
horseshit stories fakers tell.
Just looking at maps and the evidence, I think Kerry is likely to be
telling the truth and this is yet another shameful lie told by people
with no dignity or honor.
Media
Matters:
While O'Neill cited
page 219 of Brinkley's book to substantiate his claim that Kerry was
not near Cambodia on Christmas Eve of 1968, as Kaplan pointed out,
O'Neill "chose to ignore the 10 preceding pages" in which
Brinkley described Kerry's activities from earlier that day, which
did in fact take place near the Cambodian border. From page 209 of Tour
of Duty:
Christmas Eve,
1968, turned out to be memorable for the men of PCF-44. ... [A]fter
[breakfast] the crew headed their Swift north up the Co Chien
River to its junction with the My Tho only miles from the
Cambodian border. ... Lieutenant Kerry ... patrolled the watery
borderline between Cambodia and Vietnam.
Fred
Kaplan (Slate)
via Hesiod:
But now some
anti-Kerry veterans are saying he was never in Cambodia. John
O'Neill, who has been dogging Kerry more than 30 years, told Matt
Drudge that the senator's Christmas-in-Cambodia stories
"are complete lies." As evidence, he cites Kerry's own
wartime diary, as quoted in Douglas Brinkley's Tour of Duty:
John Kerry and the Vietnam War. That book—according to
Drudge's account of it—places Kerry in Sa Dec, 50 miles away from
Cambodia, on Christmas Eve, and seemingly at peace. "Visions of
sugarplums really do dance through your head," Kerry wrote in
his diary that night, "and you think of stockings and snow and
roast chestnuts and fires with birch logs and all that is good and
warm and real."
That passage is on
Page 219 of Brinkley's book. But O'Neill, Drudge, and the other
sneerers choose to ignore the 10 preceding pages—the opening pages
of a chapter called "Death in the Delta." On Christmas Eve
1968, Brinkley writes, Kerry and his crew:
headed their Swift
north by the Cho Chien River to its junction with the My Tho only
miles from the Cambodian border. … Kerry began reading up
on Cambodia's history in a book he had borrowed from the floating
barracks in An Thoi. … He even read about a 1959 Pentagon study
titled "Psychological Observations: Cambodia," which …
state[d] that Cambodians "cannot be counted on to act in any
positive way for the benefit of U.S. aims and policies." [Italics
added.]
Brinkley also quotes
from Kerry's diary: "It was early morning, not yet light. Ours
was the only movement on the river, patrolling near the
Cambodian line." [Italics added.] Brinkley
continues: "At a bend just as they were approaching the
Cambodian border, two [U.S. river-patrol boats] met the Swift."
Then, again from Kerry's diary: "Suddenly, there is an
explosion and a mortar lands on the bank near all three boats."
The next few pages detail a ferocious firefight, one part of which
involved (as his diary noted) "the ridiculous waste of being
shot at by your own allies."
...
Did Kerry cross the border or just go up to it? We may never know
for sure. Not much paperwork exists for covert operations
(officially, U.S. forces weren't in Cambodia). Nor is it likely that
a canny Swift-boat skipper (and Kerry was nothing if not canny)
would jot down thoughts about such covert operations in a diary on a
boat that might be captured by the enemy.
The circumstances at
least suggest that Kerry was indeed involved in a
"black" mission, even if he had never explicitly made that
claim.
eRiposte comments: Here we are
trying to deconstruct what possibly happened decades ago, when people
often cannot recall what happened a week ago. It is one thing to
demand accuracy of a Presidential candidate; it is another thing
altogether for a band of liars with their myriad enablers and
apologists on the Right to insinuate and allege fraud and lies when
the pox is really on their house.
1A. SBV
CLAIM ON KERRY BEING 55 MILES FROM THE CAMBODIAN BORDER PER HIS OWN
"DIARY"
[via Daily
Howler]:
GARDNER (continuing
directly): Well, let’s clarify what you just said. John Kerry
has already admitted that he was not in Cambodia when he was—on
Christmas of 1968. He was setting in the city of Sa Dec, which is
a small town fifty-some miles from the Cambodian border. Now
that’s in his words, from his diary.
...
O’NEILL (8/10/04):
This is a total and complete lie. If John Kerry can prove that he
was in Cambodia on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day of 1968, he
should go down and sue me tomorrow morning. It's a lie he's told
over and over and over again. It libels everybody that commanded
him. It's the typical prototype sort of war crime charge that John
Kerry makes that is a lie. John Kerry was at Sa Dec. He was at Sa
Dec from a letter to his parents, according to—
BUCHANAN: How far is Sa Dec from Cambodia?
O'NEILL: Fifty-five miles—55 miles, Pat. And he was writing a
letter, according to his book, Tour of Duty, about how he
had visions of sugar plums in his head, literally. That's in the
book Tour of Duty, from which Cambodia disappears. It's
a terrible libel and a lie.
FACT
Gardner and O'Neill, as usual, mislead viewers by omission and lie
about Kerry. As has been shown above, Kerry was known to be very close
to the Cambodian border on that very day and could have been inside
Cambodia that night.
REFERENCES
Daily
Howler:
And yes, that is in
Kerry’s diary. Kerry spent the evening of December 24 in Sa
Dec, as Brinkley notes in Tour of Duty (page 219), quoting
Kerry’s journal. But as Gardner knows—though Norville does
not—Brinkley spends the ten previous pages describing the rest of
that “memorable” day. Were they anywhere close to Cambodia? The
answer to Norville’s question was quite simple—yes:
BRINKLEY
(page 209): Christmas Eve, 1968, turned out to be memorable
for the men of PCF-44 though not in the jingle-bells sense folks
were enjoying back home. The only concession to the holiday spirit
was that morning’s rare breakfast of scrambled eggs, after which
the crew headed their Swift north [from Sa Dec] up the Co Chien
river to its junction with the My Tho only miles from the
Cambodian border.
Pitiful, isn’t it? For
the next ten pages, Brinkley—quoting from Kerry’s
journal—describes the firefights the crew engaged in that day. For
Wasser, the combat this day was life-changing (see THE
DAILY HOWLER, 8/26/04)—and yes, these events took place “at
a bend just as they were approaching the Cambodian border” (page
214). Were they anywhere near the Cambodian border? The answer was
simple—yes, they were. And Gardner, who was on the boat that day,
knew they hadn’t just sat in Sa Dec. But knowing that Norville was
unprepared, he played the grinning blonde for a fool. But then, as
we’ve noted all week long, this is the nightly pattern on cable.
Swift Boat Vets make misleading, false or irrelevant statements.
Millionaire hosts gaze off sweetly off into air.
...
O’Neill played
Buchanan for a fool with that answer. In Tour of Duty, Kerry
writes that letter to his parents after a full day of firefights
near the Cambodian border. But you know O’Neill! He wanted
voters to think that Kerry lounged the day away in Sa Dec. And so he
pissed right in Pat’s leathery face. And Pat was quite happy to
let him.
Should the press be
concerned by this endless dissembling? Should the press be concerned
when Swift Boat Vets sign affidavits about events they didn’t
witness? When Swift Boat Vets appear in ads discussing matters
without first-hand knowledge? When O’Neill goes on This Week
and blatantly lies? Should the press be concerned by the latest
hoax—by an assault on another election?
2. SBV CLAIM
THAT KERRY COULD NOT HAVE BEEN INSIDE CAMBODIA BECAUSE NO SWIFT BOATS
WOULD HAVE BEEN ABLE TO GET INSIDE CAMBODIA
[via Media
Matters]: O'Neill now claims
that Kerry was lying about being in Cambodia during the Vietnam War
because no one was allowed into Cambodia:
From Unfit
for Command:
Kerry was never in Cambodia during Christmas 1968, or at all
during the Vietnam War. ... Areas closer than 55 miles from the
Cambodian border in the area of the Mekong River were patrolled by
PBRs, a small river patrol craft, and not by Swift Boats.
Preventing border crossings was considered so important at the
time that an LCU (a large, mechanized landing craft) and several
PBRs were stationed to ensure that no one could cross the border.
[pp. 47-48]
O'Neill on ABC's
This
Week With George Stephanopoulos: How do I know
he's [Kerry] not in Cambodia? I was on the same river, George. I
was there two months after him. Our patrol area ran to Sedek, it
was 50 miles from Cambodia. There isn't any watery border. The
Mekong River's like the Mississippi. There were gunboats stationed
right up there to stop people from coming. And our boats didn't go
north of, only slightly north of Sedek. So it was a made-up story.
[8/22]
FACT
As shown above these statements are utterly false. Indeed, O'Neill
showed himself to be a liar extraordinaire since he had stated to
then-President Richard Nixon that he was "in Cambodia"
himself, in a swift boat!
REFERENCES
Media
Matters:
As CNN congressional
correspondent Joe
Johns reported on the August
24 edition of CNN's NewsNight
with Aaron Brown, "O'Neill said no one could cross the
border by river, and he claimed in an audiotape that his publicist
played to CNN that he himself had never been to Cambodia either. But
in 1971, O'Neill said precisely the opposite to then-President
Richard Nixon." CNN then aired the audiotape of O'Neill telling
Nixon that he was, in fact, in Cambodia during the Vietnam War:
O'NEILL: I was in
Cambodia, sir. I worked along the border on the water.
NIXON: In a swift
boat?
O'NEILL: Yes, sir.
Although there was no
response from O'Neill on CNN (O'Neill had "not returned CNN's
calls," according to Johns), O'Neill was confronted on the
issue by Alan
Colmes, co-host of FOX News Channel's Hannity
& Colmes. The Cambodia issue was first raised on the
program by co-host Sean
Hannity, who attempted to dismiss it by asking O'Neill, "[D]o
you want to even respond to this attack against you so they [the
Kerry campaign] can distract from him [Kerry] never answering a
question about the discrepancies in his life?" and then
asserting that O'Neill's contradicting comments were
"consistent statements." However, Colmes refused to let
O'Neill -- who attempted to dismiss his lie by saying "I was
talking in a conversation" -- off the hook for his false claim.
The
Left Coaster (via reader PT)
(bold text is eRiposte emphasis):
[quoting transcript of
Newsnight with Aaron Brown]:
BROWN: And just
quickly on the O'Neill thing, just for my edification here, Mr.
O'Neill's publicist played for you a tape where Mr. O'Neill says
what again?
JOHNS: Well, he
says in the tape essentially that he did not go to Cambodia, plain
and simple. He says that a couple times in fact in this little
short interview that was played for me on the phone. Now, of
course, as you listen to that conversation with Richard Nixon, he
says something completely different or, at least, that's what it
sounds like -- Aaron.
BROWN: It does.
Thank you, Joe Johns in Philadelphia tonight.
3.
SBV CLAIM
ON KERRY'S " CREWMATES' " POSITION ON CAMBODIA
["Unfit
for Command" extract, via Balta]: At
least three of the five crewmen on Kerry’s PCF 44 boat—Bill
Zaldonis, Steven Hatch, and Steve Gardner—deny that they or their
boat were ever in Cambodia. The remaining two crewmen declined to be
interviewed for this book. Gardner, in particular, will never forget
those days in late December when he was wounded on PCF 44, not in
Cambodia, but many miles away in Vietnam.
FACT
Gardner's claim is different from Kerry's and that of at least one
other Kerry crewmate. The majority of Kerry's crewmates have not
challenged Kerry's position. In fact, Zaldonis
and Hatch in fact support Kerry for President -- even though Zaldonis
was very angry with Kerry's anti-war activities at one time.
Additionally, as discussed above, there is ample evidence Kerry's boat
was inside Cambodia.
REFERENCES
John
Gonzales, Dallas Observer
(bold text is eRiposte emphasis):
Jim Wasser
disagrees. He was a radarman who was second in command under Kerry
on PCF-44 and is now affiliated with his campaign as part of
Veterans for Kerry. Wasser, who now lives in Illinois, says that it
would be unusual for an enlisted gunner's mate to specifically know
the boat's position at any given time.
"I had to go on
[Fox News show] Hannity & Colmes with him, and even
though he's wrong, and I truly believe that, he's my brother, and
veterans should never say anything about each other," Wasser
says of Gardner. "[Swift Boat Veterans for Truth] say they're
about the truth; that's a falsehood.
"On Christmas
in 1968, we were close [to Cambodia]. I don't know exactly where we
were. I didn't have the chart. It was easy to get turned around with
all the rivers around there. But I'll say this: We were the farthest
inland that night. I know that for sure."
eRiposte:
There is no evidence that either Bill Zaladonis or Steven Hatch
support Gardner's or SBV's view. In fact, both
of these people support Kerry for President even though Zaldonis
was very angry with Kerry's anti-war activities at one time.
4. SBV CLAIM
THAT KERRY WOULD HAVE BEEN COURT-MARTIALED IF HE HAD INDEED BEEN
INSIDE CAMBODIA
[Seattle
Times, via Gropinator]:
The book "Unfit for Command," put
out by members of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, contends "all
the living commanders in Kerry's chain of command ... indicate that
Kerry would have been seriously disciplined or court-martialed had
he gone" to Cambodia.
FACT
False. Operations inside Cambodia, sometimes inadvertent, sometimes
intentional, were actually not unusual back then - and that too
without court-martials and sometimes with awards. REFERENCES
Gropinator:
Reporters
unfamiliar with the history of the brown-water Navy seem to have bit
hard on this story, even though it's widely known that enterprising
boat captains regularly took the fight to the enemy and into
Cambodia. The best example of this involves the Zumwalts. Admiral
Elmo "Bud" Zumwalt was the top Navy commander in Viet Nam,
in charge of the entire brown-water Navy. Until his appointment to
the top job in the Navy, Chief of Naval Operations, the nature of
Viet Namese operations were his, from the ground-up. For example,
Sea Float, the U.S. floating naval base, was his idea, the base used
to control the Viet Cong stronghold in the Ca Mau Peninsula, next to
Cambodia.
Zumwalt's son Lt. Elmo Zumwalt III was a swift boat captain under
his dad's command. (The story of the Zumwalts was highly publicized
in the mid-80s following the publication of My Father, My Son,
their joint biography that included the tragic story of Zumwalt
III's struggle with cancer presumably caused by the Agent Orange
that Zumwalt II ordered to destroy the cover used by the enemy.
Of his action in 1969, Zumwalt III says,
I knew we were a few
hundred yards inside Cambodia. I also knew that just by crossing
into Cambodia I was in violation of direct orders. But I disobeyed
the orders because I knew the VC and the North Vietnamese were
infiltrating along this particular river.... - p84
I knew other U.S. boats had ventured into before so I wasn't the
first one to do it. It was one of the best ways to stage an ambush
because the enemy didn't expect us there. - p 85
Zumwalt's boat went on
to successfully interdict a large shipment of weapons. Zumwalt II
says,
When someone
disobeys orders the way Elmo did when he ventured into Cambodia,
but also succeeds in his mission, you don't know whether to give
him a medal or court-martial. Technically, his violation should
have been reported up the chain of command, but at the operating
level we realized it was done with some frequency both by our
boats and aviators. No serious thought was given to
court-martialing Elmo, and personally, I was not the least bit
angry with him. If truth be known, I was proud of him, but I
didn't show my pride as much as I wanted to because my job was to
enforce the rules of engagement...
I kidded him that
in every naval officer's career there came a time when as a matter
of conscience, you had to disobey orders and stand up for your
beliefs.
"The trouble
with you Elmo," I said, "is that you do that about three
times a week."
Later, when Geoff
Martin's commendation request for Elmo came to my desk, and I
learned the details of the ambush, I was not the least surprised
by what Elmo had done. I thought he demonstrated his courage and
selflessness, qualities I had seen in him since he had been a very
small boy, and which always made me proud of him.
Normally, I would have made the decision on what commendation to
award, but I couldn't in this case, so I forwarded the request to
fleet command. They reported back and awarded Elmo the Bronze Star
for bravery. I think it was one of those times when the fact that
Elmo was my son worked against him. In my judgment, his actions
warranted the Silver Star, but I think the brass felt that a
Silver Star would be perceived as favoritism. - p90-91
One can only stand in
awe at the low opinion the Swift Boat Liars for Bush have of the
press. In one of the most widely circulated such stories, the
soon-to-be CNO's son won the Bronze Star for action in Cambodia.
This is a huge lie they are feeding, and they're sure the press is
incompetent enough to buy it.
Seattle
Times, via Gropinator:
"Swift Boat
crews regularly operated along the Cambodian border from Ha Tien on
the Gulf of Thailand to the rivers of the Mekong south and west of
Saigon," Michael Meehan, a senior adviser in the Kerry
campaign, said Friday. "Boats often received fire from enemy
taking sanctuary across the border. Kerry's was not the only United
States riverboat to respond, inadvertently or responsibly, across
the border."
"Many times he
was on or near the Cambodian border and on one occasion crossed into
Cambodia at the request of members of a special operations group
operating out of Ha Tien" on the Gulf of Thailand, Meehan said
in his statement.
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