August 8, 2004
Swift Boat Vets Fire Back
Glenn Reynolds highlights this Kerry memory hiccup.
The Swift Boat Vets:
In reality, Kerry was at Sa Dec - - easily locatable on any map more than fifty miles from Cambodia. Kerry himself inadvertently admits that he was in Sa Dec for Christmas Eve and Christmas and not in Cambodia, as he had stated for so many years on the Senate Floor, in the newspapers, and elsewhere. Exhibit 27, Tour, pp. 213- 219. Sa Dec is hardly "close" to the Cambodian border. In reality, far from being ordered secretly to Cambodia, Kerry spent a pleasant night at Sa Dec with "visions of sugar plums" dancing in his head. Exhibit 27, p. 219. At Sa Dec where the Swift boat patrol area ended, there were many miles of other boats (PBR's) leading to the Cambodian border. There were also gunboats on the border to prevent any crossing. If Kerry tried to get through, he would have been arrested. Obviously, Kerry has hardly been honest about his service in Vietnam.
These guys aren't caving to the threats of suit from the Kerry campaign - read the rest at the Captain's Quarters.
Powerline Blog highlights another much-discussed problem with Kerry's story;
Richard Nixon was not the President in December 1968. Lyndon Johnson was. It is simply incredible to me that for many years, reporters have mindlessly repeated this obviously false story without, apparently, noticing that it couldn't possibly be true.
And these observations as well:
The facts that the Swift Vets are prepared to prove are nuclear, far worse than one would assume from reading general newspaper coverage of the controversy. It is not enough to say that the Vets' evidence shows Kerry to be a liar. That is an understatement. In my opinion, they show Kerry to be a sick, deeply delusional man whose tenuous connection to reality would make a Kerry presidency an unacceptable danger to our country.One of the Swift Boat Vets has said that he and his colleagues--who represent nearly all of the surviving veterans who served with Kerry in Vietnam--feel that they have been called to serve their country a second time. The veterans' problem, of course, is that they don't have any money. While borderline-criminal multi-billionaires like George Soros and spoiled entertainers like Ben Affleck have the Democrats' coffers overflowing with tens of millions if not hundreds of millions of dollars, the veterans have been able to raise only a pitiful $150,000-- most of it from a single home-builder in Houston, who has been slandered for his efforts.
Update - Aug.27 - The entire text of John Kerry's out of print book "The New Soldier", as well as links to free chapters from "Unfit For Duty" can be found here
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Thirty years ago the faction that Kerry represents seized control of public opinion and opportunistically characterized VietNam vets in the way they wished the world to see us.
Because of Kerry and his fellow travelers, we have been denounced. We have been called "baby killers". We came home to derision and contempt. Not one of us has been excused from some personal emotional injury at the hand of someone we cared for. Or a loudmouth speaking from a platform of supposed moral superiority.
Back in the day, some of the groups in Kerry's orbit were front organizations for the Communist Party.
Now Kerry and his friends are back. They controlled the conversation thirty years ago, and they want to control it today. They would like to shut us up.
Well, Lt. Kerry, sometimes history gives you one free pass. Guess what, you've used up yours.
Posted by: Greg at August 8, 2004 11:11 PMFrom Kerry's Fitness Report (page 24 of this PDF)
http://www.johnkerry.com/pdf/jkmilservice/Fitness_Reports.pdf
"LTJG Kerry was assigned to this division for only a short time but during that time exhibited all the traits desired of an officer in a combat environment. He frequently exhibited a high sense of imagination and judgement in planning operations against the enemy in the Mekong Delta. Involved in several enemy initiated fire fights, including an ambush during the Christmas truce, he effectively suppressed enemy fire and is unofficially credited with 20 enemy killed in action. Though relatively new to the PCF he is thoroughly knowledgeable of all aspects of his boat and PCF operations. He was instrumental in planning of highly successful Sea Lords Operations. He was cited for his performance during action against the enemy by Commander Task Force in his message 080807Z Jan 69."
Note that "performance during action" doesn't sound like his only participation was "planning".
Now to add that "Sea Lords Operations" involved incursions into Cambodia:
http://www.pcf45.com/sealords/sealords.htm
As to whether it's implausible that a Swift boat might go into Cambodia and drop someone off there, see http://www.pcf45.com/sealords/yrbm16/yrbm16.html
"The fellow on the right was a freelance journalist and photographer that had caught a ride into Cambodia on a US Swift Boat. He asked to be dropped off on the shore to proceed on his own. It is hoped that he found what he was looking for and survived to tell about it."
Sure doesn't sound like that was a "physical impossibility", as Steve Gardner claimed.
In fact, the Navy said Swift boats were involved in those Cambodian incursions:
http://www.ironbutterfly.ws/pressrl4.html
"An acronym for 'Southeast Asia Lake, Ocean, River, Delta Strategy', SEALORDS started on October 18, 1968 when a Navy Swift boat (PCF) reconnoitered the entrance to the Cua Lon River on the Gulf of Thailand side of the Ca Mau Penisula. Following this mission, Swift boat crewmen conducted a series of incursions along the southern rivers and canals upsetting base camps and cutting Viet Cong supply and communication lines."
So Gardner simply lied about it being a "physical impossibility" for a Swift boat to enter Cambodian waters.
Yet it was on the basis of Gardner's (now disproved) claim that Kerry was called a liar.
Since the Commander of U.S. Naval Forces in Vietnam said Swift boats were going into Cambodia starting in October 1968, and Kerry's Fitness Report says he was "instrumental" in that operation, it seems Kerry's story does have some official corroboration. But his accusers are now proved liars.
Kerry was based at Sa Dec at the time. This was a base for Navy river boats patrolling the Cambodian border and conducting incursions — in fact, it was later made the headquarters of Swift Boat Coastal Division 13 because of its advantageous position.
http://pcf45.com/sealords/sadec/sadec.html
That is, it wasn't the Swift boats' "northernmost patrol area", but the place they went from to do patrols and incursions, and returned to afterwards.
The Fitness Report refers to "an ambush during the Christmas truce", which indicates that the attack happened in the field, on a mission or patrol, not "an attack on the base". So this had to have been at least toward Cambodia from Sa Dec, since missions & patrols from Sa Dec went either along or across the Cambodian border. In fact, Kerry's contemporaneous journal entry of that Christmas firefight refers to going back toward Sa Dec after the incident. If Sa Dec had been his "northernmost patrol area" and not his base, he'd have been going away from Sa Dec at the end of his patrol.
Posted by: Raven at August 14, 2004 11:04 PMI was with River Division 514 (PBR's) in Dec.68. We were patrolling the canals around Rach Soi and Rach Gia area. We came under attack Christmas eve('68) during the "cease-fire" period , while patrolling a canal. I think we called it "echo" canal. To my knowledge, no Swift boats were in the rivers at that time.They all were coastal patrol units. I think they did start patrolling the rivers some months after I returned home (July'69). Our last station was aboard YRBM-16 in the Chau Doc area patrolling the Vinh Tay canal.I still don't remember any Swift boats there. This area was on the Cambodia border.
I honestly feel that Mr. Kerry is full of himself or maybe something from the pasture lands.