Friday, August 13, 2004

Kerry set to admit he lied about "Christmas in Cambodia"

According to The Drudge Report, Presidential wannabe John Kerry, is going to admit to one the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth's charges that he lied about being in Cambodia on Christmas eve in 1968.

Kerry wants to spin this by saying he just got the dates wrong. The problem with that story is that Kerry is on record saying how being in Cambodia on Christmas eve 1968, was "seared - seared in my brain". Kerry has repeated this story over and over and has been quite adamant that he was "5 miles inside Cambodia" on that date.

Why is this important? Because Kerry used this incident as a central point of his anti-war campaign immediately after returning from Viet Nam. He claimed the US government was lying about the war and he was living proof. Kerry has used this story over the last 30 years to advance his views.

Think about this to. After more than 30 years, Kerry now "remembers" that it was January 1969 and not Christmas eve 1968. And yet 30 years ago, right after the event, Kerry has a different "memory".

JANUARY -- NOT CHRISTMAS -- KERRY IN CAMBODIA

**Exclusive**

TOUR OF DUTY author and John Kerry historian Doug Brinkley is rushing a piece for the NEW YORKER: to set-the-record-straight on Kerry's Christmas in Cambodia tale, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.

Kerry has turned to author Brinkley for a "modification" after it was exposed that Kerry was not in Cambodia during Christmas of 1968, as he once claimed from the Senate floor.

[exposed by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth]

The Brinkley piece for the NEW YORKER will now say that Kerry was not in Cambodia during Christmas, but rather in January, publishing sources tell DRUDGE.

MORE

Since the early 1970s, Kerry has spoken and written of how he was illegally ordered to enter Cambodia. Kerry mentioned it in the floor of the Senate in 1986 when he charged that President Reagan’s actions in Central America were leading the U.S. in another Vietnam. Here’s what he said as excerpted from the new book, UNFIT FOR COMMAND:

"I remember Christmas of 1968 sitting on a gunboat in Cambodia. I remember what it was like to be shot at by the 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."

John O’Neil’s, author of UNFIT FOR COMMAND, comments on the “clarification:”

“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? While it makes sense for John Kerry to come clean about the Cambodia story, it is one of several tales that the Kerry campaign will have to face and clarify.”

“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,” said John O’Neill, member of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.”

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1 comment:

Tom the Redhunter said...

Isn't this rich? Hoist by his own petard, I'd say.

The larger point is that it's just unseemly for Kerry to go around bragging about what a great war hero he thinks he was. It's kind of like when Teresa Heinz Kerry said that she thought that she was "sexy"; it's the type of think you hope others will say about you but it sounds wierd when you say it about yourself.

Add to that the traitors testimony he gave when he came back from Vietnam and it's just disgusting.

Good news update. This story is so fast moving I find it hard to stay on top of it myself. I'm not really a "headline news" blogger myself, so find it easier to just read other blogs.

 
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