Captain's Quarters Blog: Kerry's Christmas in Cambodia

Christmas In Cambodia, Part IV: Patrol Or Tourist?

Longtime CQ reader Retired Military points out yet another article with yet another version of the Christmas in Cambodia story from John Kerry. Kerry had long insisted that he was ordered to patrol in Cambodian waters, and spoke of his disillusionment with the war and how it kindled when he heard the president deny that any servicemen were in Cambodia on Christmas Eve, 1968, while he patrolled their waters. He claims that the moment was "seared into his memory," an embittered recollection that would cause him to protest the war and American actions in it on his return to the US.

However, in June 2003, as part of a profile written by Michael Kranish (a name that keeps popping up in Kerry mythmaking), John Kerry tells the Boston Globe that his patrol area was within South Viet Nam -- and he only went into Cambodia to chase down attackers:
The Christmas Eve truce of 1968 was three minutes old when mortar fire exploded around John Forbes Kerry and his five-man crew on a 50-foot aluminum boat near Cambodia. ''Where is the enemy?'' a crewmate shouted.

In the distance, an elderly man was tending his water buffalo -- and serving as human cover for a dozen Viet Cong manning a machine-gun nest.

"Open fire; let's take 'em," Kerry ordered, according to his second-in-command, James Wasser of Illinois. Wasser blasted away with his M-60, hitting the old man, who slumped into the water, presumably dead. With a clear path to the enemy, the fusillade from Kerry's Navy boat, backed by a pair of other small vessels, silenced the machine-gun nest.

When it was over, the Viet Cong were dead, wounded, or on the run. A civilian apparently was killed, and two South Vietnamese allies who had alerted Kerry's crew to the enemy were either wounded or killed.

On the same night, Kerry and his crew had come within a half-inch of being killed by "friendly fire," when some South Vietnamese allies launched several rounds into the river to celebrate the holiday.

To top it off, Kerry said, he had gone several miles inside Cambodia, which theoretically was off limits, prompting Kerry to send a sarcastic message to his superiors that he was writing from the Navy's "most inland" unit.

Back at his base, a weary, disconsolate Kerry sat at his typewriter, as he often did, and poured out his grief. "You hope that they'll courtmartial you or something because that would make sense," Kerry typed that night. He would later recall using court-martial as "a joke," because nothing made sense to him -- the war policy, the deaths, and his presence in the middle of it all.

This narrative makes clear that Kerry disobeyed orders in order to continue his attack, if it happened at all. Otherwise, why would he have sat at his desk hoping to be court-martialed? Compare this to his statement to the Senate in 1986, when his seared-in memory of sitting on a patrol boat in Cambodia, listening to the US president deny he was there embittered him against the war.
Inconsistencies? You bet:

1. Given this account of his Christman in Cambodia, the president (whichever one) couldn't possibly have known of his incursion into Cambodia, since no one authorized it, and even Kerry somewhat hoped to get court-martialed for it.

2. Pushing his Swiftboat into hostile territory to chase down the VC, when would Kerry have time to listen in on American Armed Forces radio? If so, who commanded the boat while he listened to the radio?

3. Wouldn't it be incredibly stupid to have the radio on while trying to engage the enemy on a clandestine mission inside unauthorized territory?

Kerry's story keeps changing over the years -- and the changes are significant, not just minor details. His Christmas in Cambodia myth has had him at various times doing routine patrols to a reckless disregard of orders to complete an engagement. In both cases, having a radio on would almost be equivalent to shouting over a bullhorn that Americans were on the river. It doesn't add up, and neither does Kerry.

Posted by Captain Ed at 07:37 AM Comments (22) TrackBack (2)
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August 08, 2004

Christmas In Cambodia, Part III: Time Flies

Tom Maguire at the excellent blog Just One Minute points out this AP story from twelve years ago explaining Kerry's Cambodia experience. See if you can point out the inconsistencies in Kerry's story back in 1992:
Navy Lt. John Kerry knew he had no business steering his Mekong River patrol boat across the border into Cambodia, but orders were orders. A quarter-century later, Sen. John Kerry says newly declassified documents have convinced him fellow servicemen captured on such trips were left behind at war's end. ...
But for Kerry, who spent six violent months commanding a patrol boat on the Mekong River, there's always been a ring of truth to allegations of abandoned Americans. By Christmas 1968, part of Kerry's patrol extended across the border of South Vietnam into Cambodia.
"We were told, `Just go up there and do your patrol. Everybody was over there (in Cambodia). Nobody thought twice about it," Kerry said. 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.
"I can remember wondering, `If you're going to go, what happens to you,"' Kerry said.
Here are the inconsistencies I see:
1. Kerry served four months, not six, in country.2. Christmas in Cambodia switched to Winter in Cambodia after eight years in the Senate.3. "Everybody was over there," except for half of John Kerry's crew, who insist they never went into Cambodia. Perhaps only half of the boat ever crossed into Cambodian waters, or the trio waterskied behind on a really long tow rope.
As Maguire says, "Kerry has no after-action reports, no witnesses, a story by Brinkley that puts him too far from the border, and a less-than-full crew supporting him - not good. Unless everyone is lying except John!"
There's only one way to settle this factually -- John Kerry should do what he and his party chairman insisted of George Bush earlier this year, and release his complete military records. If he does that, we can review the records and find out exactly what kind of officer John Kerry was. As long as he threatens lawsuits and has his minions planning character assassinations on other decorated Viet Nam veterans, then we can safely assume that the 200+ men in the Swiftvets are telling the truth about Kerry.
Posted by Captain Ed at 11:19 PM Comments (6) TrackBack (0)
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Christmas In Cambodia, Part II: Not Without My Shipmates

Drudge reports that the Christmas in Cambodia story continues to fall apart. John O'Neill of Swiftboat Veterans for the Truth writes in his upcoming book at more length on the Cambodia story than his letter to the station managers I reprinted last night. Here's the key passage that points out the dangerous situation the Kerry campaign faces:
All the living commanders in Kerry’s chain of command . . . deny that Kerry was ever ordered to Cambodia. 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 Steve Gardner, deny that they or their boat were ever in Cambodia [emph mine -- CE].
O’Neill observed that the Cambodia incursion story is not included in Tour of Duty (Kerry’s recent biography). Instead, Kerry replaced the story with a report about a mortar attack that occurred on Christmas Eve 1968 “near the Cambodian border” in a town called Sa Dec and Christmas day was spent at the base writing entries in his journal.
This report destroys the argument coming from various Kerry defenders that the criticisms of his combat record come from second- and third-hand sources. One of the recent comments on my blog disputed the Swiftvets story because of a lack of corroboration from those who served closest to the young Lieutenant. In this case, 60% of his own crew disavow Kerry's statements to Congress on his combat record, including Stephen Gardner but also two other crew members.
The effect of the collapse of Kerry's Cambodian Christmas should be devastating. It shows that Kerry repeatedly lied about the nature of his service in Viet Nam, destroying his credibility and bolstering that of the Swiftvets. It also casts a lot of doubt on Kerry's 1971 Senate testimony regarding widespread atrocities committed by American soldiers and Marines in the war and the complicity of US leadership. In fact, such blatantly false assertions and testimony undermine the confidence any reasonable person would have in Kerry's entire character.
No wonder he sicced a passel of attorneys onto John O'Neill and the more than 200 Swiftboat veterans who have stood up to him this year. I guess the combat hero of Cambodia couldn't find the courage to stand up to a collection of Viet Nam veterans, his own colleagues, and release his military records to prove his story once and for all. After all, it's all he and Terry McAuliffe could talk about this winter and spring, releasing military records, as long as the subject was George Bush.
Kerry can spare himself the attorney fees. In the clash of character, Kerry has already lost.

UPDATE: Instapundit and reader Captain Joe point out one report of how the Kerry campaign plans to face up, man to man, with his band of brothers:
The Democrat National Committee has prepared a full-scale assault against the Vietnam Veterans for Truth to draw their character and veracity into question, according to one anonymous source inside the DNC. The campaign of character assassination is scheduled to coincide with the release of the book Unfit for Command which reveals inconvenient facts for the Kerry campaign.
“We have prepared what we call ‘Brown Books’ that contain damaging military records, personal credit histories, medical histories, psychiatric histories, divorce records, you name it,” our source told us. "We've got the goods on the Veterans who oppose Kerry." ...
The “Brown Books” are so called because of their distinctive plain brown covers, which contain no words. Some books have already been delivered to Kerry-friendly reporters. Others are on their way, our source told us. When asked if we could have a copy, our source declined, saying there is a limited number of “Brown Books” and they have been carefully inventoried to control in whose hands the books ended up.
Ultimately the “Brown Books” will end up in the hands of pro-Kerry news agencies and reporters. According to our source, who demanded to remain anonymous for fear of retribution, The New York Times is already on the hook to run a negative series on the Vets, as is the Boston Globe, which is owned by the Times.
Here's a message to John Kerry: If you want to discredit the Swiftvets, release your military records!
Posted by Captain Ed at 09:02 PM Comments (20) TrackBack (0)