Text 1066, 61 rader
Skriven 2004-08-08 21:18:00 av Jeff Binkley (1:226/600)
Ärende: Cambodia
================
http://www.drudgereport.com/dnc91.htm

XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX SUN AUG 08, 2004 19:04:35 ET XXXXX 

SWIFT OFFICERS AND VETS: KERRY LIED ABOUT SPENDING CHRISTMAS IN CAMBODIA

**Exclusive** 

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.

DRUDGE has learned from the accounts of Swift Boat officers and Kerry’s 
crewmembers that Kerry was never in Cambodia. UNFIT FOR COMMAND authors 
charge that Kerry made it all up.

“Despite the dramatic memories of his Christmas in Cambodia, Kerry’s 
statements are complete lies,ö according to John O’Neil, co-author and 
the Swift Boat commander who took over Kerry’s boat. “Kerry was never in 
Cambodia during Christmas 1968, or at all during the Vietnam War. . . . 
he was more than fifty miles away from Cambodia.ö 

Kerry was stationed at Coastal Division 13 in Cat Lo. Coastal Division 
13’s patrol areas extended to Sa Dec, about 55 miles from the Cambodian 
border. . . . Tom Anderson, Commander of River Division 531, who was in 
charge of PBRs (small river patrol crafts] confirmed that there were no 
Swifts anywhere in the area and they would have been stopped had they 
appeared.

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. 

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 borderö in a town called Sa Dec and Christmas 
day was spent at the base writing entries in his journal.

After conducting interviews and research, authors of Unfit for Command 
conclude, “The truth is that Kerry made up his secret mission into 
Cambodia.... the lie about the illegal Cambodian incursion painted his 
superiors up the chain of command. . . . as villains faced down by John 
Kerry, a solitary hero in grave and exotic danger and forced illegally 
against his will into harm’s way.ö 

Developing... 

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