Text 1337, 100 rader
Skriven 2004-08-18 05:36:00 av Jeff Binkley (1:226/600)
Ärende: Cambodia
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I say that we let the truth come out...

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http://www.boston.com/news/politics/president/articles/2004/08/18/kerry_
disputes_allegations_on_cambodia?mode=PF

Kerry disputes allegations on Cambodia
By Michael Kranish, Globe Staff  |  August 18, 2004

WASHINGTON -- Senator John F. Kerry is disputing an allegation made by a 
group of veterans opposed to his presidential candidacy that he never 
operated inside Cambodia during the Vietnam War.

In a just-published book, "Unfit for Command," the veterans said that 
"Kerry was never in Cambodia during Christmas 1968, or at all during the 
Vietnam War" and that he "would have been court-martialed had he gone 
there."

But the Kerry campaign said that the group, which calls itself Swift 
Boat Veterans for Truth, is wrong and that Kerry was inside Cambodia to 
drop off special forces on one mission and was at the border on other 
occasions.

"During John Kerry's service in Vietnam, 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," Kerry spokesman Michael Meehan said in a statement. The statement 
did not say when the cross-border mission took place.

At the time of Kerry's service, the official policy was that US forces 
were supposed to respect the territorial integrity of Cambodia, but they 
occasionally went inside Cambodia either secretly or in pursuit of the 
enemy.

For years, Kerry has said he was in Cambodia on Christmas Eve 1968. He 
gave a detailed view of that experience in an article he wrote for the 
Boston Herald in 1979. "I remember spending Christmas Eve five miles 
across the Cambodian border being shot at by our South Vietnamese allies 
who were drunk and celebrating Christmas," Kerry wrote. "The absurdity 
of almost being killed by our own allies in a country in which President 
Nixon claimed there were no American troops was very real." A similar 
recollection by Kerry was mentioned in a Globe biography of the 
Massachusetts senator published earlier this year.

The anti-Kerry veterans have said Kerry's recollection does not make 
sense because Nixon was not inaugurated until January 1969. But Kerry 
campaign spokesman Meehan said Kerry was referring to a range of time 
that included when Nixon was president-elect and president. During the 
1968 presidential campaign, Nixon opposed a change in US policy that 
would allow "hot pursuit" of enemy forces into Cambodia; in March 1969 
he authorized the secret bombing of Cambodia, which was followed by the 
1970 invasion of Cambodia. 

Kerry said in a 2003 interview that after the Christmas Eve 1968 
engagement, he asked his crew to write a caustic telegram to the chief 
of naval forces in Vietnam, Elmo Zumwalt Jr., to wish him "Merry 
Christmas from the troops that weren't in Cambodia, which was us. We 
were."

Meehan, in his statement issued last week, described the incident this 
way:

"On December 24, 1968, Lieutenant John Kerry and his crew were on patrol 
in the watery borders between Vietnam and Cambodia deep in enemy 
territory. In the early afternoon, Kerry's boat, PCF-44, was at Sa Dec 
and then headed north to the Cambodian border. There, Kerry and his crew 
along with two other boats were ambushed, taking fire from both sides of 
the river, and after the firefight were fired upon again. Later that 
evening during their night patrol they came under friendly fire."

James Wasser, who accompanied Kerry on that mission aboard patrol boat 
No. 44 and who supports Kerry's candidacy, said that while he believes 
they were "very, very close" to Cambodia, he did not think they entered 
Cambodia on that mission. Yet he added: "It is very hard to tell. There 
are no signs."

Another crewmate who said he was with Kerry on Christmas Eve, Steven 
Gardner -- who is a member of the veterans group opposing Kerry's 
candidacy -- said Kerry was 50 miles from Cambodia at the time. He 
accused Kerry of lying about being in Cambodia or by the border. "Never 
happened," Gardner said.

Separately, according to Meehan's statement, Kerry crossed into Cambodia 
on a covert mission to drop off special operations forces. In an 
interview, Meehan said there was no paperwork for such missions and he 
could not supply a date. That makes it hard to ascertain or confirm what 
happened. Kerry served on two swift boats, the No. 44 in December 1968 
and January 1969, and the No. 94, from February to March 1969.

Michael Medeiros, who served aboard the No. 94 with Kerry and appeared 
with him at the Democratic National Convention, vividly recalled an 
occasion on which Kerry and the crew chased an enemy to the Cambodian 
border but did not go beyond the border. Yet Medeiros said he could not 
recall dropping off special forces in Cambodia or going inside Cambodia 
with Kerry.


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