I try to give even a despicable, self aggrandizing, seditious, back stabbing, lying, thing like Hanoi John the benefit of the doubt, there is another possible scenario:
Hanoi John is into full “War Hero” mode while having drinks with the reporter. He’s kicked back and reminisces. The reporter is gazing at him with admiration. With every drink and every “Oh Wow” from the reporter the stories get stretched even further. His self inflicted booboo at Camrahn Bay wasn’t the result of his ignorance but the result of intense enemy action. The self inflicted wound down in the Delta caused by a few grains of rice hitting his butt become an intense enemy action. More drinks, more exclamations of awe from the reporter ...
I give Tiede the benefit of the doubt because he was a seasoned reporter and not running for office, in contrast to Kerry who was running for office and had a known history of making exaggerated claims prior to this. The principle of giving the benefit of the doubt does apply where there is doubt, but with Kerry there is no doubt that for some years prior to this he had been trumping up his military credentials in order to shape his political image, so with Kerry the operant principle is, “Fool me twice, shame on me.” Also, again, I don’t see why Tiede would randomly pick the number “188” unless Kerry volunteered it. Finally, I did not post Tiede’s article as a whole for copyright and readability reasons, but it includes several direct quotes from Kerry, and it sounds like it is drawing from Kerry campaign material. Its main focus is on Kerry/JFK comparisons, which are developed extensively in order to portray Kerry as a future Presidential candidate. It only touches on Kerry’s military record enough to sketch a portrait of him against that background. It only makes two brief mentions of Kerry’s medals—the passage I quoted, and an allusion to Kerry returning his Silver Star at Dewey Canyon III (”He became a new kind of hero—-a man who won Silver Star for bravery and then gave it back to the government out of resentment for its occasion.”). It doesn’t sound like Tiede had any specific or extensive discussion with Kerry about his medals.