As MMFA has previously documented, conservative historian Guenter Lewy claimed in his 1978 book, America in Vietnam, that a Naval Investigative Service report into the Winter Soldier allegations had discredited many of the witnesses and accounts, and in some cases impostors had assumed the identities of real veterans who were not present at the investigation. But Naval Criminal Investigative Service public affairs specialist Paul O'Donnell told (registration required) the Chicago Tribune: "We have not been able to confirm the existence of this report, but it's also possible that such records could have been destroyed or misplaced." And Lewy himself admitted to The Baltimore Sun that "he does not recall if he saw a copy of the naval investigative report or was briefed on its contents." Apart from Lewy's allegations, a search by MMFA turned up no other reports of evidence that any Winter Soldier witness was an impostor.
http://mediamatters.org/items/200409130003
The site above loves Kerry and wants to discredit the Swift Vets and wintersoldier.com, but I think they have this one detail correct - no NCIS report available so far.
I looked into this before, and the quote from Paul O'Donnell is real. I ran it by "Interesting Times" (Scott Swett: wintersoldier.com), and he didn't deny it, defending Lewy as a respected historian.
But respected or not, no one other than Lewy has claimed to have seen the report, and Lewy later said he couldn't even remember whether he saw the report or was just told of its conclusions by someone.
I welcome updating and correction. Perhaps the NCIS report as surfaced by now.
I have no doubt that Lewy accurately reported the contents of the NCIS report, regardless of whether he read it or was briefed. MMFA is just blowing smoke and casting aspersions, which is the purpose for which the organization was formed. Most archived NCIS material from the Vietnam era appears to have been destroyed after 25 years. Even if the report escaped that fate because of its political importance, there are still the Sandy Burgers of the world to consider...
Thanks for providing the quote. I had not seen that. I wanted to see whether it said they are denying the report or saying they cannot locate it today, which are two different things with different implications. It is not uncommon for government documents to get misplaced, I’ve seen this happen with World War II records that got filed in some obscure location and didn’t turn up for decades, for instance. Lewy is indeed a respected historian, but he wrote his book in 1978, so it is not surprising if today he does not remember whether his summary was based on seeing the report or an oral briefing. Saying his memory today is hazy is different than saying it was hazy when he recorded his original summary in 1978. The latter is what would be at issue here, but there is no reason to suspect the latter. I see nothing in the quoted statements here which would cast doubt on the accuracy of Lewy’s original summary, as Kerry’s defenders were apparently spinning it. Lewy is indeed a respected historian, and he had researched the Army report at the time he wrote his book, there is no reason to suspect he would concoct a corresponding Naval report out of thin air merely for the sake of mentioning it in passing, and indeed, it would be quite strange if the Army had investigated that and the Navy had not, which would require an explanation in itself. In contrast to Lewy’s credibility, Kerry and the VVAW have a track record of habitual fabrication, ranging from Kerry’s own well-known flip-flops to Al Hubbard’s fraudulent credentials to the holes in the Winter Soldier testimony which are at a minimum documented in the Army’s investigation. Clearly, if we are evaluating the matter from a historian’s perspective, Lewy’s professional historical opinion is more weighty testimony than the claims of the VVAW and Kerry’s defenders. Nonetheless, it would of course strengthen the case considerably if the NCIS report could be located today. It might be worthwhile to track down some of the investigative personnel from the time who would have had responsibility for the investigation to get some assistance locating the document and/or to get some oral history pertinent to the investigation for the record.