Posted on 08/12/2004 7:13:16 PM PDT by wagglebee
**Exclusive**
TOUR OF DUTY author and John Kerry historian Doug Brinkley is rushing a piece for the NEW YORKER: to set-the-record-straight on Kerry's Christmas in Cambodia tale, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.
Kerry has turned to author Brinkley for a "modification" after it was exposed that Kerry was not in Cambodia during Christmas of 1968, as he once claimed from the Senate floor.
The Brinkley piece for the NEW YORKER will now say that Kerry was not in Cambodia during Christmas, but rather in January, publishing sources tell DRUDGE.
MORE
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."
John O’Neil’s, author of UNFIT FOR COMMAND, comments on the “clarification:”
“John Kerry describes Christmas Eve in Cambodia as a critical turning point in his life. We now know that his story is completely false. My question is how many people do you know have invented a turning point, one that is seared in his memory? While it makes sense for John Kerry to come clean about the Cambodia story, it is one of several tales that the Kerry campaign will have to face and clarify.”
“By claiming we were engaged in a war crime and crossing international borders, John Kerry damaged the credibility of all the commanding officers above him and insulted the sailors who served with him,” said John O’Neill, member of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.”
Developing...
Hey! was Brinkley on Kerry's boat?
Big mistake on Kerry's part.
Kerry's CO would know where his boat was.
LOL
"I wasn't against going to war against Iraq, I was against going to war in IRAN. And Bush followed my leadership..."
They had to correct themselves when they figured Nixon didn't take office till January so they could blame it on him???
Oh I see! He states the story publicaly 53 times over 35 years and all he has to do is "modify" the story to make it all go away.
I see their tactic is to move it to January so that Nixon was in office and thereby removing one lie from the fabric of lies. Not gonna work. Christmas is never confused with January.
You know, I can remember where I was at every Christmas in my life. I sure as heck have never mixed up my location at Christmas with my location in the middle of January.
Besides, Kerry used this tale to attack Nixon for Nixon's secret war in Cambodia. Unless Kerry's referring to the last 10 days of January, it was still LBJ's war. And it's doubtful that the freshly inaugurated President Nixon immediately reversed policy on that front in his first week in office.
The fact that the New Yorker is rushing a BS defense into print should prove to the entire publishing world that the New Yorker is a hack journal (something most of us knew for years). William Shawn must be turning over in his grave.
I posted the same thing 32 seconds after you! I guess the South Vietnamese were shooting to celebrate Martin Luther King day in January.
Well well, what jarred his "memory" and when? How long has he known that this was not true? Why did he not correct the record before?
Is this how the press is going to let Kerry skate - by phoning in his answers to the New Yorker (wedging them into the "Talk of the Twon" column, maybe)? So will the media report his correction? If so, will they just deliver it as rote, as gospel? Or will this finally open the door for someone in the mainstream press with some go-nards to do some investigative reporting?
What we see in the next few days will tell us just how bought and paid for the media is this election, and whether they have traded in their notepads for kneepads.
And we could find out how ?(assuming it wasn't a classified top-secret joint CIA / SEALS mission)
"On more than one occasion, I like Martin Sheen in "Apocalypse Now," took my patrol boat into Cambodia. In fact, I remember spending Christmas Eve of 1968 five miles across the Cambodian border being shot at by our South-Vietnamese allies who were drunk and celebrating Christmas. 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."
~~Michel de Montaigne, French essayist (1533 - 1592)
Bet you Kerry had an R & R coming in January and because none of the Swift Vets was with him he will say he went to Cambodia then.
Is there anything actually SEARED into his brain except a brand that says 100% FAT?
Brinkley's a total Clymer. I quit reading American History magazine when he came on-board as Editor-in-Chief. Something like third issue out of the box, and it was a cover story called "John Kerry's Heroic Last Mission in Vietnam." Never forget that Dougie signed the Historians in Defense of the Constitution, which opposed Impeachment.
Besides, Kerry has always talked specifically about it being Christmas Eve and Christmas day.
It is obvious from the quick promotion of the "oops" story that Kerry realizes this is serious trouble. He will be in more trouble after the revised story comes out.
Congressman Billybob
Latest column, "Says the Wuss: Ma, He's Touching Me"
If you haven't already joined the anti-CFR effort, please click here.
Sounds as if Brinkley has done no historical research...just copy pasted Kerry's ever-changing version of events.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.