Unfit for Command: SUPPORTING POINTS & AUTHORITIES (Vets 10, Shambo 0)
Following are some of the major charges made against Hanoi John French Kerry by the SwiftVets, alongside supporting points and authorities, from Unfit for Command and other readily available documented sources on the internet and elsewhere:


I. Kerry refuses to release official military and medical records (Unfit for Command pages 180-181)

Kerry's campaign refuses to complete the simple Form 180 which would provide for the official & proper release of Kerry's military records and has sought to hide other records from the public and the press.

1) Washington Post reports on August 22, 2004, "Although Kerry campaign officials insist that they have published Kerry's full military records on their Web site (with the exception of medical records shown briefly to reporters earlier this year), they have not permitted independent access to his original Navy records. A Freedom of Information Act request by The Post for Kerry's records produced six pages of information. A spokesman for the Navy Personnel Command, Mike McClellan, said he was not authorized to release the full file, which consists of at least a hundred pages."

2) In 2004 Michael Kranish of the Boston Globe discovered the Kerry campaign removed references to documents for January 26 + January 29, 1969, and 20 or more other pages, from the official Kerry campaign web site, after Globe reporters challenged whether "documents wrongly portrayed Kerry's service", noting "The campaign did not respond to a request to explain why the records were removed."

3) On May 4, 2004, over 250 swift boat veterans wrote a letter to Kerry asking him to file Form 180

4) On August 18, 2004, August 25, 2004, and on other occasions, in official interviews, Kerry spokesman Michael Meehan was asked by various media reporters to complete Form 180 and he repeatedly declined to do so.

5) On August 28, 2004, the Washington Post reported that historian Douglas Brinkley, author of John Kerry's authorized biography, Tour of Duty, now officially disputes Kerry's repeated assertions his document archives are under the sole control of Brinkley and cannot be released. Brinkley said, "I don't mind if John Kerry shows anybody anything" and "If he wants to let anybody in, that's his business. Go bug John Kerry, and leave me alone."

STATUS: Kerry's unwillingness to release his official records in this manner is truly unprecedented for a candidate seeking the office of President of the United States and Commander in Chief.


II. Kerry avoided combat duty and officially joined the US Naval Reserve (like the National Guard) (Unfit for Command Chapter 1: The Reluctant Warrior)

Contrary to the Kerry campaign assertions, Kerry was actually a legacy graduate of Yale who sought deferment and joined the Naval Reserves (similar to National Guard) after facing draft and chose to serve on swift boats to avoid combat.

1) On April 30, 2004, CBS News reported, “Kerry, whose father worked for the State Department after graduating from Yale, was involved in politics from the moment he arrived in New Haven. He was head of the Yale Political Union, a college debating society, and joined the Fence Club, which was popular with preppy, blue-blood students.”

2) Kerry admits in Brinkley's Tour of Duty, pages 370-373 that he decided to enlist after facing the draft and the navy formally refused to grant Kerry's requested deferment to study in Paris, France.

3) US Navy Records confirm John F. Kerry enlisted in the United States Naval Reserves with initial status listed as "inactive" on February 18, 1966.

4) The Department of the Navy released a letter dated May 24, 1986, at Senator Kerry's request, specifying "18 Feb 1966: Enlisted as an OCSA (E-2), USNR (inactive)" - USNR = US Naval Reserves.

5) Kerry campaign document "Enlistment Contract" confirms Kerry enlisted in "USNR-R", the US Naval Reserve

6) Kerry campaign document "Service Record" shows Kerry was inducted and "D.O.R. as Ensign, USNR" (US Naval Reserve)

7) In an interview with New York Times, April 23, 1971, "An Angry War Veteran", Kerry stated "I wanted to go back and see for myself what was going on, but I didn't really want to get involved in the war." So late in 1968 he volunteered for an assignment on "swift boats" - the short, fast aluminum craft that were then used for patrol duty off the coast of Viet Nam."

8) Kerry also admitted the same to the Boston Globe, "Kerry initially hoped to continue his service at a relatively safe distance from most fighting, securing an assignment as "swift boat" skipper. While the 50-foot swift boats cruised the Vietnamese coast a little closer to the action than the Gridley had come, they were still considered relatively safe. "I didn't really want to get involved in the war," Kerry said in a little-noticed contribution to a book of Vietnam reminiscences published in 1986. "When I signed up for the swift boats, they had very little to do with the war. They were engaged in coastal patrolling and that's what I thought I was going to be doing."

9) Kery campaign document "Duty Recommendation" confirms Kerry "desires Swift boat billet" and that he was also "Interested in Language School", emphasizing Kerry "Speak(s) French fluently."

10) Kerry spoke with Harvard Crimson In a February 18, 1970 article, John Kerry: A Navy Dove Runs for Congress , "At Yale, Kerry was chairman of the Political Union and later, as Commencement speaker, urged the United States to withdraw from Vietnam and to scale down foreign military operations. And this was way back in 1966. When he approached his draft board for permission to study for a year in Paris, the draft board refused and Kerry decided to enlist in the Navy."

11) The Crimson interview & Kerry's statements were re-confirmed with the original reporter, Samuel Goldhaber, on July, 3 2004 by Charles Laurence of the UK Telegraph who reports "the revelation appears to undercut Sen Kerry's carefully-cultivated image as a man who willingly served his country in a dangerous war" and notes "at no point did Kerry contact either me or the Crimson to dispute anything I (Goldhaber) had written." (Revealed: how 'war hero' Kerry tried to put off Vietnam military duty)

12) In a June 15, 2003 article "A privileged youth, a taste for risk", the favored Boston Globe reporters wrote:

...As graduation approached, Kerry knew that he had three choices: be drafted, seek a deferment for graduate school, or join up and position himself to become an officer. ``It was clear to me that I was going to be at risk,'' Kerry recalled. ``My draft board . . . said, `Look, the likelihood is you are probably going to be drafted.' I said, `If I'm going to be drafted, I'd like to have responsibility and be an officer.' ''
At the same time, Kerry was losing interest in academics and was ready for adventure. ``I cut classes,'' Kerry said. ``I didn't do much. I spent a lot of time learning to fly.''
Kerry also had political ambitions -- and was aware of how much military service had served John Kennedy's career. ``John would clearly say, `If I could make my dream come true, it would be running for president of the United States,' '' recalled William Stanberry, Kerry's debate team partner for three years. ``It was not a casual interest. It was a serious, stated interest. His lifetime ambition was to be in political office.''

13) Kerry's naval records state he was discharged "from the United States Naval Reserve as a Lieutenant (O-3)"

14) Kerry campaign documents "Honorable Discharge From Reserve" and "Acceptance of Discharge confirms Kerry was officially discharged from the US Naval Reserve.

STATUS: To date the Kerry campaign has not chosen to dispute his prior statements or any of the official records which have been made available to the public.


III. Kerry's military experience was not as it's being portrayed in presidential campaign (Unfit for Command Chapter 1: The Reluctant Warrior)

Contrary to Kerry campaign's presentations, Kerry spent only a few months in Vietnam, was never "shot", and reenacted scenes now used in presidential campaign advertising including his official convention video directed by Steven Spielberg protégé James Smoll.

1) Kerry's first year's service, from June 1967 to June 1968, was spent on a frigate, the USS Gridley, which spent much of that period patrolling off the coast of California.

2) Kerry's campaign military records show he was (falsely) awarded a Vietnam Service Medal which required at least six months combat duty in Vietnam.

3) Kerry arrived at camp in Vietnam for one month of training at Cam Ranh Bay on November 17, 1968.

4) Navy records on Kerry campaign site & his own personal accounts in Tour of Duty and elsewhere confirm Kerry left Vietnam and arrived home on March 17, 1969.

5) No records yet made public or any official account ever refer to Kerry being shot - any of his purported wounds involved minor accidents with self-inflicted shrapnel.

6) Kerry admitted to buying his Super-8 movie camera at the PX in Cam Ranh Bay and also admitted to faking reenactment of events in the October 6, 1996 article, "THE MAKING OF THE CANDIDATES: JOHN FORBES KERRY OFTEN TAGGED AS A POLITICAL OPPORTUNIST" by reporter Charles Sennott of the Boston Globe. Kerry showed him footage including a reenactment at the area where the Silver Star incident took place and exclaimed, "I'll show you were they shot from. See? That's the hole covered up with reeds.". Also recounted in National Review

7) The Boston Globe further reported, "The Kerry home movies revealed something indelible about the man who shot them. The tall, thin, handsome naval officer seen striding through the reeds in flak jacket and helmet, hold aloft the captured B-40 rocket. The young man so unconscious of risk in the heat of battle, yet so focused on his future ambitions, that he would reenact the moment for film. It is as if he had cast himself in the sequel to the experience of his hero, John F. Kennedy, on the PT-109". Thomas Vallely, one of Kerry's closest political advisers and friends, also told the Globe, "John was thinking Camelot when he shot that film, absolutely."

8) Kerry campaign commercials, videos, photographs and the official biography Tour of Duty by Douglas Brinkley include, among other various reenactments, "a staged clip of Kerry in 1969 as an infantryman in Vietnam, in bandoliers (and violating Rule Number One of the infantry, by pointing his weapon down)". (Unfit for Command page 181)

9) Other observable factual discrepancies include Kerry's video depictions of himself armed with any number of hand grenades hanging from the flak jacket he's wearing, given Swift Boat policy was to never allow such on the boats because of the potential accidents or ricochet which could result by lobbing one from the deck.

STATUS: To date the Kerry campaign has not chosen to dispute his prior statements or any of the official records which have been made available to the public.


IV. Kerry faked & falsified 1st Purple Heart (Unfit for Command pages 31-41)

Kerry's alleged wound, a small 1-2 cm piece of M-79 grenade shrapnel, was accidentally self-inflicted, not involving enemy combat, resulted in only a minor scratch (described as equivalent of a rose thorn prick), did not meet official regulations and was formally rejected by his superior & commanding officers.

1) Kerry's diary and book Tour of Duty indicates there was no enemy combat involved (Washington Times 8/25/04 Diary refutes Kerry's other claims that it did)

2) Official Criteria for a Purple Heart confirm Kerry's lack of eligibility

3) Attending physician Leo Letson, who has sworn an affidavit and appeared on the first SwiftVet advertisement, confirms alleged wound shrapnel was due to a small M-79 grenade fragment only 1-2 cm in size, unquestionably not worthy, only treated with a band-aid, & personally rejected Kerry's request for a Purple Heart; Kerry campaign suggests only the nurse who signed the standard report for the doctor was the only one who ever saw Kerry.

4) Now retired Rear Admiral and senior JAG officer William Schachte, who was present and in command of the mission as John Kerry's superior officer at the time, has now made a statement also speaks elsewhere to having berated Kerry "for almost putting someone's eye out" and on August 27, 2004, told the NY Post Kerry wasn't wounded by hostile fire, wasn't even under fire by the enemy at the time and that he "nicked" himself with a grenade launcher and "requested a Purple Heart" afterward. and also told Lisa Myers of NBC News on August 27, 2004 that "it was an accident".

5) Kerry's then Commanding Officer Grant Hibbard confirms he refused Kerry's pleas requesting he be awarded a Purple Heart. Hibbard describes the wound he was shown by Kerry as "a scratch", adding "I've seen worse injuries from a rose thorn. ... Kerry wasn't getting any Purple Heart recommendation from me" (Unfit for Command pages 37-38).

6) No official incident reports for the action were - purposely - ever filed by all of Kerry's superior + commanding officers (because of the dubious severity, self-inflicted nature and the fact it did not involve any enemy fire)

7) On April 14, 2004, Kerry refused to be interviewed about this incident with Boston Globe reporter Michael Kranish: Kerry faces questions over Purple Heart

8) Kerry campaign now admits to the potential wound was accidental & self-inflicted (Major Garrett / Video)

9) Submissions for Kerry's Purple Heart were first made three months after the incident; and the Kerry campaign has yet to file the Form 180 which would allow for the public release of all these documents and the required supporting materials including affidavits and appropriate recommendations.

10) In prior interview with USA Today in 2004, Kerry admitted he may have personally requested the Purple Heart and recalled "someone raising a question" about it.

11) Kerry campaign now admits Kerry completed the paperwork for himself

STATUS: Given Kerry campaign's stated admissions and refusal to sign 180 for release of additional records, it is increasingly clear this Purple Heart was gamed by Kerry.


V. Sampan Incident (Unfit for Command pages 53-62)

A tragic incident involving John Kerry's reported negligence and incompetence results in the killing of a young boy and his father in a small boat with Kerry submitting false after reports to avoid inevitable disciplinary action.

1) Kerry himself admits to the killing of the child on pages 269-270 of Doug Brinkley's Tour of Duty.

2) Steven Gardner, former crewmate of Kerry's who spent more time on John Kerry's boat than any other crew member and was present on the mission and the gunner at the time, learned of & identifies the discrepancies in his sworn testimony summarized on pages 56-57 of Unfit for Command

3) Original after-action report uncovered by Boston Globe revealing Kerry reported multiple Viet Cong enemy KIA, 5000 lbs. of "contraband" (the equivalent weight of an automobile being carried on the small Sampan) and no mention whatsoever of the child who was killed.

4) Kerry's former Division Commander George Elliot confirmed he received the false report Kerry submitted and was - for years - unaware of the true circumstances of the incident nor that involved the death of a young boy.

5) John Hurley, head of Vietnam Veterans for Kerry and former associate in VVAW, declined to challenge Gardner's account of this incident nor the accompanying records documentation during debate on MSNBC / Scarborough Country 8/20/04.

STATUS: Given the evidence, eyewitness testimony & documents revealed, combined with the Kerry campaign's unwillingness to even dispute the SwiftVet's account of these specific actions, it is certain that John Kerry did indeed fraudulently falsify the official documents he submitted in this matter.


VI. Christmas in Cambodia (Unfit for Command pages 45-49)

Thirty year long claims made over 50 times or more in public, that Kerry was forced to make an illegal mission to Cambodia on Christmas in 1968 while Nixon was president, an event which was "seared -- seared" into his being and described to Michael Kranish, biographer for the Boston Globe, in addition to other reporters and historians, as the entire basis for the most critical turning point in his life.

1) On March 27, 1986, Kerry argued on the Senate floor against supporting the anti-Communist forces in Nicaragua and stated passionately, "Mr. President, I remember Christmas of 1968 sitting on a gunboat in Cambodia, I remember what it was like to be shot at by 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, that says to me, before we send another generation into harm's way, we have a responsibility in the United States Senate to go the last step, to make the best effort possible in order to avoid that kind of conflict."

2) In June 2003 Kerry spoke in considerable detail about his experience spending Christmas 1968 in Cambodia with the Boston Globe

3) In June 2003 Kerry showed reporter Laura Blumenfeld his " good luck hat", which he revealed he keeps in a special, secret hidden compartment of his briefcase and was "Given to me by a CIA guy as we went in for a special mission in Cambodia." as reported in the Washington Post

4) Richard Nixon was inaugurated President of the United States on January 20, 1969

5) No crewmate of Kerry's has ever testified accordingly and/or, in fact, dispute Kerry's ever having gone to Cambodia at any time during their tenure with him (NY Post)

6) No records, amongst all which are long since declassified and publicly available on the internet and elsewhere (Operation SEALORDS), neither mention nor reference any such purported Swift Boat missions.

7) Kerry's entire Chain of Command denies any such orders were ever issued and state flatly Kerry would have been officially court-martialed if he'd tried it.

8) Former US Foreign Service official and Cambodian station chief Andrew Antippas, in letters to the Washington Times, has come forward to deny any such incident involving a swift boat ever took place in articles published August 13, 2004 and

9) Kerry campaign now readily admits he was not in Cambodia on Christmas, 1968

10) Further revision of Kerry's history during this period is precluded by his statements to Douglas Brinkley, in Tour of Duty, that he had never crossed the border before. "John Kerry's Final Mission in Vietnam".

STATUS: Obfuscations aside, this was an obvious lie on the part of John Kerry which has been thoroughly debunked revealing deeply rooted psychological traits which appear delusional & narcissistic.


VII. Silver Star was not warranted (Unfit for Command pages 80-86)

Kerry filed a false report describing an incident when Kerry shot a young boy in the back, misportraying & misreporting his actions in grandiose terms, above and beyond the call of duty, to an extent actually worthy of such honors & citations.

1) Citation for Kerry's medal (and others) states:
On a request from U.S. Army advisors ashore, Lieutenant (junior grade) KERRY ordered PCFs 94 and 23 further up river to suppress enemy sniper fire. After proceeding approximately eight hundred yards, the boats were again taken under fire from a heavily foliated area and B-40 rocket exploded close aboard PCF 94, with utter disregard for his own safety and the enemy rockets, he again ordered a charge on the enemy, beached his boat only ten feet from the VC rocket position, and personally led a landing party ashore in pursuit of the enemy. Upon sweeping the area in an immediate search uncovered an enemy rest and supply area which was destroyed. The extraordinary daring and personal courage of Lieutenant (junior grade) KERRY in attacking a numerically superior force in the face of intense fire were responsible for the highly successful mission.
2) No witnesses to this event have described Kerry facing such force or fire.

3) William Rood of the Chicago Tribune, this year, describes no such "numerically superior force" being faced by Kerry and, to the contrary, only recalled "seeing a loaded B-40 launcher pointed at the boats. It wasn't fired."

4) A photograph of Kerry taken afterwards confirms Rood's assertions as it shows a loaded rocket launcher.

5) Admiral Roy Hoffman and Kerry's other superiors were led to believe Kerry's false renditions of these tales as Kerry had originally submitted, indicating he - near alone - actually & personally "routed the enemy".

6) Commander George Elliot, who wrote up the initial draft of Kerry's citation, also testifies he was also - until more recently - unaware of the true circumstances of the incident and that if he'd known the actual facts at that time, he would not have awarded Kerry the Silver Star.

7) Records reveal that, over time, Kerry has repeatedly modified the official records pertaining to this incident, rendering at least three different versions of his citation and analysis + commentary reveals "it has come to light that his Silver Star award is fraught with other peculiarities" - including the revelation "that Kerry's DD 214 ("Report of Transfer or Separation"), displayed on his website, shows his Silver Star embellished with an unauthorized "V" for valor-which makes it facially false and at variance with official government records.

8) Records withheld by the Kerry campaign or otherwise missing and not released include the nomination form for the Silver Star, the official investigation required, or the statements required of two witnesses.

STATUS: Given no witnesses have described the incident consistent with Kerry's citation and the Kerry campaign's unwillingness to release the records, it appears clear that the premise under which this citation was issued for Kerry was, indeed, falsified on his behalf, and his medal was wrongly awarded.


VIII. Faked 3rd Purple Heart with self-inflicted wound to buttocks (Unfit for Command pages 86-92)

Kerry injured himself while detonating a grenade in a rice pile resulting in rice & shrapnel in his buttocks and then fraudulently attributed such injuries to an underwater mine in claiming his third Purple Hear, promptly leaving Viet Nam just a few days later.

1) Kerry admits to the incident in Douglas Brinkley's authorized biography Tour of Duty, page 313, "I got a piece of small grenade in my ass from one of the rice-bin explosions"

2) Official Records confirm wound was to Kerry's "left buttocks".

3) Kerry supporter Jim Rassman confirms being present & participating in the rice incident on Page 105 of John F. Kerry: The Complete Biography By The Boston Globe Reporters Who Know Him Best, by Michael Kranish, Brian C. Mooney, and Nina J. Easton (New York: Public Affairs, 2004), describing the incident as "hilarious" and ""it was more embarrassing than painful."

4) Other witnesses offer similar accounts, including Swift Boat Veteran Larry Thurlow who recalled the event in detail and has testified accordingly.

5) Kerry campaign has acknowledged medical records only reflect a slight wound on Kerry's buttocks and that "treatment" only involved application of Neosporin and a band-aid.

6) Kerry prepared the 3rd Purple Heart casualty reports on March 13, 1969 and left Viet Nam on March 17, 1969, arriving home in New York (Kennedy Airport), whereupon his then fiancée, on page 329 of Tour of Duty, recalled Kerry appeared to be "bandaged" so heavily "some of it was sticking out".

STATUS: Given the odds that Kerry could suffer the exact same kind of wound in exactly the same place on his body within hours on the exact same day are highly unlikely, and with nobody able confirm the story he supplied for the records, plus his own admissions about the incident in his authorized biography, it appears Kerry's 3rd Purple Heart was fraudulently obtained in a concerted & premeditated effort to go home.


IX. Bronze Star account is disputed (Unfit for Command pages 86-92)

Kerry fled the scene after a mine explosion disabled one of the group of swift boats, only to return a short while later, while the SwiftVets saved the damaged boat and rescued injured crew mates, indeed rescuing Rassman who'd actually fallen off his boat, after which Kerry left fellow sailors behind again and returned to a Coast Guard cutter offshore, falsely recasting the entire sequence events with him as the hero in his official records & reports, his personal biography and DNC movies entitled "No Man Left Behind".

1) Recent admissions by the Kerry campaign and detailed analysis by the Washington Post depicted in this diagram reveal Kerry's boat left the scene while other boats gathered around the injured vessel to help save the craft and rescue the crew, with Kerry returning to retrieve Rassman as another of the remaining vessels moved to save him.

2) Kerry admits the boat damage he officially reported for this mission as damage from a mine was actually due to a prior experience noting "All the windows on my boat and on [Larry Thurlow's PCF-53] boat had been blown out in the ambush two days earlier" from Douglas Brinkley's authorized biography of Kerry in "John Kerry's Final Mission in Vietnam"

3) Kerry admitted Rassman fell off his own boat in his own statements on the floor of the US Senate, From Congressional Record: January 28, 1998 (Senate) Page S186-S187 :

JOHN KERRY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record the text of the eulogy I gave for my friend, Thomas M. Belodeau, on November 10, 1997.
There was the time we were carrying Special Forces up a river and a mine exploded under our boat sending it 2 feet into the air. We were receiving incoming rocket and small arms fire and Tommy was returning fire with his M-60 machine gun when it literally broke apart in his hands. He was left holding the pieces unable to fire back while one of the Green Berets walked along the edge of the boat to get Tommy another M-60. As he was doing so, the boat made a high speed turn to starboard and the Green Beret kept going--straight into the river. The entire time while the boat went back to get the Green Beret, Tommy was without a machine gun or a weapon of any kind, but all the time he was hurling the greatest single string of Lowell-Chelmsford curses ever heard at the Viet Cong. He literally had swear words with tracers on them!

4) Kerry's own records confirm wound Kerry reported "contusion on right forearm". A contusion is "contusion" is an "injury to tissue usually without laceration".

5) The Aug. 10, 2004, Wall Street Journal op-ed prepared for Rassman blatantly contradicts official Kerry campaign depictions by confirming Rassman was on Kerry's boat: "The second blast blew me off John's Swift boat, PCF-94 ..."

6) From Unfit for Command page 91:
When Chenoweth's boat left a second time to deliver the wounded PCF 3 crewmen to a Coast Guard cutter offshore, Kerry jumped into the boat, leaving the few remaining officers and men the job of saving PCF 3, which was then in terrible condition, sinking just outisde the river. Kerry's eagerness to secure his third and final Purple Heart evidently outweighed any feelings he may have had of loyalty, duty, or honor with regard to his fellow sailors. Thurlow and the brave sailors who saved PCF 3 and towed it out did not seek Purple Hearts for their "minor contusions." Indeed, several of the PCF 3 sailors did not seek or receive Purple Hearts. Chenoweth, Odell, and their boat-mates who fished out and saved the sailors of PCF 3 likewise had no thought of seeking medals but only of rescuing their comrades and saving PCF 3. Kerry, however, portrays himself towing the disabled PCF 3 to safety after saving it. Another lie: The damage control on PCF 3 was done by Thurlow. While Kerry's boat, PCF 94, participated in towing PCF-3, Kerry was no longer on it for most of the trip (he was safely on the Coast Guard cutter), and Thurlow and Chenoweth are certain that Kerry played no role in saving PCF 3 or its crew.

When Chenoweth and Thurlow (as well as several other Swiftees who were there on March 13, 1969) first saw the Kerry ads, they believed the event that Kerry had described in his campaign biography and that was portrayed in his campaign television ads (as well as in the medal citations) had to be different events involving different people. What they had experienced on March 13, 1969, was so unlike the incident Kerry described that they could not imagine that he was describing the same event. They were horrified when they finally realized Kerry had received medals for the incident they remembered.


STATUS: It is up to Kerry to release his records in order to confirm whether Kerry was the source for orinal, erroneous, exaggerated reports, and to reconcile whether there was enemy fire, other than the mine itself, is only source of contention regarding this event. Kerry and his crew state there was, as does Rassman, who repeatedly submerged himself after falling off Kerry's boat as he first fled the scene. Numerous others, also at the scene, including the other boat commanders, and the gunners, report no enemy fire and that Rassman was confused by the tremendous volley of fire which the boats first engaged in an automatic defensive posture immediately after the mine first exploded. Kerry's description & official reporting of the events reflect over 5000 meters of intense enemy fire (literally more than 2-1/2 miles), a battle scene representative of the Battle of Gettysburg.


X. Kerry betrayed his fellow veterans (Unfit for Command pages 126-137)

Kerry slandered fellow troops by falsely accusing vets of mass atrocities and war crimes, consorted with the enemy by meeting with Madame Binh as the official representative for the North Vietnamese Communist regime at the 1971 Paris Peace Talks, praised Ho Chi Min, and was present during the plotting for assassination of US Senators who opposed the Viet Nam war.

1) John Kerry's testimony before the US Senate included his infamous & slanderous allegation that US troops "had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, tape wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the country side of South Vietnam in addition to the normal ravage of war, and the normal and very particular ravaging which is done by the applied bombing power of this country" and that these were "crimes committed on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command."

2) In subsequent interviews and on television NBC's Meet the Press on April 18, 1971, when Kerry was asked — regarding his claim that our policies in Vietnam were tantamount to genocide — "Do you consider that you personally as a Naval officer committed atrocities in Vietnam or crimes punishable by law in this country?" Kerry stated, "Yes, yes, I committed the same kind of atrocities as thousands of other soldiers have committed in that I took part in shootings in free fire zones.... I took part in search and destroy missions, in the burning of villages."

3) In recent interviews, John Hurley, Kerry's former comrade from VVAW and now head of Vietnam Veterans for Kerry, Kerry stands by his 1971 Senate testimony.

4) John Kerry wrote a book entitled "The New Soldier" which slandered Vietnam Vets with further "Winter Soldier" accusations of war crimes and defaced the Iwo Jiwa Memorial, which represents the flag-raising on Mount Suribachi in 1945, a battle that claimed the lives of 6,821 Marines, with a mocking representation combined with an upside down American flag on its cover.

5) Historical writers Neil Sheehan and James Reston exposed the sources for John Kerry's "Winter Soldier" allegations as fabrications and their perpetrators as frauds who, in many cases, hadn't even served in Vietnam such as Al Hubbard, Kerry's VVAW counterpart who often appeared in public events together, was revealed to have personally lied himself & later officially joined the Communist Party.

6) Numerous POWs, including Paul Galanti, Ken Cordier, Jim Warner, John Flynn and many others have come forward and testified in detail to the use of John Kerry's 1971 Senate Testimony and other VVAW related activities, albeit documentary representations or audio recordings played over the P/A (Public Address) systems duing torture sessions at some of Vietnam's most heinous and notorious prisons to include "The Hanoi Hilton" and "Skid Row". See SwiftVet Ad "SELLOUT"

7) Kerry first admitted meeting with communist representatives in Paris in 1970, in his own testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on April 22, 1971, at a time he remained an officer in the US Naval Reserve and in apparent violation of U.S. code 18 U.S.C. 953, which disallowed private citizens from negotiating with foreign powers. Kerry stated, "I have been to Paris. I have talked with both delegations at the peace talks, that is to say the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the Provisional Revolutionary Government (PVR)."

8) On March 24, 2004, Michael Meehan, official spokesman of the Kerry campaign, confirmed that John Kerry indeed traveled to Paris in 1971 and met with Madame Binh and also admitted he met with other members representing both the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (the North Vietnamese) and the Provisional Revolutionary Government (the Viet Cong).

9) Michael Kranish and Patrick Healy report "Kerry Spoke of Meeting Negotiators in Paris", in the Boston Globe, March 25, 2004.

10) On July 22, 1971, John Kerry held a public press conference in which he advanced the positions stated & outlined in his personal meeting with Madame Binh.

11) In publicly FOIA released FBI Documents reveal Kerry was present in the discussion & planning for the assassination of prominent US Senators who were deemed to support US participation in the war against the Vietnamese Communists, to include Senate legends John Tower of Texas and Senator John Stennis of Mississippi, for whom the Navy Aircraft Carrier USS Stennis CVN-74 is named after.

12) Writing in the New York Sun, March 12, 2004, Thomas Lipscomb writes about "HOW KERRY QUIT VETERANS GROUP AMID DARK PLOT"

13) Kansas City Star reports on Kerry's attendance at the assassination plotting in March 2004 article.

14) From Unfit for Command, page 137: FBI field surveillance reports document a speech that Kerry gave in 1971 in which he praised Ho Chi Minh, the founder of Vietnamese Communism. The occasion was a speech Kerry gave to a group at the YMCA in Philadelphian on June 14, 1971. As reported by the FBI:

On June 29, 1971, [BLACKED OUT SECURITY EDIT] advised that JOHN KERRY of the National Office of the VVAW, spoke at the YMCA, Philadelphia, on June 14, 1971. In this talk he stated that HO CHI MINH is the GEORGE WASHINGTON of Vietnam. Ho studied the United States Constitution and wants to install the same provisions into the Government of Vietnam. KERRY criticized United States activities in Vietnam, saying we are destroying villages, cities, crops, and the people there and these activities must be stopped.

15) A photograph featuring John Kerry meeting with the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, Comrade Du Muoi today hangs in honor at the Vietnamese Communist War Remnants Museum (formerly known as the War Crimes Museum) in Ho Chi Mihn City (formerly Saigon), within a room titled "The World Supports Vietnam in its Resistance" amongst the many other exhibits "honoring" all those who had helped the Vietnamese Communists win their war against the United States.

STATUS: To date the Kerry campaign has not chosen to dispute his prior statements or any of the official records which have been made available to the public.


- posted by SEO LinkTagstic @ 1:55 PM