October 2, 2004

DAN RATHER SAYS THE DOCUMENT'S UNIMPEACHABLE...:

NEW DOCUMENT INDICATES KERRY WROTE DISPUTED VIETNAM REPORT (THOMAS LIPSCOMB, 10/01/04, NY Sun)

A faded 35-year-old operations order recovered from the Naval Historical Center in Washington bears directly on the ongoing dispute between Senator Kerry and the Swiftboat Veterans for Truth about who wrote the key after-action report that ended Mr. Kerry's service in Vietnam. The report appears in the official Navy records and is posted on Mr. Kerry's campaign Web site.

It details Mr. Kerry's participation in a naval operation on the Bay Hap River on March 13, 1969, in such glowing terms that Mr. Kerry was awarded a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star for pulling Special Forces officer James Rassman out of the water while under heavy enemy fire. This third Purple Heart award allowed Kerry to cut short his tour in Vietnam after only four months. [...]

Kerry spokesmen have repeatedly insisted that Mr. Kerry denies writing the report and that the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth were arguing with the official Navy record. But if "the official Navy record" now turns out to have been written by Mr. Kerry himself, the principal beneficiary of its glowing references to his performance, the Swift Boat critics' charges look far more consequential.

After all, the report completely leaves out how Kerry's own boat, PCF 94, ran downriver, leaving James Rassman overboard and the other three boats to deal with the ambush and the sinking PCF 3. All the living boat commanders on that mission are in firm agreement on that action by Kerry and agree that the report is a fraudulent misrepresentation of an action they remember well.

Posted by Orrin Judd at October 2, 2004 7:29 AM
Comments

The more I read about Vietnam and the more I talk with officers who served there, it just seems to be almost an unfathomable cluster (expletive deleted).

Posted by: Bart at October 2, 2004 10:56 AM

Worked though.

Posted by: oj at October 2, 2004 11:41 AM

By 'it' do you mean the Vietnam War, or Kerry's record?

Posted by: Harry Eagar at October 2, 2004 2:40 PM

My pops was in the Korean War, he told me that the standard operating procedure then was that not only would the person putting in for the medal would supply the after action report, the company clerks writing the citation requests would convert the language of the after action report to the language necesscary to recieve a medal (i.e. if the after action report said "The officer was seperated from our patrol, I heard gunfire and yelled get down", the clerks would convert that to "While under enemy fire soldier took temporary command of squad".

He also said he knew a guy who recieved a purple heart after he punctured his foot stepping on a tent peg while running for cover in panic.

Posted by: carter at October 2, 2004 3:07 PM

Harry:

Both are true.

Posted by: oj at October 2, 2004 3:56 PM
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