Reply #78: That was only because of how parts of the RW media portrayed that [View All]

Kerry was near the border on Christmas 1968. A reported incidence placed him about 3 miles away - as he returning to the base from the Cambodian direction. Given the speed of the boats and the directions, it is likely that he was in Cambodia. There is no doubt, per Douglas Brinkley, that he was in Cambodia in January and February 1969.

What Kerry corrected was simpler and refected no lies or any intentional deception. What he corrected as INCORRECT was a statement that was part of a Senate speech. In the late 80s, the issue of covert forces invading neutral countries was an issue in what we were doing in Central America. As part of a speech, Kerry added comments about how he felt as a soldier in Vietnam, being ordered to cross the Cambodian border which violated international law and meant that if captured he would not have POW status. In this speech, he mentioned Christmas eve (obviously referring to the incident in Tour of Duty), 1968. He incorrectly said Nixon when Johnson was President.

These comments were 15 - 20 YEARS after the event. The important details - his feeling as a officer being put at additional risk and being forced to violate international law and the fact that the US did do this and Kerry almost certainly did as it was done by people where he was when he was there - are accurate and totally support the point he was making. That Kerry said Nixon rather than Johnson, is very easy to understand as it would not even be part of his memory of the time in Vietnam. (To show how innocent - imagine if any Senator or reporter had questioned Kerry on Nixon being President in Dec 68 - he would have simply corrected the name of the President on the spot. The point itself would be totally unaffected.)

What is interesting is that it does show how the SBVT likely scoured Kerry's Senate records.