SWIFT Boat Vet Q & A
Posted August 25, 2004
The battle of claims and counter-claims over Sen. John Kerry's service in Vietnam and his later anti-war activism remains at a brisk boil. Kerry accuses a veterans' group attacking him -- Swift Boat Veterans for Truth -- of having illicit ties to the Bush-Cheney campaign, something that President George W. Bush denies.
On Friday former POW Ken Cordier, a member of the campaign's veterans advisory committee, was dumped by the campaign when it learned he was appearing in an anti-Kerry ad for the veterans.
In an exclusive interview with UPI, a sister news service of Insight, Cordier said he never coordinated his actions with the campaign. Here are some excerpts of that interview.
UPI: "What did you do with the campaign's veterans steering committee?"
Cordier: "Well, I didn't do anything except have my name on the list until June of this year. In June of this year I was asked to give a surrogate speech to a VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) convention in Colorado. I did that and since then I had no contact with them. ... I had no further contact with them until this situation came up here this last weekend."
Q: "How did you get involved with the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth?"
A: "It was kind of a roundabout way. First I was aware of them through
a mutual friend of John O'Neill (a member and author of a book
attacking Kerry) this spring. Then around the first of July the other
POW who is on this ad you've seen called me and said, 'You might like
to get involved in this.' I said, you know, 'I think you're right. Now
is the time because speaking out on this issue is the right thing to
do. In fact, I consider it an obligation.'"
Q: "Why did you feel that way?"
A: "I was personally outraged to go back and review the activities of
John Kerry in 1971 and 1972 -- his false testimony to the Senate
hearing in April of '71 and his activities with the Winter Soldier
campaign and Vietnam Veterans Against the War, particularly that
unauthorized trip he took to Paris, having discussions with the Viet
Cong representative and the North Vietnamese representative (to the
Paris peace talks).
"All of those things constituted what I consider betrayal, to betray
the guys who were still fighting over there, and he certainly betrayed
the guys like myself who were in prison.
"The reason I say that, he willingly of his own free will gave
testimony in a hearing spouting the same propaganda and lies that
myself and all the POWs who were shot down and captured in the early
years -- 1965-1967 -- we were tortured to say essentially the same
thing he said in that hearing.
"The propaganda that was generated by John Kerry and all those guys
who were working with him ... the propaganda value for the communists
was enormous. The proof of that, I would say, is the photograph of him
getting a plaque, displayed in the war museum in Saigon (now Ho Chi
Minh City).
Q: "How did you find out the campaign was unhappy you had taken part
in an ad by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth?"
A: "They called me and informed me they had seen the ad, and that, uh,
they were going to have to take my name off the list of co-chairs. And
I said, 'Well, I think that is right. I think what I am doing with the
Swift Boats is really the most important thing I can contribute at this
time. ... Fine with me.'"
Q: "Were you paid in any way by the Bush-Cheney campaign?"
A: "Absolutely not."
Q: "Were you paid in any way by the Swift Boat vets?"
A: "No. This is strictly a voluntary effort."
Q: "Any regrets?"
A: "No. I would have to say I'd do the same thing over again, because
I believe I am doing what's right. They can polygraph all day long
about this, but I have had no contact with the campaign (about the
group or the ad)."
Cordier, an Air Force pilot, spent 2,284 days as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam's "Hanoi Hilton" prison complex. |
