Sniping escalates on war service: NOTE TRIBUNE EDITOR'S ACCOUNT BELOW
By Rick Pearson and Frank James, Tribune staff reporters. Tribune political reporter Rick Pearson reported from Texas, and Tribune national correspondent Frank James reported from Boston
Published August 23, 2004
CRAWFORD, Texas -- The debate over Sen. John Kerry's Vietnam War service intensified Sunday, with former Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole describing the Democratic nominee's war wounds as "superficial" and the Kerry campaign lashing out at President Bush's lack of a combat record.
The feisty give-and-take by Democrats and Republicans kept the race for president focused on the candidates' military records from more than 30 years ago.
Tad Devine, a senior adviser to Kerry's campaign, contended the nation would not have rushed ill-equipped troops to a war in Iraq if the president ever had served in an armed conflict.
Dole, who received two Purple Hearts for his severe injuries in World War II, questioned Kerry's war wounds: "Three Purple Hearts and never bled that I know of. I mean, they're all superficial wounds."
The former Kansas senator also criticized Kerry's anti-war activities after his return from Vietnam, suggesting that veterans might deserve an apology. Kerry's allegations of Vietnam War atrocities are the subject of an advertisement launched Friday by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a group critical of the Massachusetts senator.
The Kerry campaign has unveiled a new TV commercial of its own, comparing the current attacks to what it said were similarly styled "smears" against Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) before the 2000 South Carolina primary.
The Kerry campaign has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission alleging illegal coordination of activities between the Bush campaign and Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. The Bush campaign has denied any involvement with the group, saying in a response prepared for the FEC that the complaint is "frivolous" and a bid for "free publicity."
Still, in an embarrassment to the Bush campaign, it announced that retired Air Force Col. Kenneth Cordier no longer would serve as a volunteer organizer for Bush. The campaign said it had been unaware until Friday that Cordier appeared in an ad for the swift boat group.
Kerry was awarded the Silver Star for his actions Feb. 28, 1969, in fighting on a tributary of the Bay Hap River. Kerry's version of events has been questioned by critics, but a first-person account, written by Chicago Tribune metropolitan desk editor William Rood and published in Sunday's editions, backs up Kerry's story. Rood captained one of three swift boats that day under the tactical command of Kerry.
Kerry's running mate, Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.), campaigning in McAdenville, N.C., said, "There is a story in today's Chicago Tribune from somebody who was there who supports Sen. Kerry, and says that he was courageous and a great leader when he was in Vietnam."
Rood, who is not commenting further on the article, has said he wrote the account for those "hurting crewmen who are not public figures and who deserved to be honored for what they did" and said the criticisms have "splashed doubt on all of us."
Senate vote defended
Appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press," Devine attempted to counter criticism of Kerry's vote against an $87 billion appropriation for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan by maintaining that the Bush administration had sent troops to Iraq without enough high-quality body armor.
"There's only one commander in chief of the United States who sent our troops to Iraq without the body armor they need to survive, and his name is George W. Bush," Devine said. "And if he had spent one day on the front line of a war, he never would have done it."
Bush served in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War, but Democrats have questioned whether he fulfilled his duties. The White House has insisted he did.
Devine said that Kerry's boat came under fire on three occasions on Christmas Eve 1968.
"That's three times more than the president and the vice president ever have been fired upon in the course of their life," Devine said.
Vice President Dick Cheney received five deferments from the military and did not serve. Pentagon officials have said that as many as 40,000 U.S. military personnel went to Iraq without top-grade body armor. Money to purchase the equipment was contained in the $87 billion appropriation that Kerry voted against.
Ken Mehlman, Bush's campaign manager, said the president's camp was not attacking Kerry's war record.
"The fact is this campaign is unprecedented in our praise of our opponent's service during Vietnam," Mehlman said."
Dole's comments on CNN's "Late Edition" were a direct challenge to Kerry's record. Dole blasted Kerry for protesting against the Vietnam War and decades later using his service record to boost his campaign.
"Maybe he should apologize to all the other 2.5 million veterans who served," Dole said. "He wasn't the only one in Vietnam."
While Dole called Kerry "a good guy, good friend," he said the Democrat's wounds were minor and the campaign should not be "boasting about three Purple Hearts when you think of some of the people who really got shot up in Vietnam."
Tribune editor's account
The first-person account by Vietnam veteran Rood in Sunday's Tribune came about after he was contacted by a supporter of Kerry named Thomas Vallely, a Marine during the Vietnam War and a former Massachusetts lawmaker who is director of the Vietnam program at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.
Last week, with Kerry taking a pounding from the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, Kerry told Vallely: "`We need to find Billy Rood.' He called him Billy," Vallely said in an interview. "It was Kerry's idea" to contact Rood in the hope that he might support Kerry's account.
So Vallely "Googled" Rood.
"I called the place we thought he was working, a suburban chain of newspapers in Chicago. He didn't work there anymore. Then I `Verizoned' up his home phone number and I called his house and I asked if this was Mr. Bill Rood's home, someone said yes and gave me the number for the Chicago Tribune."
Vallely said he never had heard Rood's name before Kerry asked him to find him.
A call from Kerry
"I basically said, `Would you talk to Sen. Kerry?' Then we had a little bit of a private conversation, then John Kerry called him. This all took place within 15 minutes, maybe a half an hour. [Kerry] called me a half an hour later. He was talking to Bill Rood."
Vallely added: "John Kerry mentioned to me, `They're going to make their own decision about how to do this.' That was fine with him."
"They" referred to the crew of Rood's swift boat. "We had no idea what they were going to do," Vallely said. "They never showed their hand to us."
Vallely recalled that Rood provided him the name of Jerry Leeds, who was the senior enlisted man on Rood's boat. He said Rood indicated that Leeds and other members of his crew had been following the swift boat controversy.
Tribune Managing Editor James O'Shea said Rood approached the newspaper's top editors after talking with Kerry.
"He said he was undecided about whether he was going to step forward," O'Shea said. "We told Bill that we would respect his decision to remain silent, but that if he was going to talk and come forward with a statement, we wanted that statement to be published in the Chicago Tribune.
"Bill said he wanted to think it over overnight, and Thursday afternoon, he decided he was going to write his story and talk to no one else."
Copyright © 2004, Chicago Tribune |
