Drudge's scoop forces ABC to break the story early. Now
the Kerry camp has to answer it. The only way out that I
see is for Kerry to claim he "doesn't remember" the 1971
interview. His character is really taking a beating. I can
just see the 30 second Bush ad next week with Kerry saying
it both ways. Will he be still be standing by convention
time? TWT. - From: LindyBill
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In a videotape from 1971, obtained exclusively by ABCNEWS, Vietnam veteran John Kerry said he gave back his medals in order to "wake the country."
ABCNEWS.com
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Discarded Decorations
Videotape Contradicts John Kerry's Own Statements Over Vietnam Medals
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By Brian Ross and Chris Vlasto
ABCNEWS.com
April 25— <font size=4>Contradicting his statements as a candidate for president, Sen. John Kerry claimed in a 1971 television interview that he threw away as many as nine of his combat medals to protest the war in Vietnam.
"I gave back, I can't remember, 6, 7, 8, 9 medals," Kerry said in an interview on a Washington, D.C. news program on WRC-TV's called Viewpoints on November 6, 1971, according to a tape obtained by ABCNEWS.
Throughout his presidential campaign, Kerry has denied
that he threw away any of his 11 medals during an anti-war
protest in April, 1971.
His campaign Web site calls it a "right wing fiction" and
a smear. And in an interview with ABCNEWS' Peter Jennings
last December, he said it was a "myth."
But Kerry told a much different story on Viewpoints. Asked
about the anti-war veterans who threw their medals away,
Kerry said "they decided to give them back to their
country."
Kerry was asked if he gave back the Bronze Star, Silver
Star and three Purple Hearts he was awarded for combat
duty as a Navy lieutenant in Vietnam. "Well, and above
that, [I] gave back the others," he said.
The statement directly contradicts Kerry's most recent
claims on the disputed subject to the Los Angeles Times
last Friday. "I never ever implied that I did it, " Kerry
told the newspaper, responding to the question of whether
he threw away his medals in protest.
"I'm proud of my medals. I always was proud of them," he
told Jennings in December, adding that he had only thrown
away his "ribbons" and the medals of two other veterans
who could not attend the protest.
Flip Flop?
The disputed incident happened 33 years ago this past weekend, on April 23, 1971, when Kerry led the group Vietnam Veterans Against the War in a protest against the war they fought.
Many veterans were seen throwing their medals and ribbons over the fence in front of the U.S. Capitol. At the time, The Boston Globe and other newspapers reported that Kerry was among these veterans.
"In a real sense, this administration forced us to return
our medals because beyond the perversion of the war, these
leaders themselves denied us the integrity those symbols
supposedly gave our lives," Kerry said the following day.
But in 1984, when he first ran for the U.S. Senate, Kerry
revealed he still had his medals. According to a Boston
Globe report on April 15, 1984, union officials had
expressed uneasiness with Kerry's candidacy because he had
thrown his medals away. Kerry acknowledged the medals he
threw away were, in fact, another soldier's medals. He
reportedly invited a union official home to personally
inspect his Silver Star, Bronze Star and three purple
hearts, awarded for his combat duty as a Navy lieutenant.
In the 1971 Viewpoints interview, he made no mention of
the ribbons or the medals belonging to another veteran.
And in 1988, Kerry again clarified his statement by saying
he threw out ribbons he had been awarded for three combat
wounds, but not his medals. "I was proud of my personal
service and remain so," he told the National Journal.
Eight years later in 1996, Kerry said while he did throw
out his ribbons, he didn't throw out his own medals
because he "didn't have time to go home [to New York] and
get them," he told The Boston Globe.
Kerry's campaign Web site says he "is proud of the work he did to end the war. The Nixon Administration made John Kerry one of its targets and Republicans have been smearing him ever since. John Kerry threw his ribbons and the medals of two veterans who could not attend the event, and said, 'I am not doing this for any violent reasons, but for peace and justice, and to try to make this country wake up once and for all.'"
A spokesperson for Kerry's campaign said he didn't make a distinction between medals and ribbons, but Kerry plans to respond on Good Morning America. |
