Officer From Another Swift Boat Breaks Silence and Defends Kerry
The New York Times
THE MILITARY RECORD
August 22, 2004
By JIM RUTENBERG
A Vietnam veteran who served with Senator John Kerry on
a Swift boat mission broke a 35-year silence this weekend to support Mr. Kerry's
version of events from one of their operations together and to chastise veterans
critical of the senator as having "splashed doubt on all of us."
The veteran, William B. Rood, is now an editor at The Chicago Tribune,
which ran on its Web site yesterday and in Sunday's paper a 1,750-word
first-person article in which Mr. Rood recounted the mission. His account
added to a growing debate over the most serious claims from the group,
Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. And it ensured that questions swirling around
the veracity of the group's claims, and the Kerry campaign's
accusations that the group was connected to the Bush campaign,
would dominate the contest for yet another day.
Mr. Rood stepped forward after Mr. Kerry called him and another
veteran on Mr. Rood's boat as members of the Swift boat group blanketed cable
television and radio talk shows to repeat their claim, also made in a
book and a television advertisement, that Mr. Kerry had fabricated his military
accomplishments to win medals.
Mr. Kerry's phone calls were part of his campaign's first concerted
push to address the group's claims, which surfaced weeks ago. That push also
included the release of a new Internet advertisement on Saturday
highlighting accusations made about Senator John McCain by military
supporters of Mr. Bush in 2000 and a public call by Mr. Kerry's running mate,
Senator John Edwards, for Mr. Bush to tell the group to cease
running advertisements against Mr. Kerry.
The Swift boat group, which garnered much of its initial financing from men
who have supported Mr. Bush's and his father's political endeavors,
has been ready to defend itself and quickly provided a statement Saturday
saying Mr. Rood's article was politically motivated. The group continues
to raise money and on Friday introduced an advertisement with former
prisoners of war recounting the pain Mr. Kerry's 1971 antiwar comments
caused them when they were being held by the Vietcong.
Mr. Bush's campaign confirmed on Saturday an accusation by the Kerry
campaign that one of the veterans in the that advertisement was a
member the Bush campaign's veterans' advisory committee.
The Bush campaign said in a statement that it did not know that the man, retired Col.
Kenneth Cordier, was going to appear in the advertisement and
because of that he was no longer a volunteer.
The Bush campaign denies involvement with the Swift boat group
and on Saturday released a statement to the Federal Election Commission saying
that the Kerry campaign's accusations of coordination were untrue.
The Bush camp has declined to tell the group to stop running advertisements,
but aides said Mr. Kerry should join Mr. Bush in calling for all
outside groups to stop advertising.
In his article Mr. Rood disputed a claim the Swift boat group made
in its book, "Unfit for Command," that Mr. Kerry had received his Silver Star for
chasing down a lone Vietcong teenager "in a loincloth" who may
or may not have been armed on Feb. 28, 1969.
Mr. Rood was the skipper of one of three boats involved in the mission
with Mr. Kerry, conducting a sweep for the enemy through a tributary of the
Bay Hap River. "I have no idea how old the gunner Kerry chased that
day was," Mr. Rood wrote, but "he was a grown man, dressed in the kind of
garb the VC usually wore." He also wrote that Mr. Kerry had devised a
plan to face into enemy fire, a breach of typical procedure.
He added, referring to John O'Neill, a co-author of "Unfit for Command"
and a leader of the Swift boat group: "The man Kerry chased was not the
'lone' attacker at that site, as O'Neill suggests. There were others who fled.
There was also firing from the tree line well behind the spider holes
and at one point, from the opposite riverbank as well."
Mr. Rood also noted that Roy F. Hoffmann, a retired rear admiral
who was the Swift boat group's commander, lauded the operation at the time in
glowing terms. Mr. Hoffmann is, with Mr. O'Neill, one of the main engineers
of the anti-Kerry group's effort.
The Swift boat group released a statement yesterday from Mr. O'Neill
saying he stood by its account. He said the account was consistent with those
of two biographies of Mr. Kerry, "Tour of Duty" and "John F. Kerry:
The Complete Biography By The Boston Globe Reporters Who Know Him Best,"
and that of Larry Lee, a crewman on Mr. Rood's boat. Mr. O'Neill said
he had tried to contact Mr. Rood for his book and that Mr. Rood's decision to
come forward now was "an obvious political move."
The biographies do say that Mr. Kerry was running after the man he shot,
but the books do not describe him as a teenager and they say he was
armed with a rocket launcher. The Globe account that the group cites
says the man had begun to run away, but also quotes Mr. Kerry saying that
he had not shot him in the back and that he believed the man would fire again.
Mr. Rood said he confirmed the details of his recollection with the leading
petty officer on his boat, Jerry Leeds. Mr. Leeds, who lives in Kansas,
said in a brief interview that he had not read The Tribune and could not
comment on it. But he said the boats were under significant enemy fire
and at great risk.
Mr. Leeds said Mr. Kerry had phoned him, too, last week. He said Mr. Kerry
did not ask for his support or for any statements on his behalf. "Mostly
we just visited about that day," Mr. Leeds said.
Mr. Rood acknowledged in his article that Mr. Kerry's calls did affect
his decision to write it but also wrote, "What matters most to me is that this
is hurting crewmen who are not public figures and who deserved to be
honored for what they did." He added, "My intent is to tell the story here
and to never again talk publicly about it."
The idea to contact Mr. Rood came from Mr. Kerry himself, aides said.
The candidate called Thomas Vallely, a longtime Kerry supporter,
a former Massachusetts state legislator and a marine who now runs the Vietnam
program at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.
"He said 'We've got to find Billy Rood,"' Mr. Vallely said in an interview on
Saturday. "John said, 'He's a reporter in Chicago,' that's all he knew."
Mr. Rood had been watching the dispute unfold and considering what
to do. He wrote in his article that he had long been reluctant to talk about
his experience and had even refused to grant an interview to his own
newspaper. But watching Mr. O'Neill on TV incensed Mr. Rood, Mr. Vallely
said.
"He was very, very angry, he was on his feet," Mr. Vallely recalled.
"I said, 'Would you talk to John?"' Mr. Rood agreed to a phone call.
Mr. Vallely also called Mr. Leeds, the leading petty officer on Mr. Rood's boat,
and asked both men if they would speak with a reporter from The
New York Times last week. The two men said they wanted to think
about it for a few days, and the result was two stories in The Tribune, a news
account and Mr. Rood's first-person article. "They wanted to do it their way," Mr. Vallely said.
Meanwhile on Saturday, Mr. Kerry's campaign continued on the offensive.
It sent out a new Internet advertisement to supporters highlighting
an exchange between Mr. McCain, of Arizona, and Mr. Bush during a debate in
2000. In that debate Mr. McCain confronted Mr. Bush for playing host
at an event where the leader of a veterans group that Mr. McCain
characterized as "fringe" questioned his commitment to veterans.
The spot includes an on-screen heading that says, "George Bush is up to his old tricks."
Steve Schmidt, a Bush campaign spokesman, said, "The president
has made clear that he regards John Kerry's service as noble service." And he
chastised Mr. Kerry for statements from campaign surrogates last week
questioning Mr. Bush's National Guard service. He also criticized Mr. Kerry
for failing to call on liberal groups who have run $63 million worth of
advertisements against Mr. Bush to stop. Some of the liberal groups have
connections to Mr. Kerry's campaign and political party.
On Saturday night, at a fund-raiser in East Hampton, N.Y., Mr. Kerry
suggested that his political opponents were trying to undercut his military
record because he had been persuading voters he would make an effective
commander in chief. "In the past month, they've seen me climbing in
America's understanding that I know how to fight a smarter, more
effective war," Mr. Kerry said. "That's why they're attacking my credibility. That's
why they're personally going after me."
David M. Halbfinger and David Stout contributed reporting for this article.
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