Bush under renewed pressure over Vietnam-era service
Thu Sep 9, 3:14 AM ET
NEW YORK (AFP) - Democrats leaped on fresh revelations over George W. Bush's national guard service during the Vietnam War, saying they showed the president had lied about fulfilling his military obligations.
AFP/File Photo
Latest headlines:
· Democrats Question Bush's Service, Costs of War
Reuters - 2 hours, 40 minutes ago
· Hurricanes May Affect Florida Politics
AP - 2 hours, 45 minutes ago
· Bush under renewed pressure over Vietnam-era service
AFP - Thu Sep 9, 3:14 AM ET
All Election Coverage
The escalation of the presidential campaign warfare over the Vietnam era was fuelled by separate reports in the Boston Globe and on the CBS network's "60 Minutes" programme, as well as a TV campaign ad charging that Bush failed to perform his required service in the Texas Air National Guard.
The service records of Bush and his Democratic challenger John Kerry (news - web sites) more than 30 years ago have become a volatile issue in the campaign, in which both candidates have sought to portray themselves as more qualified to lead the country in the war on terror.
The "60 Minutes" report included an interview with former Texas House speaker Ben Barnes, who said he had pulled strings at the request of a Bush family friend to secure Bush a coveted National Guard place, thus reducing the future president's chances of seeing active duty in Vietnam.
"I would describe it as preferential treatment," said Barnes, who voiced remorse for using his influence at the time.
Bush and his father, former president George H.W. Bush, have both denied asking for special treatment.
The programme also uncovered memos written by late lieutenant colonel Jerry Killian, who headed Bush's National Guard squadron, saying he had grounded Bush for failing to attend an annual physical and "failure to perform" to US Air Force and Air National Guard standards.
Killian, who died in 1984, also wrote of resisting political pressure to sugar-coat Bush's annual review.
Interviewed on the same programme, White House Communications Director Dan Bartlett dismissed Barnes's allegations as a partisan smear by a "Democrat activist," but did not specifically counter the documents obtained by CBS.
"The bottom line is that President Bush (news - web sites) would not have received the honourable discharge that he was granted ... if he had not met his requirements," Bartlett said.
The Boston Globe, meanwhile, said a re-examination of records released in February showed Bush had twice failed to fulfill written commitments he made when joining the National Guard in 1968, and again when transferring out of his unit in 1973 to attend Harvard Business School.
Bush's attendance at required training drills was so irregular, the Globe said, that his superiors could have disciplined him or ordered him to active duty in 1972, 1973, or 1974.
Instead, the newspaper said, they did neither.
"In fact, Bush's unit certified in late 1973 that his service had been 'satisfactory' -- just four months after Bush's commanding officer wrote that Bush had not been seen at his unit for the previous 12 months," it said.
The Globe report was pounced on by Democrats, who in recent weeks have been forced to counter TV ads attacking the credibility of Kerry's decorated Vietnam war service.
Bush "either deliberately lied to the American public or he has a very strong memory loss" about his service, Democratic National Committee (news - web sites) (DNC) Chairman Terry McAuliffe said in a conference call with the press.
"It's a different world today than it was yesterday because he (Bush) has now been caught," McAuliffe said.
"We are going to make an issue of the president's credibility as relates to his service," he added.
The Globe and CBS reports coincided with the announced launch of a television ad campaign by a group called "Texans for Truth," in which a former National Guard lieutenant colonel says neither he nor his friends saw Bush when he was supposed to be with their unit in Alabama in 1972.
news.yahoo.com |
