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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (59087)	8/10/2004 5:03:13 AM
From: LindyBill	Respond to of 793838

THE "KERRY IN CAMBODIA" story goes mainstream in the pages of the NY Post. But elsewhere the Cambodia story is getting spiked. Sigh. We have a long haul. CAMBODIA 'MISSION' NEVER HAPPENED: SHIPMATES By IAN BISHOP and VINCENT MORRIS August 10, 2004 -- WASHINGTON — John Kerry's claim that he was ordered to conduct an illegal combat mission in Cambodia on Christmas Day in 1968 is made up, Navy vets charge in a new book. The veterans say Kerry "would have been seriously disciplined or court-martialed had he gone there." Three of the vets quoted in the book were part of the five-member crew that served on Kerry's own boat: Bill Zaldonis, Steven Hatch and Steve Gardner. They deny they or their boat were ever in Cambodia. The other two crewmen declined to be interviewed for the book, "Unfit for Command," which raises questions about Kerry's military service. The issue of Cambodia was first highlighted by Kerry, who made a dramatic speech in the Senate in 1986 recounting his experience aboard a gunboat on a combat mission five miles into Cambodia in 1968. Among other things, Kerry recalled that during the mission he was shot at by drunken South Vietnamese allies. Kerry said in the Senate speech that the memory "is seared — seared — in me." "The absurdity of almost being killed by our own allies in a country in which President Nixon claimed there were no American troops was very real," Kerry said in an interview with the Boston Herald, according to the book. Richard Nixon became president in January 1969 and didn't publicly announce any military action in Cambodia until 1970. The book notes that the Democratic presidential nominee "was more than 50 miles away from Cambodia" and that his statements are "complete lies." "All the living commanders in Kerry's chain of command . . . indicate that Kerry would have been seriously disciplined or court-martialed had he gone there," the book says. The anti-Kerry veterans say a large sign along the river at the border warned against entry and that a large landing craft was stationed there "to ensure that no one could cross the border." Besides questioning Kerry on whether he ever went into Cambodia, "Unfit for Command" authors John O'Neill and Jerome Corsi note that Kerry implied Nixon ordered his December 1968 mission. While Kerry never actually says he was ordered into Cambodia by Nixon, he always mentions the Cambodia incursion alongside Nixon's claim that no U.S. troops ever fought in that country. The authors dismiss that Nixon connection.