Lord Kerry's Cambodian adventure

There is a burning question in the blogosphere, that's now even overflowed into the minor media. Did Lord Kerry spend Christmas Eve 1968 in Cambodia where he was shot at by Khmer Rouge, Viet Cong, or drunks depending on the version of the story. Follow up question: Who cares?

Instapundit has the smoking gun. Lord Kerry on at least two very public occasions said he was there. At the same time there are others who wondered if it really happened, and wondered long enough and loud enough for Lord Kerry's campaign to set the story straight.

But today, on Fox News' "Fox and Friends," Kerry Campaign Advisor Jeh Johnson had this to say to the show's co-host Brian Kilmeade:

JOHNSON: John Kerry has said on the record that he had a mistaken recollection earlier. He talked about a combat situation on Christmas Eve 1968 which at one point he said occurred in Cambodia. He has since corrected the recorded to say it was some place on a river near Cambodia and he is certain that at some point subsequent to that he was in Cambodia. My understanding is that he is not certain about that date.

KILMEADE: I think the term was he had a searing memory of spending Christmas - back in 1986 in the senate floor in Cambodia.

JOHNSON: I believe he has corrected the record to say it was some place near Cambodia he is not certain whether it was in Cambodia but he is certain there was some point subsequent to that that he was in Cambodia.

So let's go back to the question. Who cares?

Isn't this just another gaff like Gore's inventing the internet? It would be except that a crucial point to his story was that somebody was lying. He implied that he was right there in Cambodia at the time, as an eye witness, when Nixon said there weren't any American soldiers in Cambodia. His was a first hand account of the deceit of the Nixon administration. Who wouldn't believe him? Everybody knew about Watergate when he said it.

In fact, I remember spending Christmas Day of 1968 five miles across the Cambodian border being shot at by our South Vietnamese Allies who were drunk and celebrating Christmas. 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.

Now, Lord Kerry is focusing his presidential campaign almost entirely on his experience in Vietnam. It's understandable. It was his biggest success. He burst onto the political scene calling other people liars and criminals for what happened in Vietnam. It worked very well.

(Audiotape, April 18, 1971):

MR. CROSBY NOYES (Washington Evening Star): Mr. Kerry, you said at one time or another that you think our policies in Vietnam are tantamount to genocide and that the responsibility lies at all chains of command over there. Do you consider that you personally as a Naval officer committed atrocities in Vietnam or crimes punishable by law in this country?

SEN. KERRY: There are all kinds of atrocities, and I would have to say that, yes, yes, I committed the same kind of atrocities as thousands of other soldiers have committed in that I took part in shootings in free fire zones. I conducted harassment and interdiction fire. I used 50 calibre machine guns, which we were granted and ordered to use, which were our only weapon against people. I took part in search and destroy missions, in the burning of villages. All of this is contrary to the laws of warfare, all of this is contrary to the Geneva Conventions and all of this is ordered as a matter of written established policy by the government of the United States from the top down. And I believe that the men who designed these, the men who designed the free fire zone, the men who ordered us, the men who signed off the air raid strike areas, I think these men, by the letter of the law, the same letter of the law that tried Lieutenant Calley, are war criminals.

(End audiotape)

MR. RUSSERT: Thirty years later, you stand by that?

SEN. KERRY: I don't stand by the genocide. I think those were the words of an angry young man. We did not try to do that. But I do stand by the description--I don't even believe there is a purpose served in the word "war criminal." I really don't. But I stand by the rest of what happened over there, Tim.

[...]

MR. RUSSERT: The folks who oversaw the war, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger, you do not now 30 years later consider them war criminals?

SEN. KERRY: No, I think we did things that were tantamount that certainly violated the laws of war, but I think it was the natural consequence of the Cold War itself. People made decisions based on their perceptions of the world at that time. They were in error. They were judgments of error...

And that honesty, that lack of a sense of honesty is part of what is driving people's anger toward the United States today. That's why we have the vote in the U.N. That's why people--our allies, too--are disturbed by this defense posture. You can't abrogate the ABM treaty and move forward on your own to build this defense...

But statements that propelled Lord Kerry to prominence in 1971, he repudiates 30 years later. Those he denigrated then are voters today, and there's a new evil to fight. He complains now about a "lack of a sense of honesty". It's a problem for America today. Now to what possible lack of honesty could Lord Kerry refer.

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We're going to keep pounding, let me tell you. We're just beginning to fight here. These guys are -- these guys are the most crooked, you know, lying group of people I've ever seen. It's scary.

He says it's scary. He says,

I will be a commander in chief who will never mislead us into war.

Here we are again with Lord Kerry accusing an administration of corruption and deceit. This is not new. Before, he was an unknown. But now? There is almost nothing about Lord Kerry's career that doesn't invite skepticism. But here's the real scary part. We have the Democrats as a party, and the bulk of the major media, working night and day to elect him, when the only thing he has ever consistently offered was a willingness to call other people liars.

If I were to give one suggestion to the Bush/Cheney campaign it would be to play this sound bite every day in every city in America.

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We're going to keep pounding, let me tell you. We're just beginning to fight here. These guys are -- these guys are the most crooked, you know, lying group of people I've ever seen. It's scary.

Comments

[Tom]

I agree to the extent that I'm sick to motral wounding (and nearing sick-to-death) of hearing about Kerry.

However, to defeat him (and his sycophants in the Media), we need to keep pounding away if for no other reason than to provide additional material for Bush to use in the debates.

[Tom Bowler]

What worries me is how the media are pulling out all the stops to get him elected, to the extent of actually being dishonest about it. It's like 1992 all over again except that there is even less media objectivity now than then. I will consider it a huge victory for the common man if we can break the grip of big media and prevent them from foisting this empty suit Lord Kerry on us.