NY Times: Have They Seen Kerry’s Naval Files?

Tomorrow’s NY Times contains a story about Sen. John Kerry’s (D-Ma.) war record and again attempts to rebut the charges of the Swift Boat Vets. This time Mr. Kerry claims to have new evidence. The article is another in a long line from the Times and other newspapers that assumes we can’t remember anything after 12 to 24 months. Flying Debris commented on that tactic here while discussing another NY Times article. The author, Kate Zernike has some real laughers, including the idea that John Kerry has made his Naval personnel records public. Little has changed since the last time the nation had to endure John Kerry talking about his war record; the only change of substance is that he has released an unknown amount of his files to the Boston Globe. After that release almost a year ago it became apparent that the Globe had not seen the critical form 180 authorizing the release of Kerry’s records, the form is needed to ascertain how much of his record is actually known to the Globe, not to mention the public. This all would be less of a big deal if he didn’t regularly bring it up and if he hadn’t run a “reporting for duty” campaign.

They are still continuing with the hat story, that Kerry was given a jungle hat by a "special forces officer" he dropped upriver in Cambodia. During the summer of 2004 we found out some arcane information about the Vietnam War like the fact that any "special forces officers" were always dropped upstream in their own boats. We also found out that the first time that John Kerry spoke about that incident was after the release of Apocalypse Now, a movie containing that plot line. It is notable that Mr. Kerry has never been reticent about discussing his wartime travails, it’s not like he was one of those guys who never discuss their war-time experiences. Maybe the movie caused a flashback. That’s not to say that we didn’t have people in Cambodia at the time, we did. Unfortunately for Mr. Kerry his recollection of a Christmas in Cambodia was belied by Naval records and the testimony of his colleagues that showed him miles away.

Ms. Zernike also brings up an old lie about John O’Neil; that he was recruited by and was a shill for the Nixon administration. Due to the fact that President Nixon kept extensive audio tapes of Oval Office conversations we know exactly how Nixon found out about John O’Neil; O’Neil was out debating John Kerry in public and accusing Kerry of being dishonest in his public statements about the conditions in Vietnam. Nixon was so excited to hear about O’Neil that he invited O’Neil to the White House before a televised debate between Kerry and O’Neil. This is part of the public record and it is indisputable; the fact that Ms. Zernike wrote that lie about Mr. O’Neil simply shows her and the editorial staff of the NY Times to simply not be serious. Ms. Zernike also describes O’Neil’s Unfit for Command as a “manifesto”. Somebody should tell Ms. Zernike that it is not the conservatives who are big on “manifestos”.