I can't believe this story is still alive

[MaxPower]

Nightline went to Vietnam and interviewed villagers who were there for the incident where Kerry won his Silver Star.

Their account does not match up with the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth version.

Damn liberal media.

http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/Vote2004/story?id=166434&page=1

[adios]

Was the man killed by Kerry or by fire from the Swift boat? It was the heat of battle, Tam said, and he doesn't know exactly how the man with the rocket launcher died. But he knows the man's name — Ba Thanh. He was one of the 12 reinforcements sent to the village by provincial headquarters, and after he died, the firefight continued, according to Tam.

"When the firing started, Ba Thanh was killed," Tam said. "And I led Ba Thanh's comrades, the whole unit, to fight back. And we ran around the back and fought the Americans from behind. We worked with the city soldiers to fire on the American boats."

None of the villagers seems to be able to say for a fact that they saw an American chase the man who fired the B-40 into the woods and shoot him. Nobody seems to remember that. But they have no problem remembering Ba Thanh, the man who has been dismissed by Kerry's detractors as "a lone, wounded, fleeing, young Vietcong in a loincloth." (The description comes from "Unfit for Command," by Swift boat veteran John O'Neill.)

I read this story yesterday, it's not at all clear to me that the people in the village remember everything all that well after 35 years or so.

[Victor]

[ QUOTE ]
I read this story yesterday, it's not at all clear to me that the people in the village remember everything all that well after 35 years or so.

[/ QUOTE ]

And you would not say the same for the swift boat vets?

[Victor]

NPR did a similar report a few weeks ago. They interviewed a woman who lived along the river another villager who fought the Americans. They couldnt remember any specific firefights with Americans. Both, basically said, "we dont give a [censored] who John Kerry is or what is going on in the American election." When pressed they both said they would rather not see John Kerry elected (since he shot at them and killed their family members). Seems a reasonable position to me.

Oh yea...so much for NPR being super liberally biased.

[MaxPower]

Yes, it is difficult to remember things that happened 35 years ago, but that is equally true for the Swift Boat Veterans.

At least these people were there. Were any of the SBVFT even there that day? I would suggest the Swift Boat Veterans "memory" is even more suspect.

John O'Neil say there was little or no fire:

His wife, Vo Thi Vi, 54, said Feb. 28, 1969, is a day that the villagers of Nha Vi hamlet will never forget. "Everything was destroyed," she said. "There's no houses left. They leveled everything. There was no leaves left. The fighting was very fierce."

...

"Firing from over here. Firing from over there. Firing from the boat," Vo Thi Vi told "Nightline."

She was only a couple hundred yards away when a Swift boat turned and approached the shore, she said, adding that the boat was unleashing a barrage of gunfire as it approached.


John O'Neil says that Kerry killed a kid in a loincloth:

None of the villagers seems to be able to say for a fact that they saw an American chase the man who fired the B-40 into the woods and shoot him. Nobody seems to remember that. But they have no problem remembering Ba Thanh, the man who has been dismissed by Kerry's detractors as "a lone, wounded, fleeing, young Vietcong in a loincloth." (The description comes from "Unfit for Command," by Swift boat veteran John O'Neill.)

No, this is not correct," Nguyen Thi Tuoi, 77, told ABC News. "He wore a black pajama. He was strong. He was big and strong. He was about 26 or 27."

Tuoi said she didn't see Ba Thanh get shot either, but she and her husband say they were the first to find his body. They say they found him a good distance from his bunker, though she could not confirm that Kerry — or anyone else — had pursued him into the bush.

Her husband, Nguyen Van Ty, in his 80s, had a slightly different account of how Ba Thanh died.

"I didn't see anything because I was hiding from the bullets and the bombs," he said. "It was very fierce and there was shooting everywhere and the leaves were being shredded to pieces. I was afraid to stay up there. I had to hide. And then, when it was over, I saw Ba Thanh was dead. He may have been shot in the chest when he stood up."



Looks like O'Neil's version is bogus.

[adios]

[ QUOTE ]
John O'Neil say there was little or no fire:


[/ QUOTE ]

Absolutely wrong. O'Neill wasn't present for either incident. The event you referring to where some of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth were saying there was no enemy fire was the incident where Kerry won his Bronze star for pulling Rasmussen out of the water.

[ QUOTE ]
Looks like O'Neil's version is bogus.

[/ QUOTE ]

Have you read the book so you can actually speak to what O'Neill's version is? Careful I have the book.

[adios]

Have you read the book? But yes the eyewitness accounts are fuzzy after 35 years. It's been shown that Kerry was lying about being in Cambodia, that at least his first Purple heart was questionable (admitted by the Kerry campaign), and that Kerry lied about his first experience in combat (his own accounts are contradictory). The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth has many medal winners among it's ranks.

[adios]

I would only ask the American people: "Who do you trust more, three members of a communist regime that tortured and killed our American troops or a group of more than 280 highly decorated American veterans, who proudly served their country and are now responsible members of their respective communities?"

And Kerry has never signed the form that will release all of his military records.

Statement by John O'Neill on "Nightline" Appearance (http://swift4.he.net/~swift4/article.php?story=20041015080256834)

Statement by John O'Neill on "Nightline" Appearance
Author:
Dated: Friday, October 15 2004 @ 08:00 AM PDT
Viewed: 7814 times
While I have a tremendous amount of respect for Ted Koppel and ABC News I was appalled to learn that ABC News would go to the lengths of traveling to Vietnam to interview three Viet Cong communists in yet a third attempt by ABC to corroborate John Kerry’s version of the events that took place on February 28th, 1969.
I would only ask the American people: "Who do you trust more, three members of a communist regime that tortured and killed our American troops or a group of more than 280 highly decorated American veterans, who proudly served their country and are now responsible members of their respective communities?"

The number of veterans who support John Kerry’s accounts of his military service would not fill one Swift Boat. But instead of sitting down to interview some of the 280 plus members of our Swift Boat organization, ABC News chose to travel to Vietnam taking extraordinary and highly suspect steps to find someone to corroborate John Kerry's story.

ABC News Nightline has now dedicated three separate programs to this one incident while ignoring John Kerry's now discredited Senate testimony that he spent Christmas in Cambodia, his receiving a purple heart after all three of the officers required to approve such an issuance rejected his application, or his constantly changing account of the circumstances surrounding his remaining medal, a bronze star.

Further, one has to wonder why ABC News will not address the serious questions as to why John Kerry only received an honorable discharge through the act of then President Carter, seven years after his discharge, and had to have all of his military citations reissued, on the same day, when he became a United States Senator in 1985. And, finally, why has Nightline found it of no interest to permit any POWs to come on their program to explain why they believe John Kerry betrayed their nation, caused them to be incarcerated for an additional two years and caused them tremendous additional hardship and suffering.

[lastchance]

The thing is, the American Soldiers have a big beef with Kerry, even bigger than VietCong, suprisingly. The VietCong don't care about the election. So, I don't know how much you can trust the veteran's accounts. We know that they didn't like what Kerry said out there, and that's ok.

And yes, Kerry's service is a bit suspect, but I don't trust people who have a major beef with the guy to tell the full truth, nor do I trust ABC News, though I do trust them not to tell lies.

[Nepa]

[ QUOTE ]


Nightline went to Vietnam and interviewed villagers who were there for the incident where Kerry won his Silver Star.

Their account does not match up with the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth version.

Damn liberal media.

http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/Vote2004/story?id=166434&page=1

[/ QUOTE ]

I watch it last night and Ted had a pretty good quote.

"Please put down the books and please answer my question." The Swift boat Vet looked like a total lying moron.

[wacki]

Adios, you seem very knowledgeable about this swift boat thing. The more you talk about it, the more I have to wonder if the Swift Boats are legit. I'm just curious, why do you think O'reilly is so hard on the Swift Boat guys and not giving them the time of day? He literally is calling them smear artists. IMO O'reilly didn't really give them a fair chance when they showed up for an interview.

[vulturesrow]

[ QUOTE ]
Looks like O'Neil's version is bogus.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well I guess Kerry's version is bogus too since it is exactly what he says in his own book. Also Doug Reese, a Kerry supporter, was in the same engagement (on another Swift Boat participating in the attack) and denies the events as the Vietnamese portrayed them.

[Felix_Nietsche]

the Vietnamese "story" does not match the story in John Kerry's on AUTHORIZED biography. Mmmmmmmmm........

And isn't interesting that the Vietnamese government insisted that govt officials be present when the villagers were testifying to John Kerry's "bravery"...... Mmmmmmmmm........

And is it not interesting that the Swift Boat version of the story most closey matches John Kerry's own story. Mmmmmmm.......

And isn't it interesting that Ted Koppel chose to believe the Vietnamese version rather than John Kerry's version which contradicted the Vietnamese version. Mmmmmmmm......

Now why would the communist Vietnamese want to release a postive John Kerry story right before a US election. Mmmmmmmm....

Nice to see the media is doing their job and being 'fair and balance'.....

[MaxPower]

Now that he is playing the Communist card, I am more sure than ever that he is lying.

[adios]

[ QUOTE ]
the Vietnamese "story" does not match the story in John Kerry's on AUTHORIZED biography.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is the point I was making in my first post of this thread. The ABC story can't possibly validate John Kerry's being deserving of the Silver Start because it is so different than Kerry's own account. I'll have more on the actual postion of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth on the Silver Star this weekend as stated in their book, Unfit for Command. The book does cite Kerry's AUTHORIZED biography.

[tolbiny]

"I would only ask the American people: "Who do you trust more, three members of a communist regime that tortured and killed our American troops"

If he is talking about the villagers who witnessed the fight, i would doubt that any of them were part of the "communist regime". What they said was that they were terrified and hiding, sounds more like peasents in a poor country with nothing to gain either from the war or from lying about it 35 years later.