T. Boone, show us the money
T. BOONE Pickens, some angry Vietnam veterans would like a little of your time.
These are guys who served directly with John Kerry in Vietnam, and they have a T. bone to pick with you.
They're upset that you helped smear Kerry - and pollute the political discourse - in 2004 by donating $2 million to the inaptly named Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.
You need to sit down with them. And when you're done, it'll be time to reach for your checkbook once again - this time to give a cool million to the charity of their choice.
If you're a man of your word, that is.
Frankly, I have my doubts.
Last November, you certainly sounded like a standup guy. Speaking at a dinner for the conservative American Spectator magazine, you said that you'd give $1 million to anyone who could prove that anything the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (or SBVT, in political shorthand) had said about Kerry was false.
Given that media outlets from the
When it came to Kerry's attention, he wrote you to say he would be glad to point out their falsehoods. As for the $1 million, Kerry said he intended to donate it to Paralyzed Veterans of America.
That's when you began looking less like a straight-shooting Texan and more like the crafty little creature known in scientific circles as Mustela frenata. In plain Texas talk, that would be a long-tailed weasel. You began adding qualifications, saying Kerry first needed to provide you with copies of his complete military record, his wartime journal, and all the movie footage and tapes made during his service. And you tried to limit your challenge just to falsehoods in SBVT's ads.
No doubt you thought that you'd covered your tailbone, T. Boone.
But your challenge was your challenge - and now five former members of Kerry's second swift boat crew have sent you a letter taking you up on it. A letter that makes this offer: "We . . . will bring with us a Navy/Pentagon certified copy of Senator Kerry's full military record and his writings and the movie footage you have requested. We will sit with you while you go through them page for page, frame by frame and answer any questions you may have."
Kerry crew members also note, tellingly, that SBVT never interviewed any of them before launching its political attack.
"We know the truth because we were there on the boat," they write. "We believe you will find this truth unavoidable . . ."
So this is your chance to talk to guys who can tell you the real story, T. Boone; between them, they can give you multiple close-up eyewitness accounts of the missions that won Kerry his Silver Star, his Bronze Star, and two of his Purple Hearts. I've read their long and detailed letter critiquing some of SBVT's claims. It's persuasive stuff - and it comes with plenty of backup, including the signatures of five other vets who witnessed one or more of the events in question.
Yes, this is being done with the help of Kerry's office, but crew members insist the initiative was theirs.
You see, T. Boone, they are steamed. As far as they're concerned, in disparaging Kerry's medals and conduct, SBVT cast doubt on their honors and service too. Crew member Fred Short tells me that after SBVT started running its ads, a work colleague asked him if he was worried he would go to jail, apparently thinking he might have helped Kerry concoct a false account of wartime events.
"My grandchildren will grow up and say, 'Was grandpa a liar? What really happened?' " adds Del Sandusky.
So now Kerry's crewmates have called your bluff, T. Boone. If you're a man of your word, you should meet with them - and then put your million where your mouth was.
Scot Lehigh can be reached at lehigh@globe.com.
