 A Vietnam image from an ad for Senator John Kerry is trying to counter a spot with Larry Thurlow that says Kerry lied about his war record. |
Kerry in Vietnam: Attack and counterattack
Key points raised by a group calling itself Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which has paid for a television ad attacking John Kerry’s service record in Vietnam. The group includes a former Kerry crewmate, several fellow officers, and some of Kerry’s commanding officers. Most of those who served on the same boat with Kerry, however, support Kerry and his actions in Vietnam.| Swift Boat Veterans for Truth | Kerry and his crewmates | |||
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| First Purple Heart | Kerry’s former commanding officer, Grant Hibbard, has questioned whether Kerry’s slight wound of Dec. 2, 1968, came as a result of enemy fire, and the anti-Kerry group has suggested it was self-inflicted. | Kerry has said he was hit, but he didn’t know where the shrapnel came from. The Kerry campaign has said the Navy awarded the Purple Heart and noted that regulations say nothing about the severity of the wound. | ||
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| Silver Star | The anti-Kerry book, ‘‘Unfit for Command,’’ quotes one of Kerry’s former superior officers, George Elliott, as saying he wouldn’t have recommended Kerry for the Silver Star ‘‘had he been aware of the actual facts,’’ which the book describes as ‘‘facing a single, wounded young Viet Cong fleeing in a loin cloth.’’ | Kerry and former crewmates have said the enemy had a loaded rocket launcher and that the action by Kerry saved their lives. Elliott told the Globe that he made a mistake in signing an affidavit about his view for ‘‘Unfit for Command,’’ but then signed another affidavit standing by his comment in the book, although he noted that ‘‘I do not claim to have personal knowledge as to how Kerry shot the wounded, fleeing Viet Cong.’’ | ||
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| Bronze Star/ Third Purple Heart | Swift Boat Veterans for Truth says that there was no hostile fire when Kerry rescued James Rassmann from the water after being knocked from Kerry’s boat by a nearby mine blast. They also say that Kerry’s arm was not bleeding, as was reported in the Bronze Star recommendation, and that his own grenade caused a buttock wound that he suffered. | Rassmann says he was under fire when Kerry came to his rescue. The Washington Post reported that Larry Thurlow, an anti-Kerry former skipper who says there was no enemy fire during the rescue, was awarded a Bronze Star as a result of a report that says there was enemy fire. Thurlow said Thursday that the Bronze Star report is mistaken. | ||
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| Cambodia | ‘‘Unfit for Command’’ says Kerry lied when he said his boat was in Cambodian territory on Christmas Eve 1968 or at any other time during his combat tour. | Kerry has said for more than 20 years that he was in Cambodia on Christmas Eve. The Kerry campaign said last week that Kerry was at least on the border that day and crossed into Cambodian territory on an undated occasion while dropping off special forces. | ||
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| Antiwar Statements | The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ad says Kerry ‘‘lied before the Senate’’ about what happened in Vietnam. | In testimony before the Senate in 1971, Kerry said US forces had ‘‘randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in a fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan,’’ and were involved in ‘‘the torture of prisoners, the killing of prisoners.’’ Kerry said on ‘‘Meet the Press’’ in 1971 that the commanders who designed some US policies in Vietnam were ‘‘war criminals.’’ Kerry said earlier this year that some of his statements in 1971 were a ‘‘little over the top’’ but said some military policies in Vietnam ‘‘were not acceptable according to the laws of warfare, and everybody knows that.’’ | ||
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PART 2: Heroism, and growing concern about war
(By Michael Kranish, Globe Staff, 6/16/03) To his crew, Kerry was one of the most daring skippers in the US Navy. But the battles and moral dilemmas were in shades of gray, and Kerry to this day wrestles with the scenes of death he commanded.
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Major events in John Kerry's military service with the Navy during the Vietnam War:
February 1966: Kerry voluntarily enlists in Navy.
June 1966: Kerry graduates from Yale.
August 1966: Kerry begins officer training.
June 1967: Kerry assigned to frigate USS Gridley.
February 1968: Kerry makes first trip to Southeast Asia aboard Gridley, supporting aircraft carriers in the Gulf of Tonkin off North Vietnam.
June 1968: Kerry returns to California for training on 50-foot swift boats used for Vietnam coastal patrol, later for inland waterways. He returns to Vietnam in November after being promoted to lieutenant.
December 1968: Kerry takes command of swift boat unit PCF-44, and experiences first intense combat. On the night of Dec. 2, Kerry and two others set out on boat looking for Viet Cong and engage in a firefight. Kerry is slightly wounded on left arm, qualifies for first Purple Heart.
Dec. 24, 1968: Kerry is involved in combat in waters off Cambodia during Christmas Eve truce of 1968. Kerry ordered crew to open fire, silencing machine gun barrage aimed at them.
Feb. 20, 1969: Kerry, now commander of swift boat unit PCF-94, and crew come under automatic weapon and rocket fire while on patrol in South Vietnam. Kerry hit by shrapnel in his left thigh, earning his second Purple Heart.
Feb. 28, 1969: Kerry and crew again draw intense enemy fire. Kerry decides to chase down Vietnamese firing at crew, lands swift boat in the thick of an enemy position, and pursues Viet Cong, killing a sniper. Kerry awarded Silver Star for gallantry.
March 13, 1969: Two mines detonate as five swift boats patrol narrow canal. One knocks Lt. James Rassmann into the water; the other wounds Kerry in the right arm. Despite injury and sniper fire, Kerry turns boat toward Rassmann, pulls him from water, saving his life. Kerry earns third Purple Heart and a Bronze Star for his "great personal courage under fire."
April 1969: After leaving Vietnam under a policy that grants relief to any individual who is wounded three times in action, Kerry returns to U.S. to serve as admiral's aide in New York.
January 1970: Kerry requests discharge. He is honorably discharged, and later joins Vietnam Veterans Against the War.
April 1971: Kerry organizes anti-war protests in Washington, tossing his war ribbons away at one of them. He testifies against the conflict on Apr. 22 before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, alleging widespread atrocities by U.S. troops.
July 2004: Democrats make Kerry's military service during Vietnam the centerpiece of their four-day convention to nominate the Massachusetts senator as the party's candidate for president, portraying him as a leader on national security issues in a post-Sept 11 world. Kerry accepts the nomination surrounded by fellow veterans who hail him as a man of courage and strength.
Sources: Military records provided by the Kerry campaign, Associated Press stories.
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Echoes of Vietnam
Thirty-five years after the end of war in Vietnam, the choices
candidates made as young men eligible to serve in that era serve
as part of a larger debate over patriotism, leadership and character.
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George W. Bush
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John Kerry
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1966
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Attends Yale University
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Graduates Yale; joins Navy and
begins officer training
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1967
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Yale
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Assigned to frigate USS Gridley
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1968
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Graduates Yale; joins Texas Air
National Guard; takes eight-week
leave to work on Senate campaign
in Florida
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First trip to Southeast Asia to
support aircraft carriers in Gulf of
Tonkin; swift boat training in
California; returns to Vietnam for
coastal and inland waterway
patrol; shoulder wound during
firefight
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1969
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Graduates flight school at Moody
Air Force Base in Georgia
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Wounded in thigh; wins Silver
Star for chasing and killing a
sniper after landing boat in enemy
position; gets third Purple Heart
when mine explodes near boat;
returns to New York to serve as
admiral’s aide
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1970
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Graduates Combat Crew Training
School at Ellington Air Force Base
in Texas
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Honorable discharge six months
before commitment ends to run
for House seat in Massachusetts,
but gives up bid for Democratic
nomination; joins Vietnam
Veterans Against the War.
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1971
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Drills and alerts at Ellington
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Organizes anti-war protests in
Washington, D.C.; tosses his war
ribbons in protest; testifies to
Congress against conflict; gets
arrested at protest
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1972
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Takes last flight as guard pilot;
transfers to Alabama unit while
working on campaign; no record
of him reporting, but says he
participated; loses flight
credentials; returns to Texas
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Leaves anti-war group; wins
nomination for Massachusetts
Fifth District in House but loses
election; worked as fund-raiser
for CARE, Inc.
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1973
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Participates in non-flying drills at
Ellington; works at inner-city
poverty program; placed on
inactive guard duty six months
before commitment ends; starts
Harvard Business School
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Starts Boston College Law
School
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1974
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Harvard Business School
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Boston College Law School
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