John Kerry's Christmas in Cambodia

[Arrow]

Thanks and credit to:

http://www.swiftvets.com/staticpages...page=Christmas

[SuperScout]

Opened the link, and VIOLA, Truth abounds!! Let the Spin Meisters start their evil craft, trying to extricate the lying John Kerry from this bag of his own making. He has assumed the worst characteristic of the elitist snots, by assuming no one will question his lies, or do any research about his lies, or ask for a truthful answer. Do I perceive the wheels starting to come off the Kerry campaign?

PS: thanks for posting this - it indisputably demonstrates Kerry's total unfitness to command anything.

[Seascamp]

Thanks Sis, good information. To back up what the Swift Sailors say????

In January 1961 newly inaugurated President John F. Kennedy met with the National Security Counsel and it was determined that covert operations against North Vietnam were necessary and the CIA was tasked to begin operations. By 1962 it was apparent that these CIA operations were a failure and JFK then gave the task to MACV. Through 1964 MACV put together the Studies and Observation Group (OPLAN 34A) and they operated inside North Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos until 1972. During the same time the CIA was restricted to operations inside South Vietnam?s borders, only. By 1967 SOG had operations going the full length of the HCM trail and of necessity this included the Cambodian areas of the Mekong River. For water born operations SOG had their own boats and crews and these boats had the name of ?black boats? or ?Nasty boats?. Black boats because they were flat black, unmarked, very fast and very silent. They had a very low silhouette, shallow draft and were very heavily armed. Probably the name ?Nasty? came from the disposition of the crew or the armament or both, I don?t know.

Long and short of all that is that if Kerry was border jumping with the CIA in 1968, both the USN and the CIA were in direct violation of a Presidential order and working SOG turf. Two very bad ideas connected back to back in a very dangerous area I?d say. All this information was declassified around 1995 so Kerry wouldn?t have necessarily known his tall tale/sea story was going to take a full torpedo spread at the waterline when he was relating ?searing? memories of Mekong River daring do.

Reference:
?The Secret War Against Hanoi?, by Richard H. Shultz, Jr. Harper Collins, 1999.

Note: Sen. John McCain highly praised and endorsed this book.
Interesting turn of events, eh.

Scamp

[Arrow]

Thanks Scamp,

And, yes,it is a very intersting turn of events. You are much appreciated by those of us in the "time out corner".

[Tina]

Not really sure what i want to say.. But I do know that if kerry gets elcted president I am moving to an other country =/ Cause the USA will be in trouble if he does..
Hope nobody gets to made at for say that..
Love ya
Your friend and God Bless,
Tina

[SuperScout]

Roger your last trans re cross-border fun-and-games. And as I recall, one would be better off trying to give a bobcat a massage with a handful of cockleburs, rather than cross stream wakes with the SOG folks, as well it should have been. Here we have yet another preposterous lie being pushed by Kerry and his sorry bunch of prevarication peddlers, making the Spin Meisters having to work triple-time. Boy, talk about folks earning their pay, the Spin Meisters oughta ask for a pay raise!!

[SuperScout]

John Kerry's presidential campaign claimed on Tuesday that his Christmas 1968 mission into Cambodia was top, top secret - and that's why there are no documents that verify the implausible claim. Now isn't this just the same modus operandi of another wannabees? How many times have we heard this trite lie, about no paperwork to support the claim, always a secret mission, no or few survivors of the daring mission, and actions warranting Medals of Honor by the backetload?

"During John Kerry's service in Vietnam, many times he was on or near the Cambodian border and on one occasion crossed into Cambodia at the request of members of a special operations group operating out of Ha Tien," Kerry spokesman Michael Meehan said in a statement. (Gentle readers should be quick to re-read Scamp's posting above. The Swift boat was the antithesis of covert operations, never operating solo, as Kerry would have us believe.)

But Meehan told the Boston Globe that there was no paperwork to confirm the claim and he could not supply a date for the incursion. (Refer to the first paragraph!) What's more, two of Kerry's crewmates who enthusiastically back his candidacy and who served with him on missions near the Cambodian border insist the crossing never happened. (What?? No confirmation of crossings??, Gasp!! How can this be??)

Michael Medeiros, who served on Swift Boat No. 94 with Kerry and appeared with him at the Democratic National Convention, told the Globe that Kerry and his crew chased an enemy to the Cambodian border - but stopped there. He could not recall dropping off special forces in Cambodia or going inside Cambodia with Kerry.

James Wasser, who accompanied Kerry on the Christmas mission aboard Swift Boat No. 44, said that while he believes they were "very, very close" to Cambodia, they did not enter the country. "It is very hard to tell. There are no signs," he told the Globe.

A third crewmate, who opposes Kerry, flatly accuses him of lying about Cambodia.

"Never happened," Steve Gardner told the Globe, insisting they never came within 50 miles of the Cambodian border.

Ohmygosh, all this from a group, NOT affiliated with "Swift Boat Veterans for the Truth"?? Wonder how Gimpy will attempt to smear them for telling the truth?

[Seascamp]

The author of the book I referenced clearly states that many of the former SOG members refused to even acknowledge the existence of SOG unless they received specific written permission to do so. It was that top secret. After permission was received, they opened up and let it all out, in spades. The archive documents that were declassified supported what these people had to say. So it would seem that the latest Kerry cover story asserts that his supposed mission was more top secret than SOG operations and totally off paper and there are no records. Hmmm. Sounds like Francis Ford Copula at work scripting river sagas again.

By the way, anyone can have a look at a map and see where the Mekong River enters Cambodia. There is a Vietnamese town, the river narrows there and has the only major horseshoe bend in the upper Mekong. That would be hard to miss for anyone assuming that there was no USN presence at that point blocking entrance.
This also presumes that Kerry?s Swift had no river charts, no nav aids like radar and loran and no one aboard that was qualified as a Quartermaster (Navigator).
:cd:
Scamp

[SuperScout]

THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS (CAMBODIAN VERSION)

Twas the night before Christmas and we were afloat
Somewhere in Cambodia in our little boat.
While the river was lightened by rockets red glare
No one but the President knew we were there.
The crew was all nestled deep down in their bunks,
While the Spook and I watched the sampans and junks.

Our mission was secret, so secret in fact,
No one else would remember it when we got back.
When out on the water there arose such a clatter
I leaped down from the bridge to see what was the matter.
The incoming friendly was starting to flash
And I knew that the ARVN's were having a bash.
The snap of friendly fire on the warm tropic air
Convinced me for sure no one knew we were there,
On a clandestine mission so secret it's true
That I'm still convinced only Tricky Dick knew.
While I huddled for safety in the tub on the bow,
I thought of a title, "Apocalypse Now."
To give to the films I was I making each day
To show all the voters when I made my big play.
As I sat there sweating in my lucky flight jacket,
Spook said, "Merry Christmas!" and tossed me a packet.
And what to my wondering eyes did appear,
But a new lucky cap, which I still have right here.
I keep it tucked here, in this leather brief case,
Just sharing with the press its secretive place
As I regale them again with my senate refrain,
That Christmas in Cambodia is seared into my brain.
Don't bother to quibble with history my friend,
By pointing out Johnson was President then.
Don't listen to Swiftees who try to explain,
For I tell you that night is seared into my brain.
Down Hibbard, down Lonsdale, and you too O'Neill,
So you don't remember? Well it's something I feel.
I don't need all you Swiftvets to support my campaign,
Cause Christmas in Cambodia is seared into my brain,
Into my brain, into my brain, into my brain...

(Compliments of Russ Vaughn, 2d Bn, 327th Parachute Infantry
Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, Vietnam 65-66 0