Nightline: Vietnamese witnesses to the Swiftie affair -- possible block...

...buster.

The Swift Boat Controversy: New Witnesses

October 14, 2004

John Kerry's service in Vietnam has become a campaign issue. The group calling itself Swift Boat Veterans for Truth alleges that Kerry has distorted the truth about what happened during the war and questions whether he deserved the medals he received. Tonight, you'll hear from eyewitnesses who have not spoken before: the Vietnamese who fought against him.


We've had the debates and the race is a virtual dead-heat. This is the part of a campaign when there are daily fires--issues that rise, flare, and then go away, only to be replaced by a new one the next day. But for a while, this campaign was dominated by Vietnam, a war that ended, at least the fighting, thirty years ago. John Kerry made his service in Vietnam a major part of his campaign. The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth fired back. They have alleged that Kerry was not truthful about his actions in Vietnam. Then questions were raised about the group's connections to people linked to the GOP. And so the story just kept spiraling in different directions. But the polls clearly showed that Kerry was hurt by allegations that he was not candid about his actions in Vietnam.

Which brings us to an old expression: the fog of war. People, in general, are not always great eyewitnesses. Memories fade, especially as the years go by. Two people standing next to each other may have very different recollections of something that happened right in front of them. But in the whole Swift Boat controversy, there is one group that hasn't been heard from at length: the Vietnamese. Producer Andrew Morse went to Vietnam, to the coordinates taken from the U.S. military after-action report from Kerry's battle for which he won the Silver Star. And there Andrew found several people who had either witnessed the events of that day, or in some cases, had actually fought against the swift boats. And it is their accounts that you will hear tonight. Do their accounts favor one version or the other? Can these questions be definitively settled? You'll have to judge. One of the surprising stories we were told? One of the Vietnamese men in the area says he was visited by a man claiming to be a swift boat veteran and a cameraman. He says the veteran was disparaging towards Kerry's conduct in the war, and asked him in an interview about the events of that day. We do not know who that man is, or whatever happened to that tape.

Ted will be anchoring tonight, and he will be joined by John O'Neill, a leader of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and the author of Unfit for Command, a book critical of Kerry. I hope you'll join us.

Leroy Sievers and the Nightline Staff
Washington D.C.

sailors on Kerry's boat? I wonder what they were paid. This has become so unAmerican that I am seriously considering leaving this country if Kerry does not win. Let's pull an Ayn Rand and leave and let the neo-cons fend for themselves.

Leave, that is.

There are so many of us who can't.

I've come to the conclusion --quite some time ago-- that the denial is so strong in this society, that the only way it's going to cahnge is for those who keep their heads in the sand to have to live with the consequences of their actions.

Unfortunately, it will be the poor who are hurt first, not the ones with their blinders on.

So, if we could all just leave, and let them reap what they have sewn, there could be some *REAL* change from their new awareness.

But, since many will die because they have no choice but to stay here, it's not a practical solution.

Kanary

He certainly deserves it.

The swift boat liars have been discredited so now they are back with more people they rounded up. How much did they pay these poor people, I wonder?

who John Kerry was and what he did or did not do during the war!!! Give me a break!!!

The Swifties insist there was no firefight. Every other piece of eyewitness evidence and every official report says there was. Yet, the media treats the two accounts as equal.

That could change after tonight. If the Vietnamese fighters themselves say that they were firing at the swift boats, then John O'Neill has some 'splaining to do.

-MR

Do you consider the Japanese and the Germans our enemy also?

Nightline airs so late in Milwaukee that I am not sure it will have much play. I lived here for several years thinking Nightline had actually been dropped by the local affiliate.

And nonetheless I have to say...Muckrakers like the swifties rake the muck. In all the time they've been at this I've not seen them do much but cloud the water, except to encourage people to make stupid statements like "Kerry didn't even bleed," of course notwithstanding the xray evidence of shrapnel still inside of Kerry.

This could be interesting... the Swiftboat Liars are gearing up for another PR offensive. Some pre-emptive truth-squadding could take the wind right out of their sails.

-MR

would tell Sen. Kerry's side of the story? I don't. This is going to be a hit piece. These bastards have been discredited, but big media NEVER repeats how NOTHING these guys have said matches the military documents, even the ones they themselves signed.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I've got a feeling that the Vietnamese are going to verify Kerry's story, and O'Neill will be put on the defensive.

God, I hope I'm right.

-MR

and I wouldn't watch Nightline- or recommend that ANYONE watch nightline, no matter what they were "covering."

Our corporate media serving its true masters.

the Vietnamese people could only realistically remember a specific day if there was a fire-fight. People can remember dates when significant things occure, even 30 years later. It would be a stretch to have people pretend to recall a specific day where nothing happened, as John O'Neill claims, thirty years later.

My ABC Sinclair affiliate in Asheville N.C. will be carrying this show at 11:35 tonight I think. They have not promoted it or tried to censor it either indicating they were probably afraid to draw attention.

Let's hope we can count on Ted to do the right thing.........I'm worried about this!

nervous.

Seems to me ABC has been very friendly to Bushie lately. And their debate poll has it as a tie. And didn't they have Cheney beating Edwards?

with Miramax, even though the Weismans founded and basically are the most important people within that subsidary. Of course, Disney wants to keep the name.

How common/rare is that?

The overdosed kool-aid drinkers that pray to the Swift Boat Liars? Once again Rove doing the only thing he knows how to do, divert attention away from shrub during a major fall in polls!

Read the full ABC promo here:

http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/print?id=166434

Basically says the Swiftliars version of the event is a lie.

I see no downside for Kerry at all.

There was a post someone had discovered on the SwiftTurds message board saying some news would break by Wednesday. That was "purportedly" to be the October Surprise. I agree with speedo that this story looks like it helps Kerry.

Anyone recall where that earlier post pointed to? I'd like to see what has become of their surprise.


GregD

This is the first time I've watched Nightline in more than a month, and before that, I watched it nearly every night for at least ten years. If this is a hatchet job, this will be the last time I ever tune in.

Too bad that nobody left a copy of "My Pet Goat" for him to hold up.

Thanks, Ted.