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Kerry calls swift boat veterans bush stooges { August 20 2004 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/08/20/MNGP58BMDR1.DTLhttp://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/08/20/MNGP58BMDR1.DTL
Vet group doing Bush's dirty work, Kerry says
He urges president to condemn ads critical of his record
- Zachary Coile, Chronicle Washington Bureau
Friday, August 20, 2004
Washington -- Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry lashed out Thursday at a group that has accused him of lying about his injuries in Vietnam to receive medals, calling the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth a "a front for the Bush campaign" and attacking President Bush for using the group to "do his dirty work."
Kerry has been on the defensive for several weeks as the group aired television ads and released a book questioning his service during 1968 and 1969 in Vietnam, including whether he deserved the five medals he earned during a four-month stint as a skipper of a swift boat in the Mekong Delta.
Speaking before a group of union firefighters in Boston, Kerry responded personally for the first time Thursday by calling on the president to condemn the group's TV ads and doggedly defending his war record.
"Thirty years ago, official Navy reports documented my service in Vietnam and awarded me the Silver Star, the Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts. Thirty years ago, this was the plain truth. It still is," he said, adding: "I still carry the shrapnel in my leg from a wound in Vietnam."
Kerry's forceful defense runs the risk of focusing even more attention on the group and its charges, while it has the potential benefit, analysts said, of making the Republicans appear to be unfairly attacking his character.
The Kerry campaign also released a new television ad, airing in West Virginia, Ohio and Wisconsin, that points to official Navy records documenting his injuries and includes a testimonial by a lieutenant Kerry rescued in Vietnam, an action that won Kerry the Bronze Star.
The 30-second commercial says the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth is financed by Bush's "big money supporters." A major GOP donor, Texas homebuilder Robert Perry, provided the bulk of the group's initial money, although the group now claims a wider pool of donors.
The Bush campaign responded Thursday by denying any role in promoting the charges against Kerry, calling the Massachusetts senator's claim "absolutely and completely false."
"We've made it very clear that we ... will never raise questions about his service," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. "We haven't, and we won't."
In an interview with CNN's Larry King last week, Bush said, "Sen. Kerry is justifiably proud of his record in Vietnam. ... It's noble service." But the president also refused to condemn the group's attacks on Kerry's war record, as Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., has done and has urged the president to do.
Critics say Kerry has opened himself up to an in-depth review of his war record by making his service in Vietnam a central element of his campaign. But political analysts said the attacks on him could backfire on Republicans by reminding voters of Kerry's combat experience.
"Any discussion of service in Vietnam ends up helping Kerry, sooner or later," said Larry Sabato, a professor of government at the University of Virginia. "In the end, the more the Democrats can reinforce the message that Kerry has served in the military, the more it helps Kerry present himself as a potential commander in chief."
The attacks could also draw more attention to Bush's service in the Texas National Air Guard. The liberal group MoveOn.org is airing an ad that says Bush "used his father to get into the National Guard and when the chips were down, went missing." Kerry condemned the ad, but it remains on the air.
Kerry had avoided taking on Swift Boat Veterans for Truth personally, but some Democrats warned that the group's attacks were hurting him with voters and urged him to speak out.
"Over the last week or so, a group called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth has been attacking me," Kerry said. "Of course, this group isn't interested in the truth and they're not telling the truth. They didn't even exist until I won the nomination for president.
"But here's what you really need to know about them," he said. "They're funded by hundreds of thousands of dollars from a Republican contributor out of Texas. They're a front for the Bush campaign. And the fact that the president won't denounce what they're up to tells you everything you need to know -- he wants them to do his dirty work."
The leaders of the group insist they have no ties to the Bush campaign. The group is comprised of Navy officers and enlisted men, many of whom went on missions with Kerry in 1968 and 1969. Most were angered at Kerry's anti-war activism after returning from Vietnam -- especially his claims that U.S. troops had committed war crimes.
"If John Kerry were running as a Republican, I have no doubt that every one of us would be right here," John O'Neill, the group's leader, told The Chronicle in a telephone interview last week. "We're here for different reasons that don't have anything to do with politics."
But critics of the group have noted that O'Neill, a Houston attorney, has a history of backing Republican candidates and causes. In 1971, he was encouraged by Republican President Richard Nixon to take on Kerry in a televised debate about the Vietnam War on "The Dick Cavett Show."
A former law clerk for Chief Justice William Rehnquist, whom Nixon appointed to the court, O'Neill has contributed $14,650 since 1990 to federal candidates and national political organizations -- all Republican. O'Neill, however, said he has also given money to state Democratic candidates in Texas.
O'Neill is the chief author of the book "Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry," which says two of Kerry's Purple Hearts were the result of self-inflicted wounds and challenges Kerry's account of pulling Lt. Jim Rassmann out of a river under enemy fire.
But the book's charges have been disputed by many of the crewmates on Kerry's boat, who are now backing his campaign.
In the new TV ad, Rassmann repeats his description of being blown off his boat by a mine explosion and yanked from the water under heavy fire by Kerry.
"All these Vietcong were shooting at me," Rassmann said. "I expected I'd be shot. When he pulled me out of the river, he risked his life to save mine."
Several members of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth group have said there was no enemy fire when Kerry plucked Rassmann out of the water. Van Odell, a gunner's mate on another boat during the incident, said in an interview last week: "I give (Kerry) pat on the back for that, it's what he should have been doing, but it's not Bronze Star material."
Military records obtained by the Washington Post Wednesday appear to support Rassmann's description.
The documents were part of a citation for a Bronze Star received by Lt. Larry Thurlow, a swift boat skipper who was also involved in the March 13, 1969, incident. Thurlow, a leading member of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, had claimed in an affidavit that "I never heard a shot." But the documents recommending Thurlow for his medal said his actions came under "constant enemy small arms fire" and that other boats in the flotilla were also under fire.
Political analysts said the conflicting accounts have diluted the potential effects of the attack on Kerry's war hero credentials.
"My take is the people who are criticizing Kerry's war record don't seem to have the goods," said Jack Pitney, a government professor at Claremont McKenna College. "The people who served with him directly back up his side of the story, whereas the people who are questioning it appear to be people who don't know him nearly as well.
Sabato said the debate over Kerry's war record may interest his most vehement supporters and detractors, but most voters would pay little attention to it.
"There are important things to discuss and the candidates want to discuss them -- including what should be done in Iraq, in the war on terrorism, on the economy," Sabato said. "These things are little side trail issues. They need to get back on the interstate highway."
E-mail Zachary Coile at zcoile@sfchronicle.com.
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