DNC Letter To Swift Vets Examined

Here, the Swift Boat vets reply to the charges made against them by the DNC. Apparently the letter has been largely unsuccessful - only one station has so far refused to air the ad on advice of counsel.

I decided to look at the actual text of the Swift Boat Vets ad and contrast that with the charges made in the DNC letter to see if the DNC's charges of lying were grounded in fact:

John Edwards: "If you have any question about what John Kerry is made of, just spend 3 minutes with the men who served with him."

Al French: "I served with John Kerry."

Bob Elder: "I served with John Kerry."

What the DNC threat letter says "the advertisement contains statements from men who purport to have served on Senator Kerry's SWIFT Boat in Vietnam"...In fact, not a single one of these men who pretend to have served with Senator Kerry was actually a crewmate of Senator Kerry's and the man pretending to be his doctor was not. The entire advertisement, therefore, is one inflammatory, outrageous lie. ... Not a single one of these men served on either of Senator Kerry's SWIFT boats (PCF44 or PCF94).

Fact check: The DNC's allegation is false - Not a single one of the 12 men in the ad states that he served aboard the same boat, nor that he was a crewmember of Kerry's. French, Hildreth, and Elder don't even say they served with Kerry in Vietnam. Applying standard used in their own letter (one falsehood invalidates the whole), the DNC's allegations are therefore "one inflammatory, outrageous lie".

George Elliott: "John Kerry has not been honest about what happened in Vietnam."

Al French: "He is lying about his record."

Fact check: The Swift Boat vets are not the only ones to catch the Kerry campaign re-writing the official record. Senator Kerry has been loose with the facts on several occasions. Here and most importantly, here where THE BOSTON GLOBE catches the Kerry online bio taking credit for combat incidents that occurred before Kerry took command.

Louis Letson: "I know John Kerry is lying about his first Purple Heart because I treated him for that injury."

What the DNC threat letter says: "the advertisement contains statements from men who purport to have served on Senator Kerry's SWIFT Boat in Vietnam and one man pretending to be the doctor who treated Senator Kerry for one of his injuries....Further, the "doctor" who appears in the ad (Louis Letson) was not a crewmate of Senator Kerry's and was not the doctor who actually signed Senator Kerry's sick call sheet. In fact, another physician signed Senator Kerry's sick call sheet. Letson is not listed on any document as having treated Kerry after the December 2, 1968 firefight."

Fact check: Letson merely states "...I treated him for that injury". In the ad, Letson does not claim to be a doctor, nor to have signed Kerry's sick call sheet, nor to have been Kerry's crewmate (why on earth would a doctor be his crewmate?). The only allegation the letter makes that bears checking out is this one: "Letson is not listed on any document as having treated Kerry after the December 2, 1968 firefight", which is carefully worded so as to leave out having treated him for the December 2, 1968 firefight. It is also curious that the letter references only the sick call sheet rather than other medical documents - without having seen Kerry's entire medical record, it is impossible to know whether Letson's name appears on any other documents pertaining to the incident.

The Swift Boat Vets respond:

In Unfit for Command, however O'Neill and Corsi quote Letson as saying: "I remember that Jess Carreon was present at the time and he, in fact, made the entry into Lt. Kerry's medical record."

A footnote to this quotation states: "Kerry's campaign has tried to deny Dr. Letson's treatment of Kerry by pointing to the different signature on Kerry's medical report. The report was signed by the corpsman assigned to Dr. Letson, Jess Carreon, now deceased, according to U.S. Navy records."

Van O'Dell: "John Kerry lied to get his bronze star ... I know, I was there, I saw what happened."

Jack Chenoweth: "His account of what happened and what actually happened are the difference between night and day."

Admiral Hoffman: "John Kerry has not been honest."

Adrian Lonsdale: "And he lacks the capacity to lead."

Larry Thurlow: "When the chips were down, you could not count on John Kerry."

Bob Elder: "John Kerry is no war hero."

Grant Hibbard: "He betrayed all his shipmates ... he lied before the Senate."

Fact check: Kerry did lie before the Senate: he claimed the Winter Soldier vets were highly decorated vets who had witnessed atrocities in Vietnam. Several of his other statements were suspect. From www.wintersoldier.com:

Kerry charged that the war in Vietnam was a racist war, that "blacks provided the highest percentage of casualties." Research published in B.G. Burkett's book "Stolen Valor" and other sources shows that casualty rates for black and white soldiers during Vietnam closely matched the proportion of America's overall population represented by each race.

Kerry's used "testimony" from the VVAW's "Winter Soldier Investigation" as the basis for his war crimes charges, although none of the witnesses there were willing to sign depositions affirming their claims. Later investigators were unable to confirm any of the reported atrocities, and in fact discovered that a number of the witnesses had never been in Vietnam, had never been in combat, or were imposters who had assumed the identity of real veterans. The deception extended to the VVAW leadership. Executive secretary Al Hubbard claimed to have been an Air Force captain wounded piloting a transport over Da Nang in 1966. Hubbard was actually a staff sergeant who was never assigned to Vietnam.

If Senator Kerry was wrong then, he has had 30 years to correct the record. That he has not done so shows an appalling disregard for truth and for the reputations of his fellow vets and the United States military.

Shelton White: "John Kerry betrayed the men and women he served with in Vietnam."

AN OPINION: many vets did feel betrayed when Kerry stated of Winter Soldier "vets": "They told stories that at times they had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Ghengis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam in addition to the normal ravage of war and the normal and very particular ravaging which is done by the applied bombing power of this country.

[these were]...not isolated incidents, but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis..."

Joe Ponder: "He dishonored his country ... he most certainly did."

Bob Hildreth: "I served with John Kerry ...

Bob Hildreth (off-camera): John Kerry cannot be trusted."

Announcer: "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth is responsible for the content of this advertisement."

I have to say that I do see several lies. Unfortunately, there are all in the threatening letter sent by lawyers from the DNC on behalf of John Kerry.

- Cassandra