August 27, 2004

QUESTIONS NOT ASKED BY THE NEW YORK TIMES

SHORT GUIDE TO THE KERRY-VIETNAM CONTENTIONS
By Bruce Kesler

I am partisan, opposed to Kerry in 1971 and 2004. Below, I will also try my hardest to be fair. Judge for yourself.

1. Did Kerry want to go to Vietnam?
He first sought deferment from military service.

2. Did Kerry exaggerate his service on the USS Gridley, offshore Vietnam, for Douglas Brinkley’s book Tour Of Duty?
His 2-levels up commander and a shipmate say he did.

3. Did Kerry want to be in combat?
The Swift Boats were an offshore patrol unit at the time Kerry volunteered for it.

4. Was Kerry’s first Purple Heart merited?
The senior officer there on the boat at the incident says there was no hostile fire.
The wound was probably “self-inflicted” from an American M-79 grenade.
The wound was a paper matchstick piece of likely M-79 grenade treated with a band-aid.
It does not appear to rise to the qualifications for a Purple Heart, and Kerry’s request for it was denied by his superior.
Mysteriously, 3-months later after those who knew the facts were gone from Vietnam, the Purple Heart was issued from Saigon.

5. What is the significance of this first Purple Heart incident?
It, along with two others, permitted Kerry to leave Vietnam 8-months early.

6. Was there political influence or other explanation for the issuance of the first Purple Heart?
Kerry refuses to release his full military records or his journal. No witnesses have emerged as to how the first Purple Heart came to be issued.

7. Has the merit of Kerry’s second Purple Heart been challenged?
No. It has not been seriously challenged.

8. Did Kerry’s account of his second Purple Heart vary from facts?
Yes. The Kerry campaign site’s display of partial documents contained that Kerry was the commander of the boat that day. When the actual skipper challenged that, the Kerry campaign removed a 20-page batch of documents from its website.

9. Did Kerry merit the Silver Star?
A Kerry supporter who commanded another boat involved in the incident writes that it was the members of other boats that first and primarily mopped up from the encounter with VC. Kerry went ashore and killed a fleeing, wounded, armed VC. Kerry’s actions do not rise to the standards of the Silver Star. The other sailors and officers on the three boats involved did not receive the Silver Star.

10. Did Kerry merit the Bronze Star?
Difficult to say. The standards of the Bronze Star are lower than for the Silver. The timeline of differing witnesses of whether there was enemy fire, and most particularly whether Kerry was under fire when he picked up Rassmann, have not been clearly delineated. Similarly, the facts of how Kerry came to go ½ to 1 mile downriver from the mine explosion under another boat, later returning to the other boats that did not leave the scene, are unclear.

11. Did Kerry merit the third Purple Heart for the Bronze Star incident?
It is proven that “shrapnel” to Kerry’s buttocks came from his earlier being hit when blowing up some VC rice. The “contusion” to Kerry’s arm during the Bronze Star episode may not rise to Purple Heart standards. There is confusion as to whether and when in the timeline Kerry fell and hit his arm against his own boat. The Purple Heart standard says, “A wound is defined as an injury to any part of the body from an outside force or agent…”

12. Did Kerry display physical courage in Vietnam?
Indisputably.

13. Does the Kerry website displayed documents show a “V” on the Silver Star, which is not practice?
Yes.

14. Do the three citations for the Silver Star contain varying accounts of its merits?
Yes.

15. Why do the three Silver Star citations contain differing accounts?
Not answered yet. The Secretary of the Navy, John Lehman, has not said why his third citation does, or why it was issued in the ‘80’s.

16. Was Kerry in Cambodia on Christmas 1968?
All evidence is to the contrary to Kerry’s up to 50-times repeating this story.

17. Was Kerry in Cambodia at another time?
All evidence is to the contrary. No evidence has been presented to say that he was.

18. Did Kerry accuse the U.S. and Vietnam veterans of committing pervasive, sanctioned atrocities?
Yes. Read the words and accounts of the time in 1971.

19. Did Kerry attend a meeting of Vietnam Veterans Against the War in November 1971 at which it was proposed to assassinate several pro-Vietnam war U.S. Senators?
Yes.

20. Did Kerry deny he was there?
Yes. Until FBI records proved otherwise.

21. Did Kerry report the danger to any authorities?
No.

22. Has Kerry ever apologized or recanted for any of his above actions and words?
No.

23. Has John Kerry released his full military records and journals?
He refuses.

24. Has the mainstream press requested their release?
Only one says so, the Washington Post, who only received about 6 of 100 pages of records, and not the journals.

25. Has there been “more smoke than wood” in much of this public debate?
Yes, in my opinion. That is why I wrote the above.