QandO: More Problems for the Swift Boat Vets

August 21, 2004

More Problems for the Swift Boat Vets
Posted by Jon Henke

Two more recent statements that are going to cast more doubt on the Swift Boat Veteran stories.....

The commander of a Navy swift boat who served alongside Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry during the Vietnam War stepped forward Saturday to dispute attacks challenging Kerry's integrity and war record.

William Rood, an editor on the Chicago Tribune's metropolitan desk, said he broke 35 years of silence about the Feb. 28, 1969, mission that resulted in Kerry's receiving a Silver Star because recent portrayals of Kerry's actions published in the best-selling book "Unfit for Command" are wrong and smear the reputations of veterans who served with Kerry.

Rood, who commanded one of three swift boats during that 1969 mission, said Kerry came under rocket and automatic weapons fire from Viet Cong forces and that Kerry devised an aggressive attack strategy that was praised by their superiors. He called allegations that Kerry's accomplishments were "overblown" untrue.
[...]
Rood's recollection of what happened on that day at the southern tip of South Vietnam was backed by key military documents, including his citation for a Bronze Star he earned in the battle and a glowing after-action report written by the Navy captain who commanded his and Kerry's task force, who is now a critic of the Democratic candidate.
[...]

"I can't pretend those calls [from Kerry] had no effect on me, but that is not why I am writing this," Rood said. "What matters most to me is that this is hurting crewmen who are not public figures and who deserved to be honored for what they did. My intent is to tell the story here and to never again talk publicly about it."

Rood declined requests from a Tribune reporter to be interviewed for this article. Rood wrote that he could testify only to the February 1969 mission and not to any of the other battlefield decorations challenged by Kerry's critics—a Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts—because Rood was not an eyewitness to those engagements.
[...]

Rood acknowledged in his first-person account that there could always be errors in recollection, especially with the passage of more than three decades. His Bronze Star citation, he said, misidentifies the river where the main action occurred.

That mistake, he said, is a "cautionary note for those trying to piece it all together. There's no final authority on something that happened so long ago—not the documents and not even the strained recollections of those of us who were there.

"But I know that what some people are saying now is wrong," Rood wrote. "While they mean to hurt Kerry, what they're saying impugns others who are not in the public eye."

So, Kerry and Rood--two of the three Swift Boat commanders on the scene that day--tell the same story. And the official records tell the story that way, as well. (whether they come solely from Kerry's recollection or not, they were accepted...or, at least, not challenged at the time)

That lends quite a bit of credibility to Kerry's version of events. The Swift Boat Veterans will have do do a great deal better than "nope, didn't happen that way, no sir, no way". At this point, with this much corroboration, the Swift Boat Veterans need a smoking gun, and I seriously doubt they have one. (...which should make us all think long and hard about this)

But, that's all history now, because they're coming out with another ad, using Kerry's own words. An ad which features Kerry lying about what went on in Vietnam. Right? Well, perhaps not.....

* (Via Oliver Willis) Tommy Franks, on Hannity and Colmes....

What Kerry said, at the time, was undeniably painful to Vietnam Veterans. But was it true? It appears that it was, at least in some part, accurate. (though I grant that the Winter Soldier investigation was rife with errors and outright falsehoods)

In not differentiating between the few who were engaging in these acts and the vast majority of honorable soldiers, Kerry was irresponsible. I can certainly understand veterans who hold that against him. But he also didn't specifically state that those war crimes were practiced by all soldiers. That was an inference by others, and not an implication by Kerry.

Was he wrong? I think he was wrong to do it in the way he did....but what he said--excepting the later-disproven testimony--was not necessarily incorrect.

The Swift Boat Veterans are putting themselves in a precarious place, criticizing John Kerry for, essentially, blowing the whistle on war-crimes. One could see John Kerry standing side-by-side with Sergeant Joseph Darby to turn that negative into a perceived positive rather quickly.

UPDATE (Dale):

Opinions, however, may differ. Beldar concludes that Mr. Rood's new memoir merits respectful attention in the SwiftVets vs. Kerry controversy, but that it doesn't actually contradict ANY of the SwiftVets' principle allegations about Kerry's Silver Star, and indeed SUPPORTS their main claim -- that in connection with his Silver Star, young Kerry did not, as the Navy brass who awarded it thought, charge alone, through overwhelming enemy fire, into a dense concentration of the enemy.

UPDATE (JON): I'll concede, Beldar makes a pesuasive case. However, the difference between the Rood/Kerry/Navy claim of "heavy fire" and the SBV claim that it "didn't happen" seems....not insignificant. ("rocket and automatic weapons fire" qualifying as "heavy" in my book) That's a bit more than the "not substantially different" claim made by O'Neill.

I'd also recommend Captain Ed's post, where he makes this great point....

However, using Rood to counter -- factually, finally -- one of the Swiftvet's contentions points out that these boats worked together as a unit and that witnesses to engagements do not lose their stature merely because they happened to be on a different PCF during the engagement. If Rood's testimony is valid, and I have no doubt he means well, then that makes all of the other Swiftvets' testimony just as valid.

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