Kerry blasts Bush supporters who question his war service
Democrat John Kerry, countering weeks of claims by political opponents that he exaggerated his Vietnam combat record, accused them Thursday of lying and said President Bush is using them to “do his dirty work.”
Kerry also released a TV ad featuring Jim Rassmann, the former Green Beret who says Kerry saved his life in Vietnam. Kerry, now a Massachusetts senator, earned a Bronze Star for the rescue.
The incident is one of several contested by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, an independent group that opposes Kerry and that has received substantial funds from Bob Perry, a Bush backer in Texas.
“They’re not telling the truth. They didn’t even exist until I won the nomination for president,” Kerry told a firefighters convention in Boston. “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.”
Kerry earned the Silver Star, the Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts as a Navy swift boat commander in the Mekong Delta. Until Thursday, he had left it to aides and allies to defend him, even as some Democrats urged him to respond personally. The campaign had hoped to save money this month by staying off TV but decided to show the new ad in three states.
“Sen. Kerry knows President Bush has called his service in Vietnam noble,” Bush campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt said in a statement Thursday. Bush says he would like independent ads to stop, but refuses to criticize Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.
Members of the group who served in Vietnam, but not on Kerry’s boat, are furious that Kerry opposed the war when he returned home. In some cases, their credibility has been damaged by conflicting accounts of war incidents and changing views of Kerry over the years. Kerry has faced questions about a claim that he and his crew spent Christmas Eve 1968 in Cambodia. Latest developments:
“ Did Kerry lie about how he won the Bronze Star? Kerry and his crew said he rescued Rassmann under heavy enemy fire. Larry Thurlow, who commanded another boat that day, and others say there was no shooting. The Washington Post on Thursday posted Thurlow’s own Bronze Star records from that day on the Internet. They refer several times to “enemy small arms and automatic weapons fire” and “enemy bullets flying around him.” Both citations were based on “fraudulent” information provided by Kerry, Thurlow claimed in an interview with USA Today.
“ Was Kerry in Cambodia on Christmas Eve 1968? Kerry has said for years that he was, despite an official policy against it. The group says Kerry never went to Cambodia and was more than 50 miles away. It cites three Kerry crewmembers who deny they were there. The Kerry campaign disputed the charges in Wednesday’s Boston Globe. It said Kerry’s boat was “on patrol in the watery borders between Vietnam and Cambodia” on Christmas Eve.