Nightline Proves Swift Boat Vets Liars
[begin excerpts]
Nightline traveled to Vietnam and found a number of witnesses
who have never been heard from before, and who have no
particular ax to grind for or against Kerry. Only one of
them, in fact, even knew who Kerry is. The witnesses, all
Vietnamese, are still living in the same villages where the
fighting took place more than 35 years ago. A Nightline
producer visited them and recorded their accounts of that
day. The accounts were subsequently translated by a team of
ABC News translators.
...
Was the man killed by Kerry or by fire from the Swift boat?
It was the heat of battle, Tam said, and he doesn't know
exactly how the man with the rocket launcher died. But he
reinforcements sent to the village by provincial
headquarters, and after he died, the firefight continued,
according to Tam.
"When the firing started, Ba Thanh was killed," Tam said.
"And I led Ba Thanh's comrades, the whole unit, to fight
back. And we ran around the back and fought the Americans
from behind. We worked with the city soldiers to fire on the
American boats."
According to the after-action report, after beaching the
Swift boat, Kerry "chased VC inland, behind hooch, and shot
him while he fled, capturing one B-40 rocket launcher, with
round in chamber."
None of the villagers seems to be able to say for a fact that
they saw an American chase the man who fired the B-40 into
the woods and shoot him. Nobody seems to remember that. But
they have no problem remembering Ba Thang, the man who has
been dismissed by Kerry's detractors as "a lone, wounded,
fleeing, young Vietcong in a loincloth." (The description
comes from "Unfit for Command," by Swift boat veteran John
O'Neill.)
"No, this is not correct," Nguyen Thi Tuoi, 77, told ABC
News. "He wore a black pajama. He was strong. He was big and
strong. He was about 26 or 27."
Tuoi said she didn't see Ba Thanh get shot either, but she
and her husband say they were the first to find his body.
They say they found him a good distance from his bunker,
had pursued him into the bush.
Her husband, Nguyen Van Ty, in his 80s, had a slightly
different account of how Ba Thang died.
"I didn't see anything because I was hiding from the bullets
and the bombs," he said. "It was very fierce and there was
shooting everywhere and the leaves were being shredded to
pieces. I was afraid to stay up there. I had to hide. And
then, when it was over, I saw Ba Thanh was dead. He may have
been shot in the chest when he stood up."
He also said the Swift boats were coming under attack from
the Viet Cong fighters on shore. "We tried to shoot at the
boat," he said, "but we didn't hit anything."
Kerry's citation says he "uncovered an enemy rest and supply
area, which was destroyed," but according to the villagers,
the Americans missed the military supplies. In fact, Vo Ti Vi
said, just a few weeks after the attack, the Viet Cong raided
a U.S. base stealing weapons and ammunition. The weapons
remain in Nha Vi all these years later, she says, buried
under her garden.
Back in Tran Thoi, villager Nguyen Van Khoai said that about
six months ago he was visited by an American who described
himself as a Swift boat veteran and told him another American
from the Swift boats was running for president of the United
States. Nguyen said the man was accompanied by a cameraman.
"They say he didn't do anything to deserve the medal," Nguyen
said. "The other day, they came and asked me the questions
and I said that the recognition for the medal is up to the
U.S.A."
He said that, after they met, the Swift Boat veteran and the
cameraman turned around and went back down the river.
Nightline has not been able to identify the men.
http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/Vote2004/story?id=166434
&page=3
[end excerpt]
--
Yours truly,
The Lone Weasel
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