I read with interest your editorial on the swift boat veterans and Senator Kerry. However, you failed to mention a point that strikes me as important. The veterans challenged as untrue a previous statement by Sen. Kerry about his service: "In fact, I remember spending Christmas Day of 1968 five miles across the Cambodian border being shot at by our South Vietnamese Allies who were drunk and celebrating Christmas. The absurdity of almost being killed by our own allies in a country in which President Nixon claimed there were no American troops was very real." Letter to Editor by Sen. Kerry, Oct 14, 1979, Boston Herald. Sen. Kerry made a similar claim on the Senate floor saying the memory of being in Cambodia on Christmas while the president lied was "seared" in his memory.Seared it may have been, but it was also false. Nixon was not president then, Kerry was 50 miles from the border, and none of his crewmates remember being in Cambodia.
Thus in at least one instance, Kerry was wrong, and the veterans correct. It makes it more likely that they are correct in other instances.
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