Now John Kerry's sycophantic biographer says Kerry both was and was not in Cambodia. It will be interested to see whether this is corroborated by the numerous Swift Boat veterans. Unless of course Kerry went in solo during his "black op."
The biographer of John Kerry, the Democratic presidential candidate, said yesterday there was no basis for one of the senator's favourite Vietnam War anecdotes - that he spent Christmas 1968 in Cambodia, a neutral nation which US leaders vowed was off limits for American forces."On Christmas Eve he was near Cambodia; he was around 50 miles from the Cambodian border. There's no indictment of Kerry to be made, but he was mistaken about Christmas in Cambodia," said Douglas Brinkley, who has unique access to the candidate's wartime journals.
But Mr Brinkley rejected accusations that the senator had never been to Cambodia, insisting he was telling the truth about running undisclosed "black" missions there at the height of the war.
He said: "Kerry went into Cambodian waters three or four times in January and February 1969 on clandestine missions. He had a run dropping off US Navy Seals, Green Berets and CIA guys." The missions were not armed attacks on Cambodia, said Mr Brinkley, who did not include the clandestine missions in his wartime biography of Mr Kerry, Tour of Duty.
"He was a ferry master, a drop-off guy, but it was dangerous as hell. Kerry carries a hat he was given by one CIA operative. In a part of his journals which I didn't use he writes about discussions with CIA guys he was dropping off."
UPDATE: The omnisicient InstaPundit is following the shifting tides of John Kerry's autobiography closely, including here.
Note that the U.S. media has thrown a blanket of silence over the story. It now seems safe to assume that they will not cover it at all, at least until the Kerry campaign works out the alternative story thoroughly. That's telling about their take on this election, not that we didn't know.
Posted by Alan at August 13, 2004 12:34 AM