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Swift Vets and POWs for Truth
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===Truth of allegations=== Early in the advertising campaign, ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine surveyed public credence in the SBVT advertisements among those who viewed them. The poll, conducted August 24 through 26, showed that about one-third of viewers believed there was at least "some truth" to the allegations. Among swing voters, about one-fourth felt there was any truth to the ads.<ref name="kerryslips">{{cite magazine|last=Schulman |first=Mark |title=Kerry Slips Slightly as GOP Heads for NYC |magazine=Time |date=2004-08-28 |url=http://www.time.com/time/election2004/article/0,18471,689369,00.html |access-date=2007-04-01 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040831031320/http://www.time.com/time/election2004/article/0,18471,689369,00.html |archive-date=2004-08-31}}</ref> A major part of the SBVT controversy centered on the group's testimony. The SBVT statements were accompanied by [[affidavit]]s. One affiant, Alfred French, acknowledged he had no firsthand knowledge of the events to which he had sworn.<ref name="callforresignation">{{cite news|title=Vets call for resignation of Clackamas prosecutor in Swift Boat ad |publisher=KGW |date=2004-08-23 |url=http://www.kgw.com/news-local/stories/kgw_082304_news_french_protest.a701071e.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930155702/http://www.kgw.com/news-local/stories/kgw_082304_news_french_protest.a701071e.html |archive-date=2007-09-30 |url-status=dead }}</ref> In May 2006, ''The New York Times'' reported that an early member of the group, Steve Hayes, stated that he came to believe that the group was twisting Kerry's record, and broke with the group and voted for Kerry. Hayes told the Times: {{blockquote|The mantra was just 'We want to set the record straight' ... It became clear to me that it was morphing from an organization to set the record straight into a highly political vendetta. They knew it was not the truth.}} Hayes also told ''The New York Times'' that he provided a long interview to Kerry's supporters, backing their version of the incident for which Kerry received the [[Bronze Star]].<ref name="nytpressingcase">{{cite news|last=Zernike|first=Kate|title=Kerry Pressing Swift Boat Case Long After Loss|work=NY Times|date=2006-05-28|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/28/washington/28kerry.html?ex=1306468800&en=7158a80120f0ee5a&ei=5089 |access-date=2007-04-28}}</ref> ====First television advertisement==== The first SBVT ad was contradicted by the statements of several other veterans who observed the incidents, by the Navy's official records, and, in some instances, by the contemporaneous statements of SBVT members themselves. Several major newspapers were also skeptical of the SBVT allegations. For example, a ''[[New York Times]]'' news article stated, "on close examination, the accounts of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth prove to be riddled with inconsistencies."<ref name="birthantikerryad">{{cite news|last1=Zernike |first1=Kate |first2=Jim |last2=Rutenberg |title=Friendly Fire: The Birth of an Anti-Kerry Ad |work=NY Times |date=2004-08-20 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/20/politics/campaign/20swift.html?ex=1250913600&en=9b6f27de16c97265&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland |access-date=2007-03-28 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090807224330/http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/20/politics/campaign/20swift.html?ex=1250913600&en=9b6f27de16c97265&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland |archive-date=August 7, 2009 }}</ref> Regarding the medal dispute, a ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' editorial<ref>{{cite news|title=Battle Over Kerry's Record Continues|newspaper=LA Times|date=2004-08-24|url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/682222421.html?dids=682222421:682222421&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Aug+24%2C+2004&author=&pub=Los+Angeles+Times&edition=&startpage=B.10&desc=Battle+Over+Kerry%27s+Record+Continues|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930225731/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/682222421.html?dids=682222421:682222421&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Aug+24,+2004&author=&pub=Los+Angeles+Times&edition=&startpage=B.10&desc=Battle+Over+Kerry%27s+Record+Continues|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 30, 2007|pages=B10|access-date=2007-03-29}}</ref> stated, "Not limited by the conventions of our colleagues in the newsroom, we can say it outright: These charges against John Kerry are false." The editorial argued this position on the basis that "Kerry is backed by almost all those who witnessed the events in question, as well as by documentation." On August 22, 2004 ''[[The Washington Post]]'' reported: "An investigation by ''The Washington Post'' into what happened that day suggests that both sides have withheld information from the public record and provided an incomplete, and sometimes inaccurate, picture of what took place. But although Kerry's accusers have succeeded in raising doubts about his war record, they have failed to come up with sufficient evidence to prove him a liar."<ref name="accountsimcomplete">{{cite news|last=Dobbs|first=Michael|title=Swift Boat Accounts Incomplete|newspaper=Washington Post|pages=A01|date=2004-08-22|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21239-2004Aug21.html|access-date=2009-11-15}}</ref> The [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] television show ''[[Nightline (US news program)|Nightline]]'' traveled to Vietnam and interviewed [[Vietnamese people|Vietnamese]] who were involved in the battle for which Kerry was awarded the Silver Star. These witnesses disputed O'Neill's charge that there "was little or no fire" that day; they said that the fighting was fierce.<ref name="abcwhathappened">{{cite news|last=Morse|first=Andrew|title=What Happened in Kerry's Vietnam Battles?|work=ABC News|date=October 14, 2004|url=https://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/Vote2004/story?id=166434|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041112093735/https://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/Vote2004/story?id=166434|archive-date=November 12, 2004}}</ref> SBVT supporters question whether these witnesses are reliable because they spoke "in the presence of a Communist official",<ref name="abcnewsorspin">{{cite news|last=Sowell|first=Thomas|author-link=Thomas Sowell|title=ABC News or ABC spin|publisher=Townhall.com|date=October 20, 2004|url=http://townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/2004/10/20/abc_news_or_abc_spin/page/full/|access-date=March 26, 2011}}</ref> but their account of enemy fire is substantially the same as that previously given by another former [[Viet Cong]] to an AP reporter<ref>{{cite news|last=Mason|first=Margie|title=Former Viet Cong recalls fierce fighting along Mekong Delta waterways where Kerry served.|date=2004-09-01|agency=Associated Press}}</ref> and by the American witnesses, including the only SBVT member who was actually present that day, Larry Clayton Lee.<ref name="chicagotribrood">{{cite news|title=FEB. 28, 1969: ON THE DONG CUNG RIVER; 'This is what I saw that day' |first=William B.|last=Rood|url=http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0408220342aug22,0,7550103.story?page=2|newspaper=Chicago Tribune|date=August 22, 2004|at=p. 2, para. 18|access-date=October 19, 2010|quote=There were three swift boats on the river that day in Vietnam more than 35 years ago{{nbsp}}...}}</ref><ref name="courantbattletested">{{cite news|last=Upton|first=Peter N.|title=Kerry's Leadership Is Battle Tested|pages=C01,06|work=Hartford Courant|date=2004-07-25|url=http://www.hartfordinfo.org/issues/documents/neighborhoods/htfd_courant_072504.pdf|access-date=2007-04-01}}</ref><ref>''Tour of Duty'', pp. 290–292</ref><ref>''John F. Kerry, The Complete Biography'', (Boston Globe), pp. 100–103</ref> ABC News's ''The Note'' opined, "the Swift Boat ad and their primary charges about Kerry's medals are personal, negative, extremely suspect, or false."<ref name="abcskeptical">{{cite news|title=Wise Counsel|work=The Note|publisher=ABC News|date=August 25, 2004|url=http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/politics/TheNote/TheNote_Aug2504.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050417124306/http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/politics/TheNote/TheNote_Aug2504.html|archive-date=April 17, 2005}}</ref> ====Book, other media statements==== Jerome Corsi has said that a picture of Kerry's 1993 visit to Vietnam hangs in the War Remnants Museum in [[Ho Chi Minh City]] as a gesture of "honor" by the [[Communist]]s "for his contribution to their victory over [the] United States",{{Citation needed|date=April 2010}} and John O'Neill has stated that Kerry "is in the North Vietnamese war museum as a hero... . one of the heroes who caused them to win the war in Vietnam".<ref name="nightline">{{cite news|title=Nightline with Ted Koppel|work=ABC News|date=2004-10-14|url=http://www.swiftvets.com/staticpages/index.php?page=Nightline|access-date=2007-04-01}} Self-published transcript URL.</ref> The statement is also repeated in "Unfit for Command" (pp 167–174). However, Josh Gerstein of the ''[[New York Sun]]'' stated in this regard: {{blockquote|While the museum clearly honors opponents of the war from America and other countries, it is not clear that the photo of Mr. Kerry is part of that tribute. The picture of the senator hangs among a set of photos devoted to the restoration of diplomatic relations between America and Vietnam in the 1990s. The picture apparently was taken as Kerry took part in a delegation President Bill Clinton sent to Hanoi in 1993. Other photos nearby show visits during that period by former American officials who played key roles in the Vietnam War, including a Navy admiral who has since died, Elmo Zumwalt, and a defense secretary, Robert McNamara. A secretary of state during Clinton's term, Warren Christopher, is also shown meeting Vietnamese officials|Josh Gerstein<ref name="nysun">{{cite news|last=Gerstein|first=Josh|title=Kerry's Photo Raises Eyebrows In Museum In Ho Chi Minh City|work=NY Sun|date=2004-08-16|url=http://daily.nysun.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=TllTLzIwMDQvMDgvMTYjQXIwMDEwMA==&Mode=HTML&Locale=english-skin-custom|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071122210833/http://daily.nysun.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=TllTLzIwMDQvMDgvMTYjQXIwMDEwMA==&Mode=HTML&Locale=english-skin-custom|archive-date=2007-11-22}}</ref>}} In this connection, the web page Corsi and another anti-Kerry veteran originally published on the Kerry museum photo contained the picture of [[Robert McNamara]]'s 1995 meeting with General [[Võ Nguyên Giáp|Giáp]], who was misidentified as "[[Mao Tse-tung]]".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tinyvital.com/Misc/KerryHonoredByCommunists2.htm|title=Museum Photo Documented|publisher=Tinyvital.com|access-date=2010-05-28}}</ref> (Photo #10). In addition, John O'Neill said that in 1971 John Kerry "wanted to abandon ship and leave the POWs [in Vietnam]" and that "[o]n the [[Dick Cavett]] show and elsewhere, John Kerry's position was that we should accept the [[Madame Binh]] seven-point proposal, which called for unilateral withdrawal, setting a date after which at some future time, we'd negotiate the return of the POWs. So we would set a date. We would withdraw and then we would begin to discuss how to bring them home".<ref name="scarborough">{{cite news|title=Scarborough Country|work=transcript|publisher=NBC News TV|date=2004-10-22|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna6327790|access-date=2007-04-01}}</ref> However, in the Cavett debate, Kerry actually said: {{blockquote|Now, if we were to set a date for withdrawal from Southeast Asia, we can – the Vietnamese, first of all, have said it will be settled prior to the arrival of that date, but we can set a time limit on that. If the prisoners of war aren't back prior to the arrival of that date, then I think we would have – for the first time in all of our history in Vietnam we would have a legitimate reason for taking some kind of reaction to it.|John Kerry<ref name="dickcavett">{{cite news|title=Dick Cavett Show|work=transcript|publisher=ABC TV|date=1971-06-20|url=http://www.swiftvets.com/staticpages/index.php?page=Debate2|access-date=2007-04-01}} Transcript URL is self-published</ref>}}
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