[Mb-civic] Veteran retracts criticism of Kerry BostonGlobe

[Michael Butler]

THIS STORY HAS BEEN FORMATTED FOR EASY PRINTING


Veteran retracts criticism of Kerry

By Michael Kranish, Globe Staff  |  August 6, 2004

WASHINGTON -- A week after Senator John F. Kerry heralded his wartime
experience by surrounding himself at the Democratic convention with his
Vietnam ''Band of Brothers," a separate group of veterans has launched a
television ad campaign and a book that questions the basis for some of
Kerry's combat medals.

But yesterday, a key figure in the anti-Kerry campaign, Kerry's former
commanding officer, backed off one of the key contentions. Lieutenant
Commander George Elliott said in an interview that he had made a ''terrible
mistake" in signing an affidavit that suggests Kerry did not deserve the
Silver Star -- one of the main allegations in the book. The affidavit was
given to The Boston Globe by the anti-Kerry group to justify assertions in
their ad and book.

Elliott is quoted as saying that Kerry ''lied about what occurred in Vietnam
. . . for example, in connection with his Silver Star, I was never informed
that he had simply shot a wounded, fleeing Viet Cong in the back."

The statement refers to an episode in which Kerry killed a Viet Cong soldier
who had been carrying a rocket launcher, part of a chain of events that
formed the basis of his Silver Star. Over time, some Kerry critics have
questioned whether the soldier posed a danger to Kerry's crew. Crew members
have said Kerry's actions saved their lives.

Yesterday, reached at his home, Elliott said he regretted signing the
affidavit and said he still thinks Kerry deserved the Silver Star.

''I still don't think he shot the guy in the back," Elliott said. ''It was a
terrible mistake probably for me to sign the affidavit with those words. I'm
the one in trouble here."

Elliott said he was no under personal or political pressure to sign the
statement, but he did feel ''time pressure" from those involved in the book.
''That's no excuse," Elliott said. ''I knew it was wrong . . . In a hurry I
signed it and faxed it back. That was a mistake."

The affidavit also contradicted earlier statements by Elliott, who came to
Boston during Kerry's 1996 Senate campaign to defend Kerry on similar
charges, saying that Kerry acted properly and deserved the Silver Star.

The book, ''Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John
Kerry," is to be published next week. Yesterday it reached number one on the
bestseller list on Amazon.com, based on advance orders, in part because of
publicity about it on the Drudge Report.

The book seeks to undermine one of the central claims of Kerry's campaign --
that his Vietnam War heroism would make him a good commander in chief.

While the Regnery Publishing yesterday declined to release an advance copy
of the book, Drudge's website quotes it as saying, ''Elliott indicates that
a Silver Star recommendation would not have been made by him had he been
aware of the actual facts."

Meanwhile, a television advertising campaign began yesterday featuring many
of the anti-Kerry veterans who are quoted in the book, including Elliott. In
the ad, Elliott says, ''John Kerry has not been honest about what happened
in Vietnam."

Asked to supply evidence to support that statement, the anti-Kerry group
provided a copy of Elliott's affidavit. Elliott said the same affidavit had
been used in the production of the book.

It is unclear whether the work contains further justification for the
assertion, beyond Elliott's statement.

Kerry won the Silver Star for his action on Feb. 28, 1969, in which he shot
a Viet Cong soldier who had been carrying a rocket launcher and running
toward a hut. All of Kerry's crewmates who participated and are still living
said in interviews last year that the action was necessary and appropriate,
and it was Elliott who recommended Kerry for the Silver Star.

In an interview for a seven-part biographical series that appeared in the
Globe last year, Kerry said: ''I don't have a second's question" about
killing the Viet Cong. ''He was running away with a live B-40, and, I
thought, poised to turn around and fire it."

Asked whether that meant that he had shot the guerrilla in the back, Kerry
said, ''No, absolutely not," adding that the enemy had been running to a hut
for cover, where he could have destroyed Kerry's boat and killed the crew.

The forthcoming book is coauthored by Jerome R. Corsi and John O'Neill, a
former Vietnam naval officer who in 1971 debated Kerry on the Dick Cavett
show, challenging Kerry's assertion that US atrocities had been widespread
in Vietnam. O'Neill met with then-President Richard M. Nixon for an hour
before debating Kerry, and his efforts were encouraged by Nixon's aides.

O'Neill could not be reached for comment yesterday. President Bush's
campaign denied working with O'Neill on the book or with the producers of
the television advertisement.

Meanwhile, Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, urged Bush yesterday
to disassociate himself from what he called a ''dishonest and dishonorable"
attack. In response, the White House spokesman, Scott McClellan, said, ''We
have not and we will not question Senator Kerry's service in Vietnam."

The Associated Press reported yesterday that Houston home-builder Bob J.
Perry, a major Republican donor, gave at least $100,000 to the organization
sponsoring the ad, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

The Kerry campaign spokesman, Michael Meehan, said none of those in the ad
had served on a boat with Kerry. ''Some of these men defended John Kerry's
honor on his military record in 1996 and so they were either lying then or
lying now," Meehan said. ''Either way, it is gutter politics."

The book also raises questions about the action of March 13, 1969, for which
Kerry was awarded a Bronze Star and his third Purple Heart, according to an
advance chapter of the book.

The anti-Kerry group provided three affidavits from veterans on nearby boats
questioning aspects of the award.

On that day, Kerry rescued James Rassmann, who went overboard as a result of
an explosion. Rassmann appeared by Kerry's side during the Iowa caucus
campaign and at last week's Democratic National Convention, telling the
story of how Kerry pulled him out of the water while his boat was under
fire.

As in the case of the Silver Star, it was Elliott who recommended Kerry for
the Bronze Star. According to the recommendation signed by Elliott, a mine
exploded under a boat accompanying Kerry's craft.

''Almost simultaneously, another mine detonated close aboard [Kerry's]
PCF-94, knocking First Lieutenant Rassman [sic] into the water and wounding
Lt. JG Kerry in the right arm."

Elliott then described how Kerry ''managed to pull Lt. Rassman aboard
despite the painful wound in his right arm." Elliott concluded that Kerry
had been ''calm, professional, and highly courageous in the face of enemy
fire."

Elliott, in the interview yesterday, said that based on the affidavits of
the veterans on other boats, he now thinks his assessment about the Bronze
Star and third Purple Heart may have been based on poor information.

In one affidavit, for example, Van O'Dell, who said he had been in a boat
near Kerry on that day, declared that Kerry had ''lied" about what happened
on that day and said that Rassmann was not under enemy fire when Kerry
pulled him aboard.

Elliott, asked about the contradiction between his recommendation and his
new questioning of Kerry's third Purple Heart, responded, ''It makes me look
kind of silly, to be perfectly honest."

But he said: ''I simply have no reason for these guys to be lying, and if
they are lying in concert, it is one hell of a conspiracy. So, on the basis
of all of the information that has come out, I have chosen to believe the
other men. I absolutely do not know first hand."

Naval documents said that Kerry ''received shrapnel wounds in left buttocks
and contusions on right forearm when a mine detonated close to PCF 94 while
engaged in operations on river. Condition and prognosis excellent. Result of
hostile action."

Rassmann, reached by telephone yesterday, said he has never had any question
that Kerry deserved the Purple Heart. He said there were two separate
events: One was earlier in the day, when he and Kerry blew up a rice cache,
and the explosion caused some of the rice to hit Kerry, and perhaps some
weapon fragments as well. The second involved a mine explosion as Kerry and
Rassmann were on patrol. The explosion, Rassmann said, knocked him overboard
and threw Kerry against the pilot house, injuring his arm.

Rassmann said that he has always believed that Kerry got the third Purple
Heart solely for the injury to his arm as a result of the explosion in the
water.

''If he got fragments in the buttocks due to the mine, that is new
information to me," Rassmann said.

''I would say there is confusion. Maybe they did lump it together. It was my
understanding he got it for the wound being thrown across the pilot house."

Either way, Rassmann said, Kerry deserved the third Purple Heart because
such awards are given for injuries incurred in combat, and Kerry's arm
injury qualified. He also stood by his recollection that he was under fire
when rescued by Kerry.

Those questioning Kerry's medals, Rassmann said, are ''angry about John
speaking out against the [Vietnam] war." 
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