Getting Worse for Kerry

First, a correction: the Silver Star episode (Kerry shot a fleeing enemy in the back and/or led a dangerous counter-attack against an ambush) is not as clear-cut as I thought.

This devastating account of records that are public (while emphasizing that all relevant records should be made public), suggests that Kerry somehow has three citations, or narratives in support of the award, whereas one is normal; and he has no eye witnesses for crucial details. (Front Page: Henry Mark Holzer and Erika Holzer). The first citation, written close to the date of the events, pretty clearly describes Kerry shooting a fleeing enemy in the back; the other two make no mention of that incident. The two later citations are virtually identical, except that the third is signed by the Secretary of the Navy in the Reagan years--years after Kerry was in Vietnam. The authors suggest that Kerry kept wanting to improve the record, and get the new version signed by a higher-ranking person than before.

"Christmas in Cambodia" continues to percolate. Defences of Kerry don't quite work. He was near Cambodia, or he didn't know for sure whether he was in Vietnam or Cambodia? But the whole point of his repeated personal anecdote is that he was in a U.S. uniform, in Cambodia, at a time when the U.S. government was giving assurances that there were no U.S. troops in Cambodia. The whole point of the story is lost if Kerry was not in Cambodia, or even if he wasn't sure. Lots of U.S. troops and intelligence types were secretly in Cambodia about that time? No doubt, but lots of people were also in Vietnam, without being sure of exactly where they were. If it was actually late January (say Tet, when (unlike Christmas) South Vietnamese might actually be shooting in celebration), that makes it better, but any troop actions would still have been ordered by Johnson, not Nixon. It was all too secret for him to confirm details? Yet he has stated the main points of his self-aggrandizing case in very public forums. He has only fallen silent now that his statements are being questioned. Brinkley may have more to say, but his defences of Kerry are based on Kerry's own journals.

Kerry has consistently tried to glorify himself, sometimes with a basis in facts, sometimes probably not. It seems clear he went in to combat with a plan to volunteer for non-dangerous duty that might look OK on a resume. The duty of Swift boats was changed, so that crews were exposed to enemy fire, only after Kerry volunteered (in contrast to statements that have been made on his behalf). (Spinsanity via Instapundit). From then on he seems to have applied the rules for getting medals, and then getting out, with extreme discipline and focus. He at least prodded his superiors to cite him for awards; he may have written at least first drafts of citations himself, and he made damn sure to get out right after the third Purple Heart, when other officers might have stayed for a year or two.

Ann Althouse is very good again (linking to Sam Schechner in Slate on how easy it is to get a Purple Heart):

Okay, I have a question. If it is so easy to get a Purple Heart, how was the military able to have that rule allowing you to go home early upon winning three? Three "Band-Aid boo-boos" and you can go home? How did that work exactly? How many people left early that way? How eagerly did people write up scratches in the hope of escape? As I write that, I worry that I'm insulting the people who went to war and did their duty and did not look for an out. But is that not what Kerry did? I don't particularly blame him, because virtually all the young men I knew--I went to college in 1969-1973--openly and on a day-to-day basis looked for ways to avoid Vietnam.

Did the three Purple Hearts rule work because when you were in action, fighting with a group of men, peer pressure would keep you from pursuing that out? If so, and if Kerry overcame the pressure and took the out, then the Swift Boat Vets are the peers returning to express the very anger that those swayed by peer pressure strive to avoid.

As I have said, Tom Sawyer goes to war. Yet even though so many young men of his generation went to some trouble to avoid Vietnam altogether, Kerry is at risk of being criticized for not being all that noble when he got there. Why? At least partly because he has so aggrandized his role, on every possible point. Also he has literally made his brief Vietnam experience the centrepiece of his campaign. Even more than Gore with his silly lines about how he invented the Internet (when he worked in Congress to fund it), and he and Tipper may have been the inspiration for Love Story, Kerry is at risk of looking like a puffed up, ridiculous fool--not because he did not serve honourably, but because of he way he has presented himself over the years.

He made a number of his Vietnam colleagues mad. (Michael Novak via Instapundit). They were probably willing to put up with him for years--even during his Senate campaigns--but now, especially with the hagiographic book by Brinkley, he has gone too far for them. That seems to explain the mystery of why some of them praised him up to a few years ago, but now they are criticizing him. They are going back to their long-standing and true view.

UPDATE Aug. 29: Retired Admiral Schachte, also a lieutenant junior grade at the time, says that the injury leading to Kerry's first Purple Heart was inadvertently self-inflicted, and there was no enemy fire at the time. Shachte and another officer therefore refused to recommend a Purple Heart, even though Kerry asked.

It seems fair to say Kerry took full advantage of the "three Purple Hearts and out" rule, in a way other officers might not have, even thought the first Purple Heart was highly questionable. It also seems fair to say there is some legitimate controversy about both the Bronze Star and the Silver Star episodes. Glenn Reynolds is on the strange business of several citations for the Silver Star--the most recent, with changes compared to earlier versions, signed by a Secretary of the Navy who has no memory of it.

Tue Aug 24, 2004 6:58 pm MST by robertll | Email Article |

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Getting Worse for Kerry