Swiftee John O'Neill Speaks Out On John Kerry's Vietnam Claims

Human Events, Aug 23, 2004

In terms of the citation, though, it's different, isn't it?

J.O.: That's his problem. The problem he has is that when he reported what happened to his superior officers, he first reported that he was part of the first action-that he had gone in with the lead boat, when he hadn't. The second thing he reported is that when he turned his boat in, he turned it into a bunkered force of Viet Cong. And therefore the citation talks about his turning his boat into a numerically superior enemy and intense fire. No offense, but a single guy in a loin-cloth-a teenager, wounded in the legs-is not a superior force when confronted by a large gunboat with double 50-calibers and 30 troops on board.

When you're awarded a Silver Star, doesn't there have to be more than just one guy saying, "I did these brave things?"

J.O.: There should be. There should always be two sworn witness statements and a whole segment of documents. Those are all missing here. They never happened here. The event occurred on Feb. 28, [1969]. Within two days, Kerry was awarded the Silver Star. There are no witness statements, there's no review, and there are no accompanying documents, as occur in almost every other Silver Star.

How do you know that unless you have access to all of those records? Or do you?

J.O.: Kerry purported to release all records on his website. You can check and you will not find the accompanying affidavits, you will not find any review. And I know those didn't occur because I've spoken directly to the people involved in the process. Any Silver Star is well documented. What's shocking about this Silver Star is that it wasn't well documented, it occurred spontaneously because they accepted what he had to say about it.

Was this an irregular award in terms of, they didn't follow the standard process?

J.O.: They did not. According to the books, I believe Admiral Zumwalt was provided the information that Kerry reported, and Admiral Zumwalt, in order to enhance morale, immediately made the award. He did that because he believed what Kerry said. In fact, none of the people involved in the awards process knew it was just a single kid who was wounded and fleeing.

On this Cambodia business-I think you said he could sue you if you were wrong-

J.O.: Sure.

Here's what you said: "Kerry was never in Cambodia during Christmas 1968"-and now [the Kerry campaign] has been trying to change this and say it was in January or something like that. But you say: "or at all during the Vietnam War." You're saying he was never in Cambodia, and then you say that all the living commanders in Kerry's chain of command-you spell them all out-deny that Kerry was ever ordered to Cambodia. You still stick by that?

J.O.: Oh, absolutely. First of all, Kerry's story, on more than 50 occasions on the floor of the Senate [see page 3], and on more than 50 different occasions in interviews as recently as last summer, was that the turning point of his life was that he had undergone this deal where he had been illegally ordered into Cambodia at Christmas-time-Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Sometimes he says [it was the] "turning point of his life." As a matter of fact, Kranish, his biographer, on Hannity and Colmes described this as the turning point of [Kerry's] life.... The guy in command of him at that point in time was a man named Joseph Streuhli and then the chain of command would have run up ultimately to Admiral Hoffmann and then Admiral Zumwalt, who's dead. We checked with Joseph Streuhli to ensure that there was never anything like that occurring. We also know that it's a lie independent of those comments in the following two ways. In the book Tour of Duty, Kerry is placed safely in Sa-Dec, some 50 miles from the Cambodian border, writing a letter, in his words, with visions of sugarplums in his head. Second, we know he wasn't in Cambodia that Christmas Eve because everyone familiar with the entire operation series knows that the PCF, the Swift Boat areas, stopped just north of Sa-Dec, some 50 miles from the border. The areas further north were PBRs-smaller boats-and that the border was heavily guarded to ensure that nobody could go across it.