You can't handle the truth!

Sorting out the truth in fog of war

John Kerry's military service record has become a major topic of debate in recent weeks, and both sides are trying to spin it to their advantage.

Many Democrats have attempted to make it appear that their presidential candidate knowingly volunteered for especially risky duty in Vietnam. For instance, during his acceptance speech at the Democratic convention, vice presidential nominee John Edwards said that Kerry "volunteered to go to Vietnam and to captain a swift boat, one of the most dangerous duties you could have."

But as Chris Suellentrop pointed out on Slate.com, Kerry volunteered for swift boat duty before it became so dangerous. In a multipart series on Kerry's life, the Boston Globe recounted that the swift boats "were still considered relatively safe" when Kerry made his decision. It then quotes Kerry saying in 1986: "When I signed up for the swift boats, they had very little to do with the war. They were engaged in coastal patrolling, and that's what I thought I was going to be doing." However, the boats' mission changed after Kerry made his decision, and they were tasked with more dangerous river patrols.

Democrats are glossing over this important distinction, implying Kerry volunteered knowing that the mission was extremely risky. Kerry's biography on his campaign Web site states: "In 1968, John Kerry began his second tour of duty, and volunteered to serve on a swift boat, one of the most dangerous assignments of the war." And in his convention speech, former President Bill Clinton stated: "When they sent those swift boats up the river in Vietnam and they told them their job was to draw hostile fire, to wave the American flag, and bait the enemy to come out and fight, John Kerry said: 'Send me.' "

Some journalists have also gotten the facts wrong. For instance, Bennett Roth of the Houston Chronicle wrote that Kerry "requested to command a swift boat, one of the more dangerous assignments during the war."

While Democrats are misrepresenting Kerry's decision to command a swift boat in Vietnam, some conservatives are also making unsupported claims about his time there.

A new ad by an independent group called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth repeatedly accuses Kerry of lying. But while its Web site provides supporting materials, the charges in the ad often boil down to disputed accounts to which there is no definitive resolution.

For example, the commercial features one veteran, Louis Letson, who states: "I know John Kerry is lying about his first Purple Heart because I treated him for that injury." In backup documentation on the Web site, Letson, a former military doctor, describes the treatment he gave Kerry: removing a small piece of shrapnel from his arm and applying a bandage. But the Navy's criteria for Purple Heart eligibility say the extent of the injury does not matter, only that it was incurred from enemy fire.

Letson speculated that the wound could have been caused by shrapnel from a grenade fired by Kerry himself, but he was not present during the firefight and bases his accusation on the contested accounts of others.

Letson is not the only one to do so. George Elliott, Kerry's former commanding officer who recommended him for a Silver Star, said in an affidavit, "Had I known the facts, I would not have recommended Kerry for the Silver Star for simply pursuing and dispatching a single, wounded, fleeing Viet Cong." But Elliott also admits that his contention is based upon reading other versions of events, not first-hand knowledge.

(Elliott appeared to retract his claims in a Boston Globe article last week, but he later issued a statement reaffirming them.)

Though none of the veterans filmed in the ad were in either of the swift boats Kerry commanded in the war, the group's technically true claim that the men "served with" Kerry is leading some pundits and journalists to exaggerate their relationship to him. As the liberal group Media Matters pointed out, Fox News Channel's Sean Hannity and Pat Halpin both claimed that the men were "some of [Kerry's] crewmates" on Aug. 4, and Fox's Catherine Herridge introduced the ad as "featuring some of John Kerry's Vietnam crewmates" on Aug. 6.

As Democrats glamorize John Kerry's service in Vietnam and conservatives pillory it, citizens are once again left to fend for themselves in sorting out the truth.

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