John Kerrys Wonderful Christmas Adventure

On the floor of the Senate on March 27, 1986, Sen. John Kerry issued this statement:

"I remember Christmas of 1968 sitting on a gunboat in Cambodia. I remember what it was like to be shot at by Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge and Cambodians, and have the President of the United States telling the American people that I was not there; the troops were not in Cambodia. I have that memory which is seared — seared — in me."

In February 1969, General Creighton Abrams, the commander of U.S. forces in Vietnam, requested permission to attack Vietnamese troops inside Cambodia. President Richard Nixon quickly agreed, and on March 18, 1969, American B-52s launched the first of many secret bombing raids over Cambodia.

Writing for the Boston Herald in October 1979, Mr. Kerry said this:

"I remember spending Christmas Eve of 1968 five miles across the Cambodian border being shot at by our South Vietnamese allies who were drunk and celebrating Christmas. The absurdity of almost being killed by our own allies in a country in which President Nixon claimed there were no American troops was very real."

All of those Buddhists celebrating Christmas. It must have been quite a party. Nixon wasn't the president. He was sworn in at the end of January, 1969.

In 1992, The Associated Press interviewed Mr. Kerry about his Vietnam experience. Again, the Cambodian story resurfaced:

"By Christmas 1968, part of Kerry's patrol extended across the border of South Vietnam into Cambodia. 'We were told, "Just go up there and do your patrol." Everybody was over there (in Cambodia). Nobody thought twice about it,' Kerry said."

Then, in a Boston Globe report from last summer, Mr. Kerry slightly changed his Cambodia story:

"To top it off, Kerry said, he had gone several miles inside Cambodia, which theoretically was off limits."

If it was "theoretically off limits," who gave Mr. Kerry the order to enter Cambodia, as he asserted numerous times before?

At JohnKerry.com, you can read "After-action" reports — first-hand accounts written immediately following combat — from Mr. Kerry's Vietnam tour. Strangely, the reports extend only as far back as February 1969. Without these reports its ones word agains anothers. Why won't Kerry release those records as he demanded President Bush to do ? ... and did.
Why is any of this important? Mr. Kerry has made his Vietnam experiences the focal point in his campaign. Indeed, the candidate wants voters to judge his Vietnam service as reflecting the qualities needed in a commander in chief. It is not Mr. Kerry's detractors who have placed Vietnam at the forefront of the campaign, it is Mr. Kerry himself. As such, his testimonials both during and after his tour should be subject to verification and debate.