Stranger than fiction

Earlier today, Rocket Man and I expressed skepticism over Kerry’s apparent fall-back position on his adventure in Cambodia. Kerry’s spokesman is now saying that Kerry erred in saying that he spent Christmas of 1968 in Cambodia, but that Kerry did find his way there some time after Christmas and before he left Southeast Asia in March 1969. The Hold the Mayo blog takes a closer look at this claim and finds additional grounds for serious skepticism. One such ground is that President Nixon apparently didn’t make the famous “searing” statement to which Kerry refers denying a U.S. presence in Cambodia until November 1971.
This reminds me of an email I received earlier today from reader Steve Sturm of the Thoughtsonline blog. Steve reminded me that the Khmer Rouge, part of the contingent that helped ruined Kerry’s 1968 post-Christmas, didn’t launch its large scale insurgency until 1970. This doesn’t exclude the possibility that Cambodian insurgents were shooting at people at the end of 1968, but Kerry’s story better be true because as an historical novel it doesn’t hang together.
HINDROCKET adds: Bingo. That’s a great point. When Kerry left Vietnam, President Nixon had been in office for only two months. Hardly enough time to order troops into Cambodia, and then deny it. By the time Kerry was spinning his fantasies about Cambodia, he was out of the Navy and busily pursuing a political career as an anti-war veteran.

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