Kerry, in 1971, Admitted Writing Combat Reports

"JASON A. KAATZ" wrote in message ...
There should be Operations and Lessons Learned on Kerry's unit on file with
the government and they can be easily obtained following declassification.
The majority of them have already been declassified.
--------------

"Craig" wrote in message
...
Ruth E. Downs wrote:
Kerry, in 1971, Admitted Writing Combat Reports
By Marc Morano CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer
August 26, 2004

(CNSNews.com) - Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry's 1971
testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
reveals that the then anti-war activist admitted to writing many of the
battle reports during his four months of combat
in Vietnam.

Kerry told the committee on April 22, 1971, "...I can recall often
sending in the spot reports which we made after each
mission..."

Kerry also said that many in the military had "a tendency to report what
they want to report and see what they want to
see."

Kerry's comments about the battle reports came in response to a question
from then Senator Stuart Symington (D- Mo.),
who wondered about the accuracy of information from military sources.

According to the testimony , which is available in the Congressional
Record, Sen. Symington asked Kerry, "Mr. Kerry,
from your experience in Vietnam do you think it is possible for the
President or Congress to get accurate and
undistorted information through official military channels.[?]"

Kerry responded, "I had direct experience with that. Senator, I had
direct experience with that and I can recall often
sending in the spot reports which we made after each mission; and
including the GDA, gunfire damage assessments, in
which we would say, maybe 15 sampans sunk or whatever it was. And I
often read about my own missions in the Stars and
Stripes and the very mission we had been on had been doubled in figures
and tripled in figures.

Kerry later added, "I also think men in the military, sir, as do men in
many other things, have a tendency to report
what they want to report and see what they want to see."

Senator Symington: Mr. Kerry, from your experience in Vietnam do you
think it is possible for the President or Congress to get accurate and
undistorted information through official military channels?

(Shouts of "No" from the audience.)

Mr. Kerry: I don't know-

Senator Symington: I am beginning to think you have some supporters here.

Mr. Kerry: I don't know where they came from, sir, maybe Vietnam.

I had direct experience with that. Senator, I had direct experience with
that and I can recall often sending in the spot reports which we made
after each mission, and including the GDA, gunfire damage assessments,
in which we would say, maybe 15 sampans sunk or whatever it was. And I
often read about my own missions in the Stars and Stripes and the very
mission we had been on had been doubled in figures and tripled in figures.

The intelligence missions themselves are based on very, very flimsy
information. Several friends of mine were intelligence officers and I
think you should have them in sometime to testify. Once in Saigon I was
visiting this friend of mine and he gave me a complete rundown on how
the entire intelligence system should be re-set up on all of its
problems, namely, that you give a young guy a certain amount of money,
he goes out, sets up his own contacts under the table, gets
intelligence, comes in. It is not reliable; everybody is feeding each
other double intelligence, and I think that is what comes back to this
country.

I also think men in the military, sir, as do men in many other things,
have a tendency to report what they want to report and see what they
want to see. And this is a very serious thing because I know on several
visits- Secretary Laird came to Vietnam once and they staged an entire
invasion for him. When the initial force at Dang Tam, it was the 9th
Infantry when it was still there- when the initial recon platoon went
out and met with resistance, they changed the entire operation the night
before and sent them down into the South China Seas so they would not
run into resistance and the Secretary would have a chance to see how
smoothly the war was going.

I know General Wheeler came over at one point and major in Saigon
escorted him around. General Wheeler went out to the field and saw 12
pacification leaders and asked about 10 of them how things were going
and they all said, "It is really going pretty badly." The 11th one said,
"It couldn't be better, General. We are really doing the thing here to
win the war." And the General said, "I am finally glad to find somebody
who knows what he is talking about." (Laughter)

This is the kind of problem that you have. I think that the intelligence
which finally reaches the White House does have serious problems with it
in that I think you know full well, I know certainly from my experience,
I served as aide to an admiral in my last days in the Navy before I was
discharged, and I have seen exactly what the response is up the echelon,
the chain of command, and how things get distorted and people say to the
man above him what is needed to be said, to keep everybody happy, and so
I don't- I think the entire thing is distorted.

It is just a rambling answer.



The 34-year-old testimony could shed light on the present debate over
who wrote key battlefield reports that critics of
Kerry say allowed him to win awards.

This initals and signatures might shed a bit more light.


B. G. Burkett, author of the book Stolen Valor and a military
researcher, calls the 1971 testimony "significant."

"What is significant about this is [Kerry] is readily admitting that he
often submitted reports and he is implying that
he himself exaggerated in those reports," Burkett told CNSNews.com.

Did Burkett offer any evidence to support this accusation? None
appears above in this article. As quoted above, Kerry actually
said his reports were subsequently exagerrated by others.

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FF