[internetworkers] ABC Interviews Vietnam Villagers
Michael Czeiszperger
michael at czeiszperger.org
Fri Oct 15 11:34:43 EDT 2004
This story is particularly interesting in that members of the Swift
Boat Veterans for Truth had already been to this particular village,
and apparently tried to get villagers to say on video that Kerry didn't
deserve his medals. But unfortunately for the SBVFT, the accounts of
soldiers who were actually in the battle remembered events in much the
same way as the official Navy reports.
His wife, Vo Thi Vi, 54, said Feb. 28, 1969, is a day that the
villagers of Nha Vi hamlet will never forget. "Everything was
destroyed," she said. "There's no houses left. They leveled everything.
There was no leaves left. The fighting was very fierce."
[...]
That account is disputed by Swift boat veteran John O'Neill, author of
"Unfit for Command," who maintains in his book that the statement "is
simply false. There was little or no fire."
[...]
"... they have no problem remembering Ba Thanh, the man who has been
dismissed by Kerry's detractors as "a lone, wounded, fleeing, young
Vietcong in a loincloth." (The description comes from "Unfit for
Command," by Swift boat veteran John O'Neill.)
"No, this is not correct," Nguyen Thi Tuoi, 77, told ABC News. "He
wore a black pajama. He was strong. He was big and strong. He was about
26 or 27."
http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/Vote2004/story?id=166434&page=1
___________________________________________________________________
michael at czeiszperger dot org
Chapel Hill, NC
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