Kerry's exploits in Vietnam are disputed in best seller
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By Rowan Scarborough
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Democrats capped Sen. John Kerry's presidential
nomination last night by showing a Hollywood-produced
movie of his life, featuring amateur film clips and testaments
about his service in Vietnam as commander of a Navy
river patrol boat.
But a group of former sailors who served with Mr. Kerry
are telling a different story. Rather than depicting Mr. Kerry
as a war hero, they are quoted in a new book accusing him
of exaggerating and falsifying his experiences.

The group says that of 23 crew members photographed
with Mr. Kerry more than 30 years ago in Vietnam, only
one supports his presidential campaign. They will announce
a nationwide campaign by "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth"
to tell the American public about what they say is Mr.
Kerry's true war record.
The biographical movie shown last night, "A Remarkable
Promise," shows "family and friends talking about the courage
he has shown as a soldier and a veteran, the fights he has
waged for middle-class values and the faith in family he has
exhibited as a father and husband," the Kerry campaign said
before its prime-time convention appearance.
The film was produced by James Moll, a partner of
director Steven Spielberg.
The book, "Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak
Out Against John Kerry," from Regnery Publishing, is written
by John E. O'Neill. Mr. O'Neill served in Vietnam at the same
time as Mr. Kerry and followed him as commander on the swift
boat.
Mr. O'Neill, riled by what he considered Mr. Kerry's false
charge in 1971 of widespread war crimes committed by U.S.
troops, has waged a public debate with the politician dating
back to the "Dick Cavett Show" that year.
The book quotes Mr. Kerry's fellow combatants as saying
two of his Purple Hearts came from friendly fire, not the enemy.
The veterans also will dispute other stories Mr. Kerry has told.
"Unfit for Command" will not be released until Sept. 25, but
the online Drudge Report yesterday broke news of what it called
a "bombshell book." The book hit No. 2 on Amazon.com's
best-seller list. Radio and TV hosts were clamoring for Mr.
O'Neill to appear.
Regnery, which boasts a long list of best-selling conservative
books, has put a tight hold on information until the official release.
Some of the book's charges have been aired by Veterans for Truth.
Retired Rear Adm. Roy Hoffmann, who commanded Mr.
Kerry's task force in Vietnam, is one of the book's sources.
Adm. Hoffmann said yesterday he has supplied several
instances of Mr. Kerry's purported lies. One example, he said,
is Mr. Kerry's contention that he warned admirals of the folly
of a certain river operation. Adm. Hoffmann said he and
others were at the meeting, and that Mr. Kerry never made
such a statement.
"The real truth is he didn't say a ... word," Adm. Hoffmann
said.
Mr. Hoffmann is chairman of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth,
which plans what it calls a grass-roots campaign.
"We're going to tell the truth - the fact that he was a
perpetual, habitual liar," Adm. Hoffmann said. "I don't care
whether it was perjury or lying before the Senate of the United
States, or that two of his Purple Hearts are at least very specious,
if not absolutely false, because he filed false after-action reports."