New York

LET’S SEE WHERE WE STAND. Over the last few weeks, in television ads and a book titled Unfit for Command, a group of Vietnam veterans called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth has accused a fellow Vietnam veteran, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, of inflating his service record, among other things. They’ve said Kerry committed war crimes, including killing defensele
ss civilians, and they’ve said Kerry didn’t truly deserve the three Purple Hearts, one Silver Star, and one Bronze Star he received for his service in Vietnam. They’ve said there is no proof that Kerry was in Cambodia on Christmas Eve 1968, and the Kerry campaign was forced to concede that, well, they might be right. But the anti-Kerry veterans have also said there was no enemy fire on March 13, 1969, when Lt. (j.g.) Kerry pulled Green Beret Jim Rassmann from the murky waters of the Bay Hap river, and so far the documentary evidence–damage reports, three separate Bronze Star citations, the testimony of Rassmann and Kerry’s crewmates on PCF-94–suggests that, well, the anti-Kerry Swifties are probably wrong on this charge.