abcnews.go.com/Nightline/Vote2004/story?id=166434&page=1
Change+HP originalreport originalreport What Happened in Kerry's Vietnam Battles? John Kerry relaxes with his puppy VC while stationed in the Mekong Delta in 1969, during the Vietnam War .
John Kerry's service in Vietnam, Americans have heard from Kerry, from the crew of the Navy Swift boats he commande d, and from other Swift boat veterans who question the official account of a 1969 incident for which Kerry was awarded a Silver Star. But there is one group they have not heard from: the Vietnamese who were there tha t day. According to the military citation, Kerry was awarded the medal for his a ctions during an intense firefight on Feb. M embers of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth group have charged that the Viet Cong fighter was a teenager who was alone, who was not part of a nu merically superior force, and who was already wounded and running away w hen Kerry shot him.
Afghanistan Staging Presidential Election Nightline traveled to Vietnam and found a number of witnesses who have ne ver been heard from before, and who have no particular ax to grind for o r against Kerry. The witnesses, all Vietnamese, are still living in the same villages where t he fighting took place more than 35 years ago. A Nightline producer visi ted them and recorded their accounts of that day. The accounts were subs equently translated by a team of ABC News translators. For the full report, watch Nightline Thursday night at 11:35 pm ET on A BC. A Village Unchanged Life along the Bay Hap River in Southern Vietnam has changed very little in those years. The river is lined with small hamlets and isolated shack s reachable only by boat. They are surrounded by marshland, separated by winding canals, and concealed by thick walls of vegetation. The canals lead to Tran Thoi village, the coordinates of which are public ly available in the US military's after-action report on the 1969 batt le. The Vietnamese government initially rejected Nightline's request to visit the village, saying they did not want to somehow influence the US . Once Nightline explained that the intention was to simply find out what the Vietnamese people remember and think of wha t happened there, permission was granted. According to Kerry's medal citation, the boats "came under intense automatic weapons and small arms fire from an entrenched enemy force les s than 50 feet away.
The Swift boats, which were transporting a group of the Americans' South Vietnamese allies, turned into the ambush and beached. According to the after-action report, the South Vietnamese troops stormed ashore, overwhe lming the local insurgents.
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