Richard Nixon & Those SmearBoatWeaselsforLies (swift boat veterans for truth) - And an open letter to the President

by Keith Krebs

As a Republican with INTEGRITY and a veteran, I find that even if President Bush will not, I  must join with Senator John McCain, and personally take a public stand against the "SleazeBoatWeaselsforUntruths."

Let's all be honest.  Whether we call them the "SmearBoatWeaselsforLies" or the "SleazeBoatPlumbersforUntruths"  (aka "SwiftBoatVeteransforTruth"), these guys are basically a bunch of Vietnam era veterans who 30 years later still harbor a violent hatred for John Kerry and any other vets who opposed the war.  They just weren't smart enough to parse the difference between opposing the war and still supporting our troops. Since then, they've been shadowing John Kerry and trying a new smear job whenever he is involved in ANY political race.

However, there is a darker side to this group, a side the history of which goes back to the king of political dirty tricks and his court jesters: President Richard Nixon, Charles Colson, and John Haldeman, of the White House Plumbers crew, - the very same John Haldeman and Charles Colson involved in Watergate. It's not surprising that George W. Bush, who spent those same years partying wildly, and serving (or being AWOL) as a member of the Texas Air National Guard's Champagne Squadron, guarding the skies of Texas from invasion while John Kerry was shot at and served heroically in the tropical, disease infested, rice paddies and marshes of the Mekong Delta.

But I'll let you read it for yourself, herewith are transcripts of two Oval Office conversations from the Nixon White House - the discussion concerns John O'Neill, now the guiding light of "SwiftBoatVeteransforTruth," and then Vietnam Veterans Against the War activist John Kerry:

June 2, 1971: Oval Office meeting with Bob Haldeman

Haldeman: We got these guys now forming this Veterans for a - Peace with Justice, or uh - the veterans -  

Nixon: They came in to see me? Are they here?

Haldeman: No we don't want them to be able to see you yet. We don't want to -

Nixon: Who are they?

Haldeman: Well, it's this guy, uh, he's got a beard, one of 'em, and there's this Navy officer [John O'Neill], just got out yesterday -

President: Yeah.

Haldeman: -- crew cut, real sharp looking guy who is more articulate than Kerry.. He's not as eloquent; he isn't the ham that Kerry is. But he's more believable.

[edit]

Haldeman:  Colson put this together.

[edit]

Haldeman: This guy now [O'Neill], is gonna, he's gonna move on Kerry. He's gonna move around the country.

June 16, 1971:  Oval Office meeting with John O'Neill

Nixon: I really feel that what you're doing, you'll take brickbats, you go on some of these TV shows like the Cavett thing, you're gonna get banged, but - you'll get terribly discouraged and say the whole country's - and so forth. But I think ya gotta remember, uh, you have to remember, that uh, that uh, now {unintelligible] in Vietnam should be enough, that now you would have the [unint] to get back and reassure people that those few that come back - like Kerry and the rest - don't speak for all.

[edit]

Nixon: That's great. Give it to him, give it to him. And you can do it, because you have a pleasant manner, too, because you've got - and I think it's a great service to the country.

[edit]

Nixon: You fellows have been out there. You've got to know, seeing the barbarians that we're up against, you've got to know  what we're doing in that horrible swamp that North Vietnam is.  33:40 You've got to know from all our faults of what we have in this country that, that what we're doing is right. You've got to know too, people are critics. Critics of the war, critics of [unint], run America down. Those that are, uh - well in every respect, either get out of Vietnam, get out of [unint], get out of the world, etcetera etcetera. You've gotta know that you're on the winning s""that, that you're on the right side.