View source

==Mission==

<youtube size="small" align="right" caption="The Nightline news show did a story examining one of the many accusations the Swift Boat Vets made against John Kerry's war record. They interviewed eyewitnesses at a Vietnam site where Kerry earned the Silver Star. The eyewitness account of what happened contradicts the Swift Boat Vets accusation. For the rest of the Nightline report, [http://youtube.com/watch?v=vV6CJBClHTw&feature=related click here].">Yp7P5b_boz4</youtube>The group is devoted to calling Kerry's war record into question, particularly with regard to the length of his tour of duty and the nature of the injuries for which he received three [[Purple Heart]]s, a Bronze Star and a Silver Star. It has also questioned claims by Kerry that he was sent on an illegal mission to Cambodia in December of 1968. 

"Our  mission is to provide solid factual information relating to Mr. Kerry's abbreviated tour of duty as a member of Coastal Division 14 and Coastal Division 11.  Since many who are involved with Swiftvets.com themselves had swift boat duty and knew John Kerry personally, they are in a unique position to provide such information," their website previously stated. [http://web.archive.org/web/20040430021820/http://www.swiftvets.com/Index2.htm]

It also takes issue with Kerry's remarks 30 years ago that "[[war crime]]s" were taking place throughout the military conflicts in and about Vietnam "on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command." 
[http://www.swiftvets.com/index.php?topic=WarCrimes][http://www.richmond.edu/~ebolt/history398/JohnKerryTestimony.html] In a May 2004 letter to Kerry, the SBVT wrote "It is our collective judgment that, upon your return from Vietnam, you grossly and knowingly distorted the conduct of the American soldiers, marines, sailors and airmen of that war (including a betrayal of many of us, without regard for the danger your actions caused us.) Further, we believe that you have withheld and/or distorted material facts as to your own conduct in this war."

In his [[John Kerry's 1971 Senate Testimony|testimony before Congress]], Kerry recounted statements by Vietnam Veterans at the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_Soldier_Investigation Winter Soldier hearings] of incidents by some troops in what were alleged to be war crimes. [http://web.archive.org/web/20000706200626/http://www.pbs.org/greatspeeches/timeline/j_kerry_s.html] These comments were later played back, out of context, in the SBVT ads. [http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/08/25/1410215] [http://www.commondreams.org/news2004/0824-03.htm]