Kerry takes up $1 million offer to disprove swiftboat vets

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., has accepted a $1 million offer by Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens to anyone who can disprove a single charge of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the group that challenged his Vietnam war record during the 2004 presidential race.

Kerry wrote a letter to Pickens, saying he would donate any proceeds to the Paralyzed Veterans of America, the Associated Press reported.

"While I am prepared to show they lied on allegation after allegation, you have generously offered to pay one million dollars for just one thing that can be proven false. I am prepared to prove the lie beyond any reasonable doubt," Kerry wrote.

"I trust that you are a man of your word, having made a very public challenge at a major Washington dinner, and look forward to taking you up on this challenge," the senator said.

Kerry said he was willing to present his case directly to Pickens, who donated $3 million the swiftboat vets during the 2004 election.

Pickens make his offer Nov. 6 while serving as chairman of a 40th anniversary gala in Washington for American Spectator magazine, the AP said.

Kerry told Pickens he would travel to Dallas to meet with him in a public forum or invite him to Massachusetts. The senator suggested the visit could include a trip to the Paralyzed Veterans of America office to see how Pickens' money could be put to use.

T. Boone Pickens

As WND reported in March, Kerry turned a Senate hearing on an ambassadorship to Belgium into an opportunity to grill a supporter of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. The senator pressed nominee Sam Fox on why he donated $50,000 to the group, beginning with the question, "Might I ask you what your opinion is with respect to the state of American politics as regards the politics of personal destruction?"

The Associated Press report of Kerry's questioning during the hearing called the claims of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth "unsubstantiated." But the group maintains none of its many charges were debunked, pointing out Kerry himself never responded, other than to call them liars; and his campaign simply ignored most of the accusations presented in the group's No. 1 New York Times best-seller "Unfit for Command."

When the campaign did respond to specific claims, it was to backtrack, such as in the case of Kerry's long-held assertion he was in Cambodia illegally Christmas Eve 1968.

Kerry had claimed his swiftboat was ordered to Cambodia by President Nixon while the president denied to the world that any U.S. military forces were engaged in the country. The event was "seared, seared" into his memory, Kerry said on many occasions, including from the Senate floor. It was an experience that helped him conclude the war was immoral and worthy of protest. But Nixon did not become president until Jan. 20, 1969, and none of Kerry's former crew members, including those who campaigned for him, back his story.

Instead of addressing the Swift Boat Veterans' specific claims, the Kerry campaign threatened lawsuits against the television stations that aired the group's ads, demanded publisher Regnery pull "Unfit for Command," accused the group of being run by the Republican Party and attacked the character of co-authors John O'Neill and Jerome Corsi.

Mainstream media also repeated the assertion that the claims against Kerry were debunked, without providing evidence. Those who offered evidence contended the military's records supported Kerry's version of events, without mentioning the group's vets' assertion that it was Kerry himself who wrote the "official record" in many instances, in after-action reports.

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