Boston.com / News / Nation / Veteran retracts criticism of Kerry
A week after Senator John F. Kerry heralded his wartime experience by surrounding himself at the Democratic convention with his Vietnam ”Band of Brothers,” a separate group of veterans has launched a television ad campaign and a book that questions the basis for some of Kerry’s combat medals.
But yesterday, a key figure in the anti-Kerry campaign, Kerry’s former commanding officer, backed off one of the key contentions. Lieutenant Commander George Elliott said in an interview that he had made a ”terrible mistake” in signing an affidavit that suggests Kerry did not deserve the Silver Star — one of the main allegations in the book. The affidavit was given to The Boston Globe by the anti-Kerry group to justify assertions in their ad and book.
Elliott is quoted as saying that Kerry ”lied about what occurred in Vietnam . . . for example, in connection with his Silver Star, I was never informed that he had simply shot a wounded, fleeing Viet Cong in the back.”
The statement refers to an episode in which Kerry killed a Viet Cong soldier who had been carrying a rocket launcher, part of a chain of events that formed the basis of his Silver Star. Over time, some Kerry critics have questioned whether the soldier posed a danger to Kerry’s crew. Crew members have said Kerry’s actions saved their lives.
Yesterday, reached at his home, Elliott said he regretted signing the affidavit and said he still thinks Kerry deserved the Silver Star.
”I still don’t think he shot the guy in the back,” Elliott said. ”It was a terrible mistake probably for me to sign the affidavit with those words. I’m the one in trouble here.”
Elliott said he was no under personal or political pressure to sign the statement, but he did feel ”time pressure” from those involved in the book. ”That’s no excuse,” Elliott said. ”I knew it was wrong . . . In a hurry I signed it and faxed it back. That was a mistake.”
The affidavit also contradicted earlier statements by Elliott, who came to Boston during Kerry’s 1996 Senate campaign to defend Kerry on similar charges, saying that Kerry acted properly and deserved the Silver Star.
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It’s good to see someone who can admit he was wrong and made a mistake. When we have a president who can’t think of any mistakes he has made, after 3000 people died in an attack on this country and thouands have died in a needless war in Iraq, it’s good to know there are still those who can admit they were wrong to fall into the spell of these people who think we can all be manipulated into giving them our country.
We all make mistakes – it’s a part of being human. The strongest people are those who own up to those mistakes and learn from them, rather than denying they have ever failed or made any mistakes. Only when a leader can admit mistakes and correct them can we know they deserve our trust.
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