Clinton ‘Simply Doesn’t Tell the Truth,’ Quayle Charges : Politics: He attacks the Democrat’s integrity over statements on anti-war protests and the draft, but says Vietnam opposition wasn’t unpatriotic.

Vice President Dan Quayle attacked Bill Clinton’s credibility and character on Saturday, but stressed he was not suggesting that the Democratic presidential nominee’s opposition to the Vietnam War was unpatriotic.

At an airport news conference, Quayle said the Arkansas governor “simply doesn’t tell the truth” about the extent of his involvement in anti-war protests during his days as a Rhodes scholar in England or about his efforts to avoid the draft.

“It’s not the fact that he was against the Vietnam War,” the vice president said as he prepared for an afternoon of campaigning. “Many people were. But he first says he didn’t take part in an anti-Vietnam protest. Now we find that he organized one. He doesn’t tell the truth, that’s the focus.”

Clinton long has said that he opposed the Vietnam War. But he only recently acknowledged that he once mobilized an anti-war teach-in during his student days in London.

Quayle’s remarks differed in tone from harsh criticism he leveled at Clinton last week in a television interview in St Louis, in which he said Clinton “ought to apologize” to the American public for having “organized an anti-American protest on foreign soil.”

Quayle was echoing criticism of Clinton’s involvement in the overseas protests that President Bush made Wednesday night on a television talk show.

The vice president’s comments Saturday seemed to reflect the sentiment of some Bush campaign officials that he needs to treat the Vietnam issue gingerly. These officials believe the issue could backfire on Quayle by reminding voters that he chose to spend the war years in the Indiana National Guard rather than expose himself to the draft, which would have dramatically increased his chances of being sent to Vietnam.

Quayle, however, did not back away from attacking Clinton, saying: “The American people are beginning to see that Gov. Clinton lacks the integrity to be President of the United States.

“He hasn’t told the truth about avoiding military service. At first he said he didn’t get a draft notice. Then it turns out that he did.”

Before returning to Washington late Saturday, Quayle addressed an enthusiastic but rain-dampened crowd of several hundred at a farm rally outside Toledo and appeared briefly at a Republican fund-raising reception. He also stopped by a bowling alley to try his hand, making five futile but good-natured attempts to bowl a strike.