Kerry Starts Firing Back at Critics of War Record

Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kerry on Thursday lashed back for the first time against a group of Vietnam veterans critical of his wartime service, accusing them of doing President Bush’s “dirty work” and suggesting that he, in turn, would challenge Bush’s military record.

Two weeks after the veterans launched a television ad questioning Kerry’s actions in Vietnam, the back-and-forth over the former Navy lieutenant’s record envelops the campaign, as newfound records undercut the credibility of one of his critics.

During a speech to several thousand firefighters, Kerry directly challenged allegations by the group, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, that he concocted his wartime injuries for political gain.

“More than 30 years ago, I learned an important lesson: When you’re under attack, the best thing to do is turn your boat into the attacker. That’s what I intend to do today,” he told members of the International Assn. of Fire Fighters.

“Thirty years ago, official Navy reports and every person there documented my service in Vietnam and awarded me the Silver Star, the Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts. Thirty years ago, this was the plain truth. It still is. And I still carry the shrapnel in my leg from a wound in Vietnam.”

Kerry’s angry response Thursday marks an abrupt shift in strategy for the candidate, who had let surrogates address the accusations. Not only did the Massachusetts senator strike back personally, his campaign produced a new television ad defending his service, a slew of military records and a clutch of fellow veterans to testify to his actions.

The Swift boat group had run a 30-second television ad in three battleground states challenging the basis of Kerry’s war record, saying he lied about his experiences, didn’t deserve his medals and betrayed fellow servicemen by protesting the war after returning to the U.S. Though limited in its initial reach, the ad quickly gathered steam as a point of debate on websites, talk shows and cable television.

The campaign’s full-front attack Thursday amounted to recognition that the anti-Kerry group’s accusations could tarnish one of his greatest assets -- his decorated military service.

The attacks may have already hurt. According to a new poll by CBS News, Kerry has lost ground among veterans since the Democratic National Convention, when he ran neck and neck with Bush among those voters. Now, the president has an 18-point lead among that group, according to the poll, which surveyed 1,009 adults nationwide.

Meanwhile, newly released military records Thursday contradicted an account given by Larry Thurlow, a Swift boat group veteran who disputes that Kerry came under fire during a 1969 mission on the Bay Hap River. Kerry won a Bronze Star for his actions that day, when he fished a Green Beret officer out of the water.

A document recommending Thurlow for a Bronze Star said that his boat, along with Kerry’s and three others, fielded constant enemy fire that day, according to the Washington Post. Thurlow insisted Thursday that the records were based on Kerry’s account; he maintained his contention that Kerry lied about enemy fire.

None of the men in the Swift boat group behind the anti-Kerry ad, including Thurlow, served on Kerry’s patrol boat during the war. A Times review of their accusations found that, in addition to Thurlow, other members also had given contradictory accounts of incidents and offered evidence of Kerry’s alleged wrongdoing based on memories of events that they say they witnessed from a boat or two away.

Military documents and accounts of crewmates who did serve with Kerry support the view put forth by the candidate and his campaign -- that he acted courageously and came by his five medals honestly.

But the Swift boat group is standing by its account and announced Thursday that it would unveil a new ad today.

Kerry, in his speech to firefighters, noted that Robert J. Perry, a Texas developer and longtime contributor to Bush, had given the group $200,000. Harlan Crow of Dallas, a commercial real estate developer,

gave the group $25,000 on May 10.

The anti-Kerry ad aired in Wisconsin, Ohio and West Virginia from Aug. 5 to Aug. 12.

“They’re a front for the Bush campaign,” Kerry said. “And the fact that the president won’t denounce what they’re up to tells you everything that you need to know -- he wants them to do his dirty work.”

Kerry suggested that he would challenge Bush’s service record in the Texas Air National Guard, signaling a personal turn in the debate over the candidates’ wartime credentials.

“The president keeps telling people he would never question my service to our country,” he said. “Instead, he watches as a Republican-funded attack group does just that. Well, if he wants to have a debate about our service in Vietnam, here is my answer: Bring it on!”

The Bush campaign denied that the president was backing the group. Bush, the White House and the campaign again declined to denounce the ad.

“Sen. Kerry knows President Bush has called his service in Vietnam noble,” said spokesman Steve Schmidt, adding that Bush had also called for an end to campaign advertising by independent groups.

Russell also denied that the group was supported by the Bush campaign, calling Kerry’s comments predictable.

“We know the laws and we abide by them,” said Russell, noting that the group was an independent committee.

Initially, Kerry largely ignored the group and its ad. When the Swift boat group’s ad was released, he was in the middle of a post-convention, cross-country campaign swing, and aides said he did not want to give his critics more attention by responding directly.

But the anti-Kerry veterans -- and their challenge of Kerry’s credibility -- continued to gain notice. Since the ad debuted, the group has raised $450,000 from more than 10,000 contributors, largely through the group’s website.

Meanwhile, some of Kerry’s fellow veterans urged David Thorne, a close friend and advisor, to persuade the candidate to respond more forcefully.

“I think every veteran familiar with the situation who heard what was running around was enraged,” said Paul Nace, a longtime friend who served with Kerry in the Navy. “And so I think all of us wanted the campaign to get John and everybody else to respond.”

Kerry reversed course Wednesday night after arriving in Boston from a campaign trip to Cincinnati. As his motorcade pulled up to his Beacon Hill townhouse, he asked senior advisor David Morehouse, communications director Stephanie Cutter and press secretary David Wade to come inside.

With campaign manager Mary Beth Cahill on the phone, Kerry told his aides, “I think it’s time to go at this.”

Aides hired a delivery service to drive through the night from Washington, D.C., to Boston with thick, bound copies of Kerry’s naval records to distribute to reporters traveling with the candidate.

The campaign also cut a commercial overnight that features former Green Beret Jim Rassmann testifying about how Kerry pulled him from the river in the middle of battle.

The ad is set to air today in Ohio, West Virginia and Wisconsin -- the same states where the Swift boat group aired its spot. In airing it, the campaign reversed a decision to hold off on new TV ads until September.

Meanwhile, the campaign has hired Joe Lockhart, a Clinton White House spokesman, and Joel Johnson, a lobbyist who also worked for President Clinton, to help respond to attacks.

Cutter said that if charges about Kerry’s service continued, the candidate would “talk comparatively” about his military record and that of Bush, who has been shadowed by questions about whether he fulfilled his service while in the Texas Air National Guard.

Kerry has reversed himself several times on whether he thinks it’s appropriate to go after Bush’s military service record.

In February, when other Democrats demanded that Bush release his military records, Kerry said he would not pursue such a line of attack. Then in April, when critics accused Kerry of lying about throwing away his military decorations during a war protest, he fired back by charging that Bush could not account for all his time in the Air National Guard.

But this week, Kerry condemned as “inappropriate” an ad by an anti-Bush group that accused the president of using family connections to avoid combat in Vietnam, even as some of his surrogates repeated the ad’s charges in a press conference arranged by the campaign.

On Thursday, Kerry said: “I’m not going to let anyone question my commitment to defending America -- then, now, or ever.”

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Gold reported from Boston, La Ganga from San Francisco.