Swift Boat Veterans for Truth's claims about John Kerry
| Swift Boat Veterans for Truth's claims about John Kerry | |
|---|---|
| UNSUPPORTED | |
| "Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry lied about his Vietnam War service, did not deserve his Silver Star, Bronze Star and Purple Hearts, and fabricated the circumstances in which he earned them." | |
| Domain | Politics & Elections |
| Tactic | Propaganda Technique Statistical & Evidentiary Distortion |
| Era | Current |
| First seen | 2004 |
| Origin | Television ads and the book Unfit for Command by the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth during the 2004 US presidential campaign |
| Last reviewed | 2026-10-27 |
| Further reading: books on Politics & Elections | |
The claims of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth about John Kerry were made in a series of television advertisements and a bestselling book during the 2004 presidential campaign. The group, made up of veterans who had served on Navy swift boats in Vietnam, accused Kerry, the Democratic nominee, of lying about the actions for which he received combat medals. Navy records, after-action reports and the accounts of most men who served on Kerry's boat contradicted the central allegations, and some members of the group had previously praised Kerry or described the same events differently. Fact-checkers found that the major claims were unsupported. The campaign was nonetheless effective, and "swiftboating" entered the political vocabulary as a term for an unfair or untrue political attack.
The claim
Beginning in August 2004, the group's ads featured veterans saying Kerry had lied to get his Bronze Star and Purple Hearts and had betrayed fellow servicemen with his antiwar testimony to Congress in 1971. The book Unfit for Command, by John O'Neill and Jerome Corsi, elaborated the charges, including that Kerry's wounds were minor or self-inflicted and that the river incidents for which he was decorated did not involve enemy fire.
What the evidence shows
- Official records. Navy records and medal citations described enemy fire in the incidents in question. One key accuser, Larry Thurlow, who said there had been no enemy fire during the March 1969 incident for which Kerry received the Bronze Star, had himself received a Bronze Star for the same engagement, with a citation referring to enemy fire.
- Crewmates. Most of the men who served on Kerry's boat supported his account. Jim Rassmann, a Special Forces officer whom Kerry pulled from the river in that incident, said they had been under fire and credited Kerry with saving his life.
- Changed accounts. Some members of the group had earlier praised Kerry's service. George Elliott, who had recommended Kerry for the Silver Star, signed an affidavit for the group, then told a reporter he had been wrong to do so, then reaffirmed his criticism.
- Fact-checkers. FactCheck.org and other organizations concluded that the group's main allegations were unsupported by records and contradicted by witnesses.
- A valid point. Critics did identify one inaccuracy in Kerry's own statements: he had told the Senate in 1986 that he had been in Cambodia on Christmas Eve 1968, which he could not substantiate; his campaign later said he had been near the border.
- Campaign finance. The group was funded largely by a few wealthy donors, including Texas home builder Bob Perry. In 2006 the Federal Election Commission fined it $299,500 for violating campaign finance rules.
Why it persists
The swift boat campaign became a case study in how a well-funded independent group can damage a candidate by attacking a perceived strength, in this case Kerry's war record, with claims that are hard for voters to evaluate. Kerry's slow response was widely seen as a mistake. The episode also demonstrated how a single genuine inaccuracy can be used to lend credibility to a much larger set of unsupported claims.
Lessons for readers
- Compare accusations with contemporaneous records, such as citations and after-action reports.
- Ask whether accusers' current statements match what they said or did earlier.
- Weigh the accounts of those closest to an event.
- A single genuine error does not validate unrelated allegations.
- Consider who is funding a campaign of accusations.
See also
- The Killian documents on George W. Bush's National Guard service
- Hillary Clinton landed under sniper fire in Bosnia
- Barack Obama was born in Kenya
Sources
- FactCheck.org, "Republican-funded Group Attacks Kerry's War Record," August 6, 2004, and follow-up analyses.
- John E. O'Neill and Jerome R. Corsi, Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry (Regnery, 2004).
- Michael Dobbs, "Records Counter a Critic of Kerry," The Washington Post, August 19, 2004.
- Federal Election Commission, conciliation agreement with Swift Boat Veterans and POWs for Truth (2006).