Kerry camp attacks 'smears' on war service

LAWYERS for presidential hopeful John Kerry yesterday attacked "false and libellous" political adverts by former Vietnam veterans who claim the senator shot a fleeing teenager during the war and lied to win medals.

The group, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, claim Mr Kerry, who is challenging George W Bush for the presidency, also burned down a village and ordered animals to be shot during his time as a Navy officer in Vietnam.

The former veterans, funded by a wealthy Texan Republican donor, have bought €400,000 worth of advertising time to make their claims.

A spokesman for the Democratic Massachusetts Senator accused the former veterans of attempting a political "smear".

Mr Kerry's war record is a cornerstone of his campaign for the White House. Many of the men he served with, as a Swift Boat captain in the Mekong Delta, have joined his campaign. But others, who Mr Kerry's lawyers claim never served directly with him, have levelled damaging claims against him and questioned the three Purple Hearts, the Bronze Star and the Silver Star he was awarded for his Vietnam service.

On top of the adverts, a book entitled Unfit For Command has been written by anti-Kerry veteran John O'Neill. "What his fellow Swiftees concluded was that Kerry had a very high regard for his own well-being and very little nerve for facing serious combat," he writes.

The book adds: "Kerry earned his Silver Star by killing a lone, fleeing, teenage Viet Cong in a loincloth."

It claims Mr Kerry burned down a Vietnamese village with his Zippo lighter, even though there was no sign that it was being used by the enemy. The book claims the three Purple Hearts, for injury in the line of duty, were awarded to Mr Kerry for minor wounds which did not need medical treatment.

A spokesman for Mr Kerry, Chad Clanton, said the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth had a "partisan political agenda".

"It's wrong for others to try and smear an American war hero," the spokesman said.

The veterans' adverts have been paid for by Texan businessman Bob Perry, who has given at least €210,000 to Republican candidates and party committees in recent years.

Lawyers for Mr Kerry yesterday wrote to media outlets urging them not to run the 60-second advert produced by what they called a "sham organisation".

The letter added that a doctor who appears in the advert to criticise the awarding of a Purple Heart to Mr Kerry never treated the presidential contender.

"The statements made by the phoney 'crewmates' and 'doctor' who appear in the advertisement are also totally, demonstrably and unequivocally false, and libellous," the letter adds. Mr Kerry volunteered for service in Vietnam when he left Yale. He has made political capital out of his service, saying in his speech to the Democratic National Convention last week: "I defended this country as a young man and I will defend it as president."