From 60 Minutes

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-11-1999
From 60 Minutes
60
Thu, 09-09-2004 - 12:10am
A few months before Mr. Bush would become eligible for the draft, Barnes says he had a meeting with the late oilman Sid Adger, a friend to both Barnes and then-Congressman George Bush.

"It's been a long time ago, but he said basically would I help young George Bush get in the Air National Guard," says Barnes, who then contacted his longtime friend Gen. James Rose, the head of Texas' Air National Guard.

"I was a young ambitious politician doing what I thought was acceptable," says Barnes. "It was important to make friends. And I recommended a lot of people for the National Guard during the Vietnam era - as speaker of the house and as lt. governor."

George W. Bush was among those he recommended for the National Guard. Was this a case of preferential treatment?

"I would describe it as preferential treatment. There were hundreds of names on the list of people wanting to get into the Air National Guard or the Army National Guard," says Barnes. "I think that would have been a preference to anybody that didn't want to go to Vietnam or didn’t want to leave. We had a lot of young men that left and went to Canada in the '60s and fled this country. But those that could get in the Reserves, or those that could get in the National Guard - chances are they would not have to go to Vietnam."

But 60 Minutes has obtained a number of documents we are told were taken from Col. Killian's personal file. Among them, a never-before-seen memorandum from May 1972, where Killian writes that Lt. Bush called him to talk about "how he can get out of coming to drill from now through November."

Lt. Bush tells his commander "he is working on a campaign in Alabama…. and may not have time to take his physical." Killian adds that he thinks Lt. Bush has gone over his head, and is "talking to someone upstairs."

Col. Killian died in 1984. 60 Minutes consulted a handwriting analyst and document expert who believes the material is authentic.

In a memo from Aug. 18, 1973, Col. Killian says Col. Buck Staudt, the man in charge of the Texas Air National Guard, is putting on pressure to "sugar coat" the evaluation of Lt. Bush. Staudt, a longtime supporter of the Bush family, would not do an interview for this broadcast.

The memo continues, with Killian saying, "I’m having trouble running interference and doing my job."

"He was trying to deal with a volatile political situation, in dealing with the son of an ambassador and former congressman," says Strong. "He was trying to deal with at least one superior officer, Gen. Staudt, who was closely connected to the Houston political establishment. And I just see an impossible situation. I feel very, very sorry, because he was between a rock and a hard place."

One of the Killian memos is an official order to George W. Bush to report for a physical. The president never carried out the order.

On Aug. 1, 1972, Lt. Bush was suspended from flying status, due to "failure to accomplish his annual medical examination." That document was released years ago. But another document has not been seen until now. It’s a memo that Col. Jerry Killian put in his own file that same day. It says "on this date, I ordered that 1st Lt. Bush be suspended not just for failing to take a physical….but for failing to perform to U.S. Air Force/Texas Air National Guard standards."



dablacksox


Cynic: a blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be.---Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 08-07-2004
Thu, 09-09-2004 - 7:08am
"Lt. Bush called him to talk about "how he can get out of coming to drill from now through November."

"failure to perform to U.S. Air Force/Texas Air National Guard standards."

Both of these are solid evidence to me he didn't fulfill his commitment. I wonder how his supporters will try to spin it this time.


iVillage Member
Registered: 07-20-2003
Thu, 09-09-2004 - 7:27am
Guard Memos Cite Colonel’s Issues with Bush’s Service

BY PETE SLOVER

The Dallas Morning News



AUSTIN, Texas - (KRT) - President Bush's Air National Guard commander said he felt pressured by higher-ups to "sugarcoat" his evaluations of the young pilot after grounding Bush in 1972 in part for failing to perform up to standards, according to military memos disclosed Wednesday.

The documents, presented on the CBS News program "60 Minutes," appeared to contradict Bush's and the White House's longtime contention that the future president was voluntarily grounded in August 1972 because he took on non-flying duties while helping to run a political campaign in Alabama.

A Bush spokesman did not challenge the authenticity of the documents but dismissed the new information as "dirty politics."

"The facts are President Bush served," said White House Communications Director Dan Bartlett. "He served honorably. And that's why he was honorably discharged."

Bush has faced questions on whether he got special treatment in his admission to and service with the Guard during the Vietnam War. The memos, and a flurry of other news accounts this week about his service record, could shift focus in the presidential race, which has substantially churned around Democrat John Kerry's decorated Navy service in Vietnam.

Also on the CBS program, former Texas House Speaker Ben Barnes - a Kerry supporter - gave his first interview about his role in securing Bush his spot in the Texas Air National Guard and expressed remorse for his actions.

Democrats hailed the appearance as a revelation, and Republicans dismissed it as old news from a proven partisan.

Bush said in February that he would make all his military records available. But the documents on the CBS program were not among those the White House previously released.

The four memos were written by Lt. Col. Jerry Killian, Bush's commander at Ellington Air Force Base in Houston who died in 1984. They were in his personal file, and suggest his growing frustration at Bush's attitude toward fulfilling his Guard duty:

The first memo was Killian's May 4, 1972, order to Bush in Houston to take the physical required of all pilots within 10 days.

The second memo, dated May 19 - five days after the deadline expired for the physical - contains Killian's notations of a phone call from Bush, in which Bush inquired about options of how he could "get out of coming to drill" through November, when the political campaign in Alabama would conclude. Bush expressed his desire to transfer to an Alabama Guard unit - a later source of contention over whether he actually reported for duty there.

In the same memo, Killian said Bush told him he would complete his flight physical in Alabama if he took a flying slot there, but the colonel said he suspected Bush also was "talking to someone upstairs."

"He has this campaign to do and other things that will follow and may not have the time," Killian wrote. "I advised him of our investment in him and his commitment."

The third memo, dated Aug. 1, 1972, contains Killian's order suspending Bush from flying status for failure to take his physical and "failure to perform" to Air Force and Texas Air National Guard standards, which were not described in the memo.

And there is no mention of a phasing out of the aircraft Bush was trained to fly - one of the reasons previously cited by the White House for the grounding.

"Officer (Bush) has made no attempt to meet his training certification of flight physical." Killian wrote. "Officer expresses desire to transfer out of state including assignment to non-flying billets."

The fourth memo, a year after Bush's suspension from flying, had the subject "CYA." Killian cited pressure from Walter "Buck" Staudt, the top officer at Ellington who has since denied Bush got any special treatment.

"Staudt has obviously pressured (another officer) more about Bush. I'm having trouble running interference and doing my job," Killian wrote.

He complained that he was being asked to evaluate Bush, although Bush had not shown up at Ellington, and Killian had heard nothing from the Alabama Guard about his performance.

"Staudt is pushing me to sugar coat it," he wrote.

The Dallas Morning News reported in 1999 that Staudt was a close friend of Houston oilman Sid Adger, the Bush family friend who asked Barnes to help Bush get in the Guard during Vietnam.

Bartlett, the White House spokesman, cautioned against reading too much into the documents. "For anybody to try to interpret or presume they know what somebody who is now dead was thinking in any of these memos, I think is very difficult to do," he said.

Barnes' appearance was a high-profile reprise of what he has previously said about Bush and the Guard.

As speaker, Barnes - at the request of Adger - asked the top Guard general in 1968 to let Bush join. The Morning News first reported in 1999 that Barnes, who later became lieutenant governor, had sought to help Bush at that time, when his father was a Houston congressman.

Bush and his father have always insisted that they didn't know of or need Adger's or Barnes' help to secure a pilot's spot for the younger Bush.

Barnes' first public statements of regret were at a rally in May for Kerry in Austin. After a videotape of that recently began circulating on the Internet, Barnes spoke with CBS News anchor Dan Rather.

"It would be very easy for me to sit here and tell you, Dan, that I had wrestled with this and lost a lot of sleep at night, but I wouldn't be telling you the truth," he said of helping Bush and others into the Guard. "I ... not eagerly, but readily, was willing to call and get those young men into the National Guard that were friends of mine and supporters of mine."

At another point, Barnes, 66, described walking past the Vietnam Memorial in Washington and his regrets at the blitheness of his youthful influence wielding.

"I don't think that I had any right to have the power that I had to choose who was going to Vietnam and who was not going to Vietnam," he said. "That's power. In some instances, when I looked at those names, I was maybe determining life or death, and that's not a power that I want to have."

For Barnes, a hugely successful Washington lobbyist listed among top Democratic fund-raisers, his friends say the TV appearance could add up to a final estrangement from Republicans and an all-or-nothing bet on the Kerry ticket.

Even before the program aired, the Republican National Committee called Barnes "a deep-pocketed Kerry partisan who can't keep his stories straight."

The Kerry campaign had no immediate comment. National Democratic Party chief Terry McAuliffe said Bush's "cover story on his National Guard service is rapidly unraveling" and that he "needs to answer why he regularly misled the American people about his time in the Guard."

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/special_packages/election2004/9613235.htm

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-20-2003
Thu, 09-09-2004 - 8:47am
Do you hear that allianor?

It's the sound of crickets coming from Bush's cheerleading section on this subject.
iVillage Member
Registered: 04-05-2004
Thu, 09-09-2004 - 8:53am
It just isn't worth debating. Kerry's campaign is sooooo clueless about what most people care about. LOL!
iVillage Member
Registered: 04-05-2003
Thu, 09-09-2004 - 9:38am
I disagree. Kerry is the only one talking about things that are relevant. Bush and Cheney are not connected to the real America and her people. "It IS the economy s....."

I'm waiting for the howling from the Bush supporters regarding the 60 Minute Show. His campaign people started the questioning of Kerry's military service. Let's see if our Connecticut Cowboy can take it, too.

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-05-2004
Thu, 09-09-2004 - 9:41am
Then by all means, keep trying.
iVillage Member
Registered: 07-20-2003
Thu, 09-09-2004 - 9:48am
I agree with you springtime.

It's a fairly common ploy for Bush minions to sidestep and deflect difficult questions regarding Bush with a sneer and a smear.

Bush and his Republubican strategists are setting the example.

His unquestioning flock are following that example.

I said it in another post and I'll repeat it here.

The sad and sickening irony for me is that Bush is calling up Guardsmen and women to support his invasion and occupation in Iraq while he himself neglected his Guard duty while his country was at war.
Avatar for tmcgoughy
iVillage Member
Registered: 04-08-2003
Thu, 09-09-2004 - 3:08pm

I am pretty sure that I have seen you post to just about every debate about Kerry's Vietnam service and you have even started some threads on the subject.

The first key to wisdom is constant and frequent questioning, for by doubting we are led to question and by questioning we arrive at the truth.  -
iVillage Member
Registered: 11-13-2003
Thu, 09-09-2004 - 3:23pm
Awwww, tough luck again -- proof of forged Killian memos:

UPDATE: Thanks to all the readers who have written regarding this post. Several have pointed out that the Executive line of IBM typewriters did have proportionally spaced fonts, although no reader has found the font used in the memos to be a familiar one or thought that the an IBM Executive was likely to have been used by the National Guard in the early 1970's. Reader Monty Walls has also cited the IBM Selectric Composer. However, reader Eric Courtney adds this wrinkle: The "Memo To File" of August 18, 1973 also used specialized typesetting characters not used on typewriters. These include the superscript "th" in 187th, and consistent ’ (right single quote) used instead of a typewriter's generic ' (apostrophe). These are the sorts of things that typesetters did manually until the advent of smart correction in things like Microsoft Word. UPDATE 2: Reader John Risko adds: I was a clerk/typist for the US Navy at the Naval Underwater Systems Center (NUSC) in Newport RI for my summer job in 1971 when I was in college. I note the following with regard to the Killian memos:

1) Tom Mortensen is absolutely correct. Variable type was used only for special printing jobs, like official pamphlets. These documents are forgeries, and not even good ones. Someone could have at least found an old pre-Selectric IBM (introduced around 1962). Actually, I believe we were using IBM Model C's at the time, which was the precursor to the Selectric.

2) I also used a Variype machine in 1971. I fooled around with it in my spare time. It was incredibly difficult to set up and use. It was also extremely hard to correct mistakes on the machine. Most small letters used two spaces. Capital letters generally used three spaces. I think letters like "i" may have used one space. Anyway, you can see that this type of machine was piloted by an expert, and it would NEVER be used for a routine memo. A Lt. Colonel would not be able to identify a Varitype machine, let alone use it.

3) US Navy paper at the time was not 8 1/2 x 11. It was 8 x 10 1/2. I believe this was the same throughout the military, but someone will have to check on that. This should show up in the Xeroxing, which should have lines running along the sides of the Xerox copy.

4) I am amused by the way "147 th Ftr.Intrcp Gp." appears in the August 1, 1972 document. It may have been written that way in non-forged documents, but as somone who worked for ComCruDesLant, I know the military liked to bunch things together. I find "147 th" suspicious looking. 147th looks better to me, but the problem with Microsoft Word is that it keeps turning the "th" tiny if it is connected to a number like 147. And finally......

5) MORE DEFINITIVE PROOF OF FORGERY: I had neglected even to look at the August 18, 1973 memo to file. This forger was a fool. This fake document actually does have the tiny "th" in "187th" and there is simply no way this could have occurred in 1973. There are no keys on any typewriter in common use in 1973 which could produce a tiny "th." The forger got careless after creating the August 1, 1972 document and slipped up big-time.

In summary, the variable type reveals the Killian memos to be crude forgeries, the tiny "th" confirms it in the 8/18/73 memo, and I offer my other points as icing on the cake.

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-13-2003
Thu, 09-09-2004 - 3:24pm
...but of course Kerry-lovers don't care about anything that refutes what they know to be "true" without question.

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