NEW YORK, Aug. 31 (UPI) -- Vietnam Swift Boat veterans launched a new TV ad Tuesday in key election states to help sink Sen. John Kerry's White House bid.
Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the controversial 527 advocacy group made up of Kerry's former river boat comrades who allege Kerry fabricated his war exploits, said the 30-second spot zeroes in on Kerry tossing his military award ribbons over a fence into the White House in 1971 as an anti-war activist.
"John Kerry can't have it both ways," said Adm. Roy Hoffmann, founder of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and former Kerry commander says in the ad. "Kerry tossed his medals away in the 1970s so that he could embrace the anti-war movement ... Now he thinks he can doctor up his war record and these same Veterans whom he insulted and attempted to disgrace will embrace him as a hero? No way."
The ad cost more than $400,000 to produce and ran in Florida and Tennessee. Two other ads were released elsewhere earlier this month. The ads and the publicity they generated are credited by analysts with torpedoing Kerry's popularity with veterans nationwide.
The Kerry campaign has counter-attacked, trying to undermine the credibility of the veterans in the ads attacking Kerry and accusing the group of working for the GOP.
