Here's the text of an interview with John Kerry in which he likens himself to the Martin Sheen character in Apocalypse Now, excerpted from an article in the Boston Herald (documented by Instapundit):
On more than one occasion, I, like Martin Sheen in "Apocalypse Now," took my patrol boat into CambodiaIn fact, I remember spending Christmas Day of 1968 five miles across the Cambodian border being shot at by our South Vietnamese Allies who were drunk and celebrating Christmas. The absurdity of almost being killed by our own allies in a country in which President Nixon claimed there were no American troops was very real. But nowhere in "Apocalypse Now" did I sense that kind of absurdity.
It's not the only place he makes reference to this event, but it's the creepiest one because of the parallels he drew between himself and the Sheen character, and by inference to the lead character in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. And what's creepiest about it is that the event is a total hallucination. In fact, Nixon wasn't even President in 1968, but that's far from the only reason we know it never happened. In actuality the appropriate parallel here probably isn't with Apocalypse Now but with Crazy Dick, the borderline psychotic U.S. President.
Let's not elect this guy, please. Please! OK?
Posted by Demosophist at August 11, 2004 04:44 PM | TrackBackI'm wondering about Kerry's psychological reactions to being called on his lies. Granted, he's being given a pass so far by the mainstream media, but he does have spokesmen on some of the cable channels responding to the Cambodia discrepancies, so, I assume, he had to speak to some advisors and maybe his wife and Edwards and confront his fabrications.
Did he believe his own fantasy image of himself? Can he deal with that fantasy being eroded? Some politicians lie easily and even tell real whoppers (Clinton and Reagan come to mind), but Kerry doesn't seem to me to have the sort of comfortable self-image and political principles that seemed to keep those other politicians centered.