By
The Associated Press
NEW YORK - Former Sen. Bob Kerrey, after publicly acknowledging that he led a squad that killed women and children during the Vietnam War, said yesterday that he did not plan to return the Bronze Star he was awarded after the incident.
"It's not my intent to do so," Kerrey told a crowded Manhattan news conference. "The medal has meant nothing to me. ... I put it away with other memories as far as I could."
Kerrey, a Democrat who served as governor and senator from Nebraska and ran for president in 1992, publicly disclosed the incident this week. He said he has been haunted by the memory of the killings and has kept the details private, even from his children.
Once he told them, he said, "they told me they still love me."
Kerrey received the Bronze Star for the Feb. 25, 1969, raid in the Mekong Delta. The award citation says 21 Viet Cong were killed and enemy weapons were captured or destroyed, though Kerrey has said he told his superiors there were civilian casualties.
Witness' and official accounts of the number of dead varies from 13 to more than 20.
Kerrey said he and his six-member squad began shooting only after they were shot at in a free-fire zone - an area cleared of civilians by the U.S. military. Anyone remaining was assumed by South Vietnamese and U.S. forces to be the enemy.
"It may be that I did nothing wrong," Kerrey said. "But I felt like I did something wrong. Here's what happened, and I cannot justify it."
The incident was part of an effort to halt Viet Cong movements and activities in the Mekong Delta.
Kerrey, then 25, was a lieutenant leading an elite seven-man team of Navy SEALS. They were approaching an area where intelligence suggested a Viet Cong meeting was to take place.
As Kerrey and his men approached two huts on a dark, moonless night, they were fired upon and returned it on Kerrey's orders. Once the shooting stopped, they found that the only people killed were women, children and older men.
"We fired because we were fired upon," Kerrey said. "We did not go out on a mission to kill innocent people. I feel guilty about what happened."
In a telephone interview with The Associated Press, Kerrey said he remains convinced that the information that prompted the raid was accurate and that the gunfire indicated the Viet Cong had spotted the Americans first. He said his team took no casualties but never got close enough to see Viet Cong.
"Were there only civilians? I don't know that. I don't know that there were not (Viet Cong) in there," he said.
Viet Cong troops generally wore the same black pajamas as Vietnamese peasants. Asked if he ever saw civilians and Viet Cong soldiers dressed differently, Kerrey replied, "No."
A military radio log, reviewed by the AP at the National Archives, contains an entry dated three days after the incident. It says, in part, "an old man from Thanh Phong presented himself to District Chief Headquarters with claims for retribution for alleged atrocities committed the night of 25 and 26 February 69 ... thus far it appears 24 people were killed. 13 were women and children and one old man. 11 were unidentified assumed to be (Viet Cong)."
Another squad member, Mike Ambrose, has said he believed the Viet Cong were firing from behind the women and children before fleeing.
Kerrey had remained silent on the incident until recently, when former squad member Gerhard Klann told "60 Minutes II" and The New York Times that Vietnamese civilians were herded into a group and massacred.
Kerrey said he does not know why his former colleague claims the civilians were gathered together and shot.
"I don't know his motive," Kerrey said.
But Kerrey said he would not challenge Klann's version of the shooting. He replied, "Oh, sure," when asked whether memories of such events fade or change with time.
Klann did not return a telephone call yesterday from the AP - neither did Lee "Doc" Schrier, another member of Kerrey's squad.
Seventeen days after the incident, Kerrey earned the Medal of Honor - America's highest military honor - for directing an attack on a Viet Cong unit even after losing part of his right leg when a grenade exploded at his feet.
Kerrey, who recently became president of the New School University in New York, initially spoke about the incident April 18 at an ROTC leadership seminar at the Virginia Military Institute.
Kerrey denied that going public with the story now was intended to head off criticism should he run again for president. Turning to his wife, Sarah Paley, he asked, "Are we running?"
"No," she said.
A Pentagon spokesman, Rear Adm. Craig Quigley, said he knew of no plan for an investigation of the circumstances of the Bronze Star award, but did not rule it out.
