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Vietnam

• November 3 -- Bush "Most Polarizing President" Since Nixon
Post-election "news analysis" from Todd Purdum: "Already, through his aggressive handling of terrorism and foreign policy, he has made himself not only the most polarizing president since Richard M. Nixon but also guaranteed himself a prominent place in the history books, and historical debate, for years to come."

• October 21 -- Stanley Gives "Stolen Honor" a Hearing
TV critic Alessandra Stanley has never been friendly to conservative causes, so it's a bit of a surprise that her review of "Stolen Honor" isn't completely negative.

• October 20 -- Anti-Kerry Film Accusations "Far Beyond Reality"
After much press hyperventilation, someone finally looks at "Stolen Honor," the anti-Kerry documentary that Sinclair Broadcast Group is to air Friday night: "The film is rife with out-of-context and incomplete quotations from Mr. Kerry and other antiwar veterans. Several historians said many accusations in it were not provable or stretched far beyond reality."

• October 15 -- The Times Lashes Out at Sinclair Broadcasting
In an editorial on the controversy over the Sinclair Broadcasting Group airing the anti-Kerry documentary "Stolen Honor: Wounds that Never Heal," the Times repeats the unsubstantiated claim that Bush accuses war opponents of lacking patriotism and indulges in some hyperbolic hand-wringing: "Sinclair is in dangerous territory." But how big is the Sinclair "threat"?

• October 12 -- Bush's "Hang Tough" Decision Echoes Vietnam
David Sanger tries to make a stark campaign issue out of Bush's alleged refusal to admit to mistakes, asserting the decision "has come to look far riskier than it did in the flush of handing Iraq back to Iraqis….Bush's decision to hang tough has echoes of the strategy used by another president from Texas. In the 1968 campaign, Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey began edging back from the Johnson Administration's plan to admit no fault with its policy in Vietnam."

• October 4 -- A Faulty Diagnosis of Swift Boat Charges
Reporter-physician Lawrence Altman discusses Kerry's recently released health records -- but experts on the Swift Boat saga question Altman's diagnosis.

• October 1 -- Swift Boat Vets Anti-Kerry "Calumnies"
A.O. Scott reviews a pro-Kerry biopic and gets in a crack at the Swift Boat Veterans.

• September 23 -- The Times and the "U" Word
News flash: Times reporter uses "unsubstantiated" to refer to something other than the Swift Boat vets.

• September 22 -- "Compelling" Anti-Bush Charges vs. "Unsubstantiated" Swifties
Nicholas Kristof finds the Bush National Guard accusations compelling, but turns his nose up at the "unsubstantiated" Swift Boat vets.

• September 22 -- Mary, Mary, Best be Wary
Is CBS throwing veteran producer Mary Mapes overboard in Memogate's wake?

• September 22 -- No "Surprise" Here: Times Plays Up Bush Guard Story
The Times editorializes: "…it was somewhat surprising that Mr. Bush's National Guard service again became a big topic of debate." Yet the Times put the controversy on its front page twice recently. Plus: The editors finally tackle Memogate.

• September 21 -- Dan Rather (Sort of) Apologizes; NYT Notices
The Times fronts Dan Rather's "apology."

• September 20 -- Still Picking Over Bush's Vietnam Service
CBS's big "scoop" about Bush's National Guard duty may have blown up in the network's face, but the New York Times is still poking around the ashes: "This year of inconsequence has grown increasingly consequential for President Bush because of persistent, unanswered questions about his National Guard service."

• September 17 -- The Times on Discredited Dan Rather
Jim Rutenberg focuses on Dan Rather and CBS's discredited anti-Bush "memos," running down Rather's past conflicts with conservatives and finds that even some at CBS are dubious of the anchor's latest "scoop."

• September 16 -- Burying Burkett's Bush-as-Hitler Line
Ralph Blumenthal profiles possible CBS "memo" source Bill Burkett and doesn't delve into Burkett's previous conspiratorial claims about Bush: "We must examine the ruthless and dictatorial rise of yet another of the three small men--one whose name is not spoken out of fear of reprisal, but his name was Adolf."

• September 16 -- Experts Split on Authenticity of CBS's "Memos"?
The Times (unlike the Washington Post) buries its update on CBS's apparently fraudulent "memos" while again insisting there's still room for doubt: "For every expert who said the documents were patently false, another insisted they could be authentic."

• September 15 -- The Times Digs Deeper Into Anti-Bush "Memos"
The Times' latest story on CBS's "memos" has some interesting new information on the network and its likely source for the discredited documents.

• September 13 -- Safire Hails the Blogosphere
William Safire gives a hat tip to Internet bloggers who first uncovered evidence suggesting memos that aired on "60 Minutes" were forged.

• September 10 -- Downplaying Doubts on Dubious Anti-Bush Memos
Yesterday the Times put anti-Bush charges on its front page--charges based on memos suggesting Bush got special treatment during Vietnam. Today the Times files a follow-up story casting grave doubt on the authenticity of those memos--on page A17.

• September 9 -- Taking Anti-Bush Charge Seriously After Dismissing Swifties With Contempt
Katharine Seelye and Ralph Blumenthal treat seriously the new controversy over Bush's Vietnam service--quite a change from how the Times treated the Swift Boat Veterans.

• September 1 -- Kerry Slow to Respond to "Unsubstantiated" Assaults
David Halbfinger and Jodi Wilgoren hint at changes to come in the suddenly faltering Kerry campaign and again bash charges from the Swifties: "Mr. Kerry was slow to respond to an assault on his Vietnam combat record and character, with largely unsubstantiated accusations, by the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth."

• August 31 -- Apple Takes a Bite Out of the Swift Boat Veterans
Long-time campaign correspondent and former Times Washington bureau chief R.W. Apple interviews his old friend Sen. McCain and discusses the Swifties: "The advertisements questioning Mr. Kerry's war record, the work of a 527 group of Swift boat veterans, were largely financed, at least initially, by rich Texas Republicans, some with past links to Mr. Bush."

• August 30 -- Lost in Cambodia
In his story on Bush and Kerry's Vietnam history, David Halbfinger manages to bring up Cambodia without mentioning Kerry's discredited tales of spending Christmas 1968 there.

• August 27 -- Bush Bugs Times By Not Bashing Swift Boat Ads
Bush sits down for an interview with David Sanger and Elisabeth Bumiller and bugs them by refusing to specifically condemn the Swift Boat ads.

• August 27 -- Still Ignoring Kerry's "Christmas In Cambodia"
The Times again couches Swift Boat charges in a dubious light: "The Swift boat veterans, whose most serious charges have been contradicted by official records, some of their own past statements and a number of witnesses, got most of their initial money from Texans supportive of the president." Plus: Kerry in Cambodia, ignored again.

• August 20 -- "Fed Up" Kerry Takes on Swift Boat Vets
The headline to Jodi Wilgoren's piece on Kerry's response to the Swift Boat veterans reads "Fed Up, Kerry Says Bush Lets Group 'Do His Dirty Work,'" which assumes Kerry is justified in his counterattack.

• August 20 -- "The Times Attacks the Swift Vets"
The Times finally devotes a front-page story to the Swift Boat veterans challenging John Kerry's Vietnam war record--but it follows a pattern reminiscent of the Clinton scandal days in focusing on the subjects making the attack instead of the actual anti-Democratic charges raised, an angle clear from the headline, "Friendly Fire: The Birth of an Attack on Kerry."

• August 19 -- How Dare Anyone Cover Charges by Swift Boat Vets
The editorial page goes negative on the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and attacks other media for daring to report the story: "The assault is gaining attention, with Internet and cable television zealots debating combat minutiae and even whether Mr. Kerry enacted wartime events with his political future in mind or held secret meetings with Communists."

• August 12 -- "Mocking" Bush Drowns Out Kerry's Foreign Policy "Nuance"
Kerry's admission he would still vote to give Bush war authority invites a David Sanger story with the loaded headline: "For Now, Bush's Mocking Drowns Out Kerry's Nuanced Explanation of His War Vote." Also: Where's the NYT on Kerry and Cambodia?

• July 30 -- NYT (Finally) Mentions Kerry's Flip-Flop on Use of Vietnam Footage
Jim Rutenberg files "New Skirmish Over Images From Vietnam in a Kerry Video," which includes details of a Kerry flip-flop regarding his personal Vietnam footage first highlighted on Times Watch.

• July 29 -- Kerry Breaks Pledge to NYT's Keller -- Will the Times Take Note?
Jim Rutenberg on the Kerry bio-pic: "As the film details Mr. Kerry's own war service, in Vietnam, it shows the grainy film that Mr. Kerry brought back, mixed with archival footage of the war." But in 2002 Kerry told current Times Executive Editor Bill Keller "I have no intention of using" that footage.

• July 27 -- The Myth of Max Cleland
At the Democratic convention in Boston, the Times trumpets former Democratic Sen. Max Cleland as a Republican victim: "And there was Max Cleland, the triple amputee and former Democratic senator from Georgia whose defeat in 2002--by an opponent who ran commercials linking him to Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden…." Wrong.

• June 29 -- Sanger Still Singing Blues on Bush and Iraq
Reporter David Sanger never hides his doubts about Bush and Iraq: “The so-far fruitless search for unconventional weapons--the primary justification for invading Iraq--undermined his credibility, making what Mr. Bush described as a war of necessity appear to have been one of choice.”

• June 18 -- Taking the Times' Line On Iraq as Vietnam
Sarah Boxer's story links Iraq to the "quagmire" of Vietnam. Speaking of a 1974 anti-Vietnam War documentary, she asserts: "Today the film has not lost any of its punch. Now the punch is packed with new meaning. 'Quagmire,' 'hearts and minds' and 'liberating the people' are all back."

• May 11 -- Abu Ghraib Photos Remind Timesman of Vietnam
David Sanger's Monday news analysis, "U.S. Must Find A Way to Move Past the Images," examines a horrific photo from Abu Ghraib prison and is reminded (of course) of Vietnam.

• May 11 -- The Secret of His Success
Sheryl Gay Stolberg files a profile of media hero Sen. John McCain, again basking in attention after his withering critique of Donald Rumsfeld on the Abu Ghraib prison scandal.

• May 11 -- Abu Ghraib = My Lai, Again
Now it's Krugman's turn.

• May 10 -- Abu Ghraib = My Lai?
Frank Rich compares the abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison to the My Lai massacre in Vietnam.

• February 23 -- "Loony" to Link Fonda and Kerry?
Frank Rich writes of those who would link Jane Fonda to John Kerry: "[Kerry] appears as a blurred extra sitting several rows behind her in a photo of an antiwar protest held two years before her famous, self-immolating trip to Hanoi. This is guilt by association so loony that even the perpetrators of the Hollywood blacklist might have found it a stretch." But Kerry and Fonda both spoke at the rally.

• February 11 -- Natl. Guard Queries Fair Game for "Posturing" Bush
Bush releases payroll records from his National Guard stint, but an editorial keeps the controversy alive: "Mr. Bush himself also made the issue of military service fair game by posturing as a swashbuckling pilot when welcoming a carrier home from Iraq." Vietnam-avoiding Bill Clinton would have never done such a thing--right?

• February 4 -- "Striking Contrasts" Between Bush and Kerry
As Sen. John Kerry piles up Democratic primary victories, "Military Service Becomes Issue in Bush-Kerry Race" frames a potential Kerry-Bush contest to Kerry's advantage.

• January 26 -- Another Vietnam Rerun from Frank Rich
Is Iraq another Vietnam? Frank Rich sees parallels--and brings up the "imminent threat" canard to boot.

• December 10 -- "Destroying the Village" in Iraq
More Iraq as Vietnam in an editorial: "Unwelcome as Vietnam analogies are right now, it's hard to ignore the resemblance to that infamous military comment about having to destroy a village in order to save it."

• December 10 -- "Insurgent" Dean Liberal or Not?
R.W. Apple returns to politics discussing the "insurgent" (not liberal) Howard Dean, and picks up where he left off by suggesting parallels between Iraq and Vietnam.

• November 5 -- GWB = LBJ?
First it was Iraq=Vietnam. Now the Times is trying to turn Bush into LBJ.

• November 4 -- It's Not Vietnam, But It Is
The Times Just Can't Resist: "In the Ranks, Similarities Between Vietnam and Iraq."

• October 28 -- Quagmire on the Times Copy Desk
The ghosts of Vietnam haunt the Times copy desk. Frank Rich's anti-Bush Sunday column is typically over the top, but the accompanying headline goes even farther: "Why Are We Back in Vietnam?" Rich's actual article says: "The war in Iraq is not remotely a Vietnam."

• October 14 -- Bush's Forbidden Love?
Paul Krugman outlines his paranoid view of Republicans: "They've decided that the way to win is to give Grover Norquist and the Heritage Foundation and John Ashcroft whatever they want." Also: "Can you imagine the Bush family allowing some member to marry a liberal Democrat?"

• October 13 -- More "Parallels" Between Vietnam and Iraq
When the Times reviews a Vietnam documentary, alert readers look for comparisons of Vietnam to Iraq--and critic Stephen Holden doesn't disappoint.

• September 22 -- Their Own Personal Vietnam
A Times editorial leaps into the Big Muddy: “The Bush administration always bristles when people attempt to draw any parallels between the quagmire in Vietnam and the current situation in Iraq.”