[UPDATED] Washington Post issues correction, says Nathan Phillips did NOT fight in Vietnam — But there’s a HUGE problem with this

by The Right Scoop

The Washington Post has issued a correction to their reporting, noting that while Nathan Phillips was a US Marine, that he was never deployed to Vietnam. Phillips is the Native American drummer that was trying to provoke the Covington Catholic High School students in DC last Friday.

Correction: Earlier versions of this story incorrectly said that Native American activist Nathan Phillips fought in the Vietnam War. Phillips served in the U.S. Marines from 1972 to 1976 but was never deployed to Vietnam.

I’ve stayed away from the speculation about Phillip’s military service because there was nothing concrete to dispute his claims. But now that the Washington Post is running this correction, it’s gotten more interesting. Why? Because it wasn’t necessarily misreporting on their part, Phillips himself is claiming he was a Vietnam Veteran.

Watch (It’s cued up to 1:00):

Here’s CNN’s transcript of the interview:

CNN: Let me ask you about what happened to you. These boys in the middle of this group and you find yourself surrounded. How did that happen and what did that feel like as a person standing there face to face with a young man who seems to be staring at you or glaring at you? How would you describe that moment?

Phillips: When I was there and I was standing there and I seen that group of people in front of me and I seen the angry faces and all of that, I realized I had put myself in a really dangerous situation. Here’s a group of people who were angry at somebody else and I put myself in front of that, and all of a sudden, I’m the one whose all that anger and all that wanting to have the freedom to just rip me apart, that was scary. And I’m a Vietnam veteran and I know that mentality of “There’s enough of us. We can do this.”

He actually says “Vietnam times Veteran”. Is that different from a Vietnam Veteran? What the heck is that?

The Washington Times calls this ambiguous phrasing:

According to multiple news accounts, the activist is 64 years old, which means he would have been 18 years old in 1973, the last year any U.S. combat units were stationed in Vietnam. Mr. Phillips also claims to be a Marine veteran, although the last Marine combat units left Vietnam in 1971.

A careful reading of Mr. Phillips‘ own descriptions does not make clear if he ever set foot in Vietnam. Instead, he has used much more careful language claiming he is a “Vietnam times veteran,” an ambiguous phrasing that led many media accounts to conclude he was a combat veteran.

Mr. Phillips could not be reached for comment Monday.

So it sounds like Phillips lied about being a Vietnam Veteran, which is dumb considering he’s an actual veteran. And he used this claim in his lies about what happened, which is pretty disgusting.

UPDATE:

It’s been pointed out that “Vietnam times veteran” may mean “Vietnam era veteran”, which means Phillips was saying he’s a veteran from that era. Notice that CNN left out the word ‘times’ in their transcript because they didn’t understand it either.

So maybe he didn’t actually lie about being a Vietnam veteran, but the use of that ambiguous language has certainly flummoxed a lot of people into believing that’s what he’s trying to claim.


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