Bush's National Guard records...

Some interesting things are happening online these days... The Boston Globe ran the following article in today's online edition: bq. Bid cited to boost Bush in Guard '73 memo tells of request to 'sugar-coat' report In August 1973, President Bush's superior officer in the Texas Air National Guard wrote a memorandum complaining that the commanding general wanted him to ''sugar coat" an annual officer evaluation for First Lieutenant Bush, even though Bush had not been at the base for the year in question, according to new documents obtained and broadcast last night by CBS News. bq. The commander, the late Lieutenant Colonel Jerry B. Killian, wrote that he turned aside the suggestion from Brigadier General Walter B. Staudt, Bush's political mentor in the Guard. But he and another officer agreed to ''backdate" a report -- evidently the evaluation -- in which they did not rate him at all. There is such a report in Bush's file, dated May 2, 1973. CBS News also reported on this in their program 60 Minutes - the news item with partial transcripts of the show is here: New Questions On Bush Guard Duty. I'll cut to an excerpt: bq. Mr. Bush had signed a six-year commitment to fly for the Air Guard, and early on, the young pilot got glowing evaluations from his squadron commander, Col. Jerry Killian. bq. Killian called Lt. Bush "an exceptionally fine young officer and pilot" who "performed in an outstanding manner." That is part of the public record. bq. But 60 Minutes has obtained a number of documents we are told were taken from Col. Killian's personal file. Among them, a never-before-seen memorandum from May 1972, where Killian writes that Lt. Bush called him to talk about "how he can get out of coming to drill from now through November." bq. Lt. Bush tells his commander "he is working on a campaign in Alabama�. and may not have time to take his physical." Killian adds that he thinks Lt. Bush has gone over his head, and is "talking to someone upstairs." bq. Col. Killian died in 1984. 60 Minutes consulted a handwriting analyst and document expert who believes the material is authentic. bq. Robert Strong was a friend and colleague of Col. Killian who ran the Texas Air National Guard administrative office in the Vietnam era. Strong, now a college professor, believes these documents are genuine. bq. "They are compatible with the way business was done at the time. They are compatible with the man that I remember Jerry Killian being," says Strong. "I don�t see anything in the documents that is discordant with what were the times, what was the situation and what were the people involved." bq. "He [Killian] was a straight-arrow guy," adds Strong. "He really was. I was very fond of him, liked him personally. Very professional man, a career pilot. He took his responsibilities very, very seriously." bq. In a memo from Aug. 18, 1973, Col. Killian says Col. Buck Staudt, the man in charge of the Texas Air National Guard, is putting on pressure to "sugar coat" the evaluation of Lt. Bush. Staudt, a longtime supporter of the Bush family, would not do an interview for this broadcast. bq. The memo continues, with Killian saying, "I�m having trouble running interference and doing my job." Emphasis mine. CBS News also provides links to PDF files of the memos in question. Here, here, here and here. What has the internet in such a tizzy is that there is an excellent chance that these memos are total forgeries and very stupid forgeries at that. Incredibly stupid forgeries... If you look at the PDF files, you will see that they are in a true proportional typeface. There were only ten or so models of typewriters in 1973 that could even attempt true proportional typefaces (the IBMs had several variations of their Selectric line that allowed for three different letterspacings, the Varityper could do true proportional but its output was to film and was used for typesetting only, never a casual memo. It was also incredibly finicky to use and you never saw the output until you printed it and developed the film -- the operators display was very much not WYSIWYG). Several blogs are doing an excellent job of covering this - The Command Post and Power Line. It will be interesting to see how CBS weasels itself out of this one... UPDATE: Charles at Little Green Footballs has the goods... And Allah is not far behind..