Kerry: My Vietnam Med Records Already Public

Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry claimed on Sunday that he's already released his medical and military records, including those that would prove he deserved three Purple Hearts in Vietnam - though reporters have been clamoring for weeks for Kerry to make the documents public.

Asked if he would "agree to release all your military records," Kerry told NBC's "Meet the Press" host Tim Russert: "I have. I've shown them."

In the next breath, however, a clearly agitated Kerry pulled back from the claim that he had publicly released his Vietnam records, telling Russert: "They're available to you to come and look at. ... People can come and see them at headquarters and take a look at them."

Moments later Kerry seemed to suggest that he would not publicly release copies of the records to the press, saying, "I'm not going to ..., " before changing the subject in mid-sentence.

The top Democrat insisted that the records would show he deserved his first Purple Heart, a decoration that has been questioned by his former commanding officer.

"The medical records show that I had shrapnel removed from my arm," he claimed. "We were in combat. We were in a very, very - probably one of the most frightening - if you ask anybody who was with me, the two guys who were with me, was probably the most frightening night that they had that they were in Vietnam."

However, Kerry's former commander, Grant Hibbard, told the Boston Globe earlier this week that Kerry's wound was no worse than "a fingernail scratch" and that there were widespread doubts in his office that Kerry's unit had taken any enemy fire whatsoever.

After controversy erupted around his Vietnam-era service, President Bush authorized a full release of his military service records.

To-date, Kerry has not done so, despite his claim to Russert. What is he hiding?

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