BOSTON, Aug 20: US presidential campaign tensions hit a new peak on Thursday when Democratic contender John Kerry accused his Republican rival President George W. Bush of using a front group to discredit his Vietnam war record.
The White House said Mr Kerry's allegation was "baseless" and countered that the Massachussets senator was turning a blind eye to underhanded attacks against Bush by pro-Democrat activist groups.
The political storm has been caused by television adverts by a group of Vietnam war veterans who have accused Mr Kerry of embellishing and lying about his exploits.
The White House has refused to condemn the advert and Mr Kerry, who won three Purple Hearts, a Bronze Star and a Silver Star, turned on the Republican president in a speech here to a firefighter's union conference.
"More than 30 years ago, I learned an important lesson: When you're under attack, the best thing to do is turn your boat into the attacker. Thats what I intend to do today," he said.
"The fact that the president won't denounce what they're up to tells you everything you need to know: He wants them to do his dirty work," he went on. "The president keeps telling people he would never question my service to our country. Instead, he watches as a Republican-funded attack group does just that.
"Well, if he wants to have a debate about our service in Vietnam, here is my answer: Bring it on!" he said, to roars of approval. Mr Kerry said the advert by "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" had been paid for by a Republican contributor in Texas. "They're a front for the Bush campaign," he added.
The battle could become important as national security - after the September 11, 2001 attacks and the Iraq war - has become a key issue in the campaign for the November 2 election.
Mr Kerry points to his US Navy records to highlight his security credentials. "Thirty years ago, this was the plain truth. It still is. And I still carry the shrapnel in my leg from a wound in Vietnam," the Massachusetts senator told the labour group.
Kerry's campaign has launched its own advert to counter the "Swift Veterans" and groups backing the Democratic contender have paid for television adverts comparing Kerry's war service to Bush who was an Air National Guard pilot who remained in America during the war.
Mr Bush has started a one week holiday at his Texas ranch but White House spokesman Scott McClellan said: "Senator Kerry knows that his latest attack is false and baseless."
Mr McClellan added that "the president has condemned all of the ads by the shadowy groups and we have called on Senator Kerry to join us in calling for an end to all the unregulated soft money activity that is going on in this campaign.
"Apparently Senator Kerry was against this soft money activity previously too and now he appears to be for it as long as it benefits his campaign." Campaign finance laws limit the amount that the two candidates can spend on advertising. But the attack adverts paid for by activist groups circumvent those laws because the groups have no official links to the Democratic or Republican parties.
One group opposed to Bush charges in an advert that the president used family connections to get into the National Guard and highlighted questions about whether he reported for duty during a months-long period in 1972 and 1973.
Mr Kerry has denounced that commercial, but some of his prominent supporters have echoed its charges. His aides insisted that the time was right to respond to what they called a "smear campaign." Two Democratic officials in Washington said recent polls showed the "Swift Veterans" advert was hurting Kerry.
The "Swift Veterans" accuse Kerry of exaggerating his bravery, lying to get at least one of his Purple Hearts, and lying to get his Bronze Star. They also say he betrayed US troops still in Vietnam by denouncing the conflict after he returned home.
Mr Kerry's counter-attack advertisement features former Green Beret Jim Rassmann telling how Kerry saved his life on March 13, 1969 after he was blown out of a nearby Swift Boat.
The Washington Post reported Thursday that the military records of one of the leading attackers in the group, former navy lieutenant Larry Thurlow, contradict his version of Rassmann's rescue. Mr Thurlow had claimed in an affidavit there was no hostile fire, but his own Bronze Star citation refers to "all units" coming under hostile fire. -AFP