http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-guard10sep10.story THE RACE TO THE WHITE HOUSE
Guard Memos Fuel Another Vietnam-Era Battle
CBS defends letters that seem to impugn Bush's service as some question the documents' authenticity. Partisans on both sides engage.
By James Rainey And Mark Z. Barabak
Times Staff Writers
September 10, 2004
A day after reports that President Bush received preferential treatment during his time in the Texas Air National Guard, the controversy raged on in the presidential race Thursday as Bush's critics suggested he lied about his Vietnam-era record and defenders accused Democrats of fueling baseless attacks.
As both sides fought over the nature of Bush's military service more than 30 years ago, experts raised questions about the authenticity of documents that a day earlier had cast a shadow over Bush's performance as a pilot and first lieutenant in the Texas Guard.
Forensic authorities said that critical memos that CBS News said were written by Bush's squadron commander in the early 1970s might not be legitimate — the product of a modern-day word processor and not a Vietnam-era typewriter that Bush's commander would have used.
The network, which first reported on the documents Wednesday, insisted that the four memos from 1972 and 1973 had been authenticated by the network's experts and by "close associates" of the commander, Lt. Col. Jerry Killian, who "confirm that the documents reflect his opinions and actions at the time."<snip>