CBS Bush Memos Fakes? Nahh!

Bush's sketchy record in the National Guard is no secret. New reports from the Boston Globe have revisited the issues in question:

The reexamination of Bush's records by the Globe, along with interviews with military specialists who have reviewed regulations from that era, show that Bush's attendance at required training drills was so irregular that his superiors could have disciplined him or ordered him to active duty in 1972, 1973, or 1974. But they did neither. In fact, Bush's unit certified in late 1973 that his service had been 'satisfactory" -- just four months after Bush's commanding officer wrote that Bush had not been seen at his unit for the previous 12 months.

Now, memos uncovered and publicized by CBS' 60 Minutes show details concerning Bush's failure to fulfill requirements. Special treatment is again noted towards Bush, to the point where one of his superiors protests: "I'm having trouble running interference and doing my job." The memos were immediately called into question as to their authenticity. This seems only natural, considering the nature of content. The claim is that the memos use proportional spacing not used on most typing equipment from the time period. Especially noted is the "th" printed together instead of spaced evenly as on an IBM pre-Selectric typewriter from that time:



See a further explanation of this problem here.

It would not have been impossible for someone to plant fake documents. However, would such an act be necessary or probable in this case? The new memos pretty much tell us what has been already discovered through other sources regarding Bush's poor efforts in the National Guard. Is there something new here that would require a forgery? I don't see it.

We have added the memos to the Urbanstar archives in PDF format:

New Bush National Guard Memos