The group of Swift boat veterans who served alongside Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) in Vietnam are steaming mad at oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens for reneging on his $1 million offer.

Pickens, who helped fund the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ads that sought to destroy 2004 Democratic presidential candidate Kerry's Vietnam credentials, says he won't give a dime to Kerry's crewmates. They failed to prove his Swift boat ads wrong, Pickens says.

Pickens last year promised to give $1 million to anyone who could disprove any of the allegations leveled by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a 527 group funded by Pickens and other wealthy conservatives.

But this week, responding to a lengthy letter and mounds of military records and other documents that Kerry's crewmates sent Pickens several days ago in an effort to disprove his group's smears and win a million bucks, Pickens said the deal is a no go.

The original offer, Pickens explained in a letter to Vietnam veteran Del Sandusky, who organized the crewmates' challenge to Pickens, was "to pay $1 million for information that would prove any of the ads -- which I helped fund -- inaccurate."

"In reviewing your material," Pickens concluded, "none of the information you provide speaks specifically to the issues contained in the ads, and, as a result, does not qualify for the $1 million."

Cue scene of Kerry and crewmates with steam coming out of their ears.

They feel Pickens is playing a game of semantics. Sandusky, who now lives in Florida, told the Sleuth: "I guess now we know the 'T' in T Boone doesn't stand for 'truth.'" (For the record, the "T" in T. Boone stands for Thomas.)

"His response is slicker than an oil spill," Sandusky continued. "I really hoped we could've taken him at his word, but now he's become T. Boone Chicken and he's running away from his own bet. Mark my words: this isn't over. Where we come from, your word is your bond. We're Vietnam veterans all, and like we say, these colors don't run."

And for anyone who actually enjoys this never-ending soap opera, never fear: the show ain't over yet.

"Mr. Pickens hasn't heard the last from us," Sandusky vows. "We won't rest until he admits the truth that he bankrolled a big lie."

By Mary Ann Akers  |  June 26, 2008; 11:37 AM ET
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