Political Battle Over Vietnam-Era Credentials Has No Winners

The year was 1996, and Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kerry was seeking his third term against charismatic Republican Gov. William Weld. In a debate, Weld was hammering Kerry over his opposition to the death penalty, even for cop killers. Kerry silenced the room with his response.

"I know something about killing," Kerry said simply. "I don't like killing. I don't think the state honors life by turning around and killing."

That exchange vividly demonstrated how much Kerry, the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, relies on his experience as a Navy combat veteran in Vietnam to define his political identity.

Kerry invariably uses Vietnam to establish his credentials on national security. But as Weld learned, Kerry also uses Vietnam as a shield on issues like crime where Republicans often paint liberals as weak and effete.

The fact that Kerry has shed blood in war is probably his best defense against GOP efforts to portray him as outside the cultural mainstream and too soft to protect the country, as George H.W. Bush did in the 1988 presidential race with Michael S. Dukakis, another Massachusetts liberal, on social issues. "The whole military veteran, war-hero piece is a cultural message," says one senior Kerry advisor.

Which probably explains why Republicans and conservatives are already working hard to redefine the meaning of Vietnam in Kerry's life. The goal is to replace the mental picture of Kerry, clean-shaven and solemn-faced, receiving the Bronze Star in his Navy dress whites, with an image of a long-haired Kerry in a grimy fatigue jacket protesting the war in angry street demonstrations.

In recent weeks, conservative activists and Republican House members have taken turns strafing Kerry for his enlistment in the antiwar movement after his return from Vietnam with five combat decorations in 1969. The flashpoint has been a photo showing Kerry sitting near actress Jane Fonda at a rally in Valley Forge, Pa., where both spoke in September 1970.

Kerry's work with antiwar activists like Fonda "diminishes

President Bush's reelection campaign has kept its distance from these attacks. But last week, it distributed a letter from retired Col. William Campenni, who served with Bush in the Texas Air National Guard.