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From a Byron York article at:

http://www.nationalreview.com/york/york200402270811.asp

In fact, he is often playing an actual movie of Vietnam over and over on his television. Consider this scene from a remarkable profile of Kerry published in the Boston Globe in October 1996, when Kerry was in a tough reelection battle:

Kerry told reporter Charles Sennott the oft-repeated story of the February 1969 firefight in which Kerry attacked the Viet Cong who ambushed his Swift boat. Kerry won the Silver Star, as well as a Purple Heart, for his efforts. But the story wasn't just the firefight itself. It was also Kerry's reaction to it.

The future senator was so "focused on his future ambitions," Sennott reported, that not long after the fight, he bought a Super-8 movie camera, returned to the scene, and reenacted the skirmish on film. During their interview, Kerry played the tape for Sennott.

"I'll show you where they shot from. See? That's the hole covered up with reeds," Kerry said as he ran the tape in slow motion.

Kerry told Sennott that his decision to reenact the fight on film was no big deal — "just something I did, no great meaning to it." But it's clear that the old movie is a huge deal. "Through hours of watching the films in the den of his newly renovated Beacon Hill mansion, it becomes apparent that these are memories and footage he returns to often," Sennott wrote.

"Kerry jumps repeatedly from the couch to adjust the Sony large screen TV in his home entertainment center, making sure the picture is clear, the color correct. He fast forwards, rewinds and freeze frames the footage. His running commentary — vivid, sometimes touching, sometimes self-serving — never misses a beat."

In John Kerry's home-entertainment center, it's always 1969.

It seems common knowledge that Kerry took a movie camera with him to Viet Nam, and made home movies making him looking like super soldier. He probably first used them in one of his senate campaigns, and now they are available for presidential campaign ads. The following is interesting..shows Kerry has his own Harry Thomasson, hard at work manufacturing legends.

http://www.filmstew.com/Content/DailyNews/Details.asp?ContentID=8355&Pg=1

"Tuesday, April 6, 2004
Kerry Ready for Duty
Documentary filmmaker George Butler to bring the life of the Democratic presidential candidate to the big screen.

By FilmStew Staff Report

Teaming up with his old friend John Kerry, documentary filmmaker George Butler will produce and direct the biopic Tour of Duty, centering on the life of the Democratic presidential candidate. Butler began working on the project in 2003 and hopes to have it ready to hit theaters during the Labor Day holiday 2004, just in time for the presidential election.

Based on the Douglas Brinkley book of the same name, Tour follows Kerry as he served a Navy tour in Vietnam, came home and rallied for peace by becoming a spokesperson for the Vietnam Veterans Against the War and then successfully ran for the Senate in 1984. Kerry is cooperating with the film, which will feature both new interviews as well as archived footage. The film is being made outside the campaign, however, and the Democratic Party will have no creative input.

Kerry and Butler first met over 40 years ago and have been friends and colleagues ever since. When Kerry ran for Congress in 1969, Butler served as his press secretary. They also worked together on The New Soldier, the controversial 1971 book about Vietnam veterans.

Butler, who is holding off on trying to make a distribution deal until the completion of the film, may be best known for directing the documentary Pumping Iron, which followed the quest of the then-unknown Arnold Schwarzenegger to win another Mr. Olympia contest. Butler also recently directed The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition."