Sort of like that summer in 1968 in Cambodia that is seared in his memory. :-)
I will now finish your sentence because it is excellent.
Seriously, so much of what these sorts talk about are lofty ideals because the real world stuff that makes up so much of what the rest of us are concerned with day to day never, ever impinges on their lives.
I think Kerry has reshaped his Vietnam memories into a fiction that he really believes. Saying he was over there because of Nixon is the best example—being sent there by that evil Republican Nixon is so much more appealing than being sent by Johnson, the hero of civil rights according to dem mythology.
Just as Kennedy always went back to the assassinations of his brothers as his go-to street cred, Kerry has Vietnam—without it he has nothing in his resume. So of course he has used a kernel of truth and popped it up into this saga of heroism, bravery and Purple heart-earning blood and guts.