War Staging: Kerry Should Set the Record Straight
And what of Kerry? Why did he stage material? Personally, I don't think his filmic activities amount to a Capa-esque fraud. He was a young man, and perhaps thought that war was kind of exciting and fun (he's not alone in this: J.B.S. Haldane, a once-famous Marxist biologist in the 1930s, wrote about what a fantastic time he had fighting in the trenches in the First World War, and even volunteered for more time on the Western Front), so he took the martial equivalent of holiday home-movies. It's also important to keep in mind that at the time Kerry was filming his exploits — especially early on — he was not disenchanted with the Vietnam War; that came later. From what I've seen of the footage, these are positive action-man shots, not negative images of maimed civilians, dead GIs, etc. My own view is that John F. Kerry, an immensely ambitious man, was obsessed with emulating JFK's PT-109 heroics, and wanted a record, possibly for the election-winning memoirs of his wartime service that he dreamed he would one day write. So, it is more than likely that these movies were intended to aid a political career when he returned home, but, owing to his antiwar activities of the 70s, ended up being stored in the cupboard until the admission that one had served in Vietnam was not the disgrace it once was.
Alexander Rose, Managing Editor, NationalReviewOnline |
