The new memorial erected by the North Carolina department of the Military Order of the Purple Heart is tucked modestly beneath a couple of trees along Raleigh's North Salisbury Street, across from the Legislative Building.

"My stone is red for the blood they shed," begins the inscription. Yet when it comes to John Kerry, the cynics might as well be asking, "What blood?"

Strange to say it, but the man seeking to oust President Bush now finds that the Purple Hearts he earned in Vietnam are being used in an effort to discredit him.

His antagonists claim, in essence, that his wounds were so minimal, or were inflicted under such questionable circumstances, that he didn't deserve to be honored with the nation's oldest military decoration.

Compounding the insult, they suggest he unfairly took advantage of an obscure regulation -- three Purple Hearts and you're out of here -- to win an early exit from the Mekong Delta combat zone.

In a sense, it's a mountain fashioned from a 35-year-old molehill. But then again, it's more than that -- since Kerry's foes are using this line of attack to challenge both his integrity and his grace under pressure.

Kerry himself, of course, has not been shy about spotlighting his exploits as a young Navy officer and using them to help showcase his strengths as a prospective commander-in-chief.

It might be he decided that he needed to mount a strong offense to shield himself from the inevitable charges that he was a wimp in wolf's clothing. Inevitable, because of his leadership in the antiwar movement after his return from Vietnam. And then there was the tempting distinction to be drawn with Bush, whose pilot gig in the Texas Air National Guard so conspicuously petered out.

Whatever the logic behind his strategy, the nation saw Kerry "reporting for duty" to accept the Democrats' presidential baton. It saw the stalwart former boatmates mustered on the convention stage in support and tribute. It heard the former Special Forces officer who told of Kerry saving his life at considerable risk to his own.

Along came some other veterans of the brown-water Navy in counterattack. On a Web site, swiftvets.org, "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" dissects Kerry's Naval officer fitness reports, saying they show him to have been mediocre at best.

The group lately has sponsored TV ads, funded by a big-time Texas Republican, attempting to debunk Kerry's performance in uniform. And the group's organizer, another ex-Swift boat skipper and old Kerry critic named John O'Neill, last week released a book meant to help send Kerry to the bottom. Its title: "Unfit for Command."

The book is said to dwell on the matter of Kerry's medals -- three Purple Hearts, a Silver Star (the nation's third-highest decoration for valor) and a Bronze Star with combat "V." The thrust is clear: He accepted honors he didn't deserve and may even have lied to get them.

Kerry and his associates so far have stuck to their accounts. And anybody who would prove shady conduct on Kerry's part will have to reckon with the detailed description of his Vietnam experiences in the book "Tour of Duty," by historian Douglas Brinkley.

True, the book (published early this year) draws heavily on Kerry's own recollections, his war diary and letters. But those are by no means the only sources. The depiction is of a young officer increasingly troubled by the hazy rationale for the missions he was asked to lead, but who performed unhesitatingly when the time came.

Strikingly conveyed is the danger to which Kerry and his boatmates were exposed, virtually day in and day out, as they patrolled the Delta's intricate web of rivers and canals. Ambushes from the overgrown banks were appallingly routine.

What about the Purple Hearts? Brinkley doesn't suggest that in any of the three instances, the wounds were serious. Kerry took a little bit of shrapnel, got patched up and went back to work. In one case, it's been speculated that the fragment that hit him might have been a ricochet from a round he fired.

None of that is plainly inconsistent with the rules by which Purple Hearts are awarded. If a wound sustained during combat was treated by a medical officer and records were kept, it qualifies. Even a "self-inflicted" wound can make one eligible if it occurred during the heat of battle.

Whatever the extent of his injuries, Kerry seems to have conducted himself courageously. He took his boat up those rivers. He made quick decisions under fire. Practically any day could have been his last. And he had the moral courage to question his superiors about the wisdom of it all.

That skepticism didn't endear him to some -- and as it bloomed into full-fledged opposition to the war, it alienated many. But to successfully impugn Kerry's character on the basis of his Vietnam record will require far more than showing that when the shrapnel and bullets were flying, he was actually quite lucky.

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