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Actress Jane Fonda (search) defended John Kerry's (search) patriotism Wednesday after a photograph of her sitting near the Democratic presidential front-runner at a 1970 anti-Vietnam war rally surfaced on several Internet sites.

Fonda, 66, has been the target of criticism for decades for her opposition to the Vietnam War. Fonda became known as "Hanoi Jane" after she traveled to North Vietnam in 1972, at the height of the war, and posed in an anti-aircraft gun. Thirty years later, despite her apologies, she has been unable to outgrow the nickname.

Kerry campaign spokesman David Wade Kerry and Fonda were just acquaintances and he did not approve of her controversial trip to Hanoi two years after the anti-war protests.

"John Kerry is going to stay focused on the issues and we wont let the Republican attack machine divert us," Wade said.