Confessions of a Lapsed Bohemian

Saturday, August 14^th, marks the 65th anniversary of the day President Truman announced the surrender of Japan, marking the end of World War II, one of the darkest times in human history.  It was a man-made global catastrophe in which close to 80 million people were wiped off the face of the Earth while the levels of human carnage, cruelty and savagery were expanded further than ever thought conceivable.  Not so coincidentally, there has recently been a spate of John Wayne flicks showing up on TV.  This has given me much cannon fodder for thought.

There are now at least two generations on the planet for whom this first (and, hopefully, last) truly global war has some historical value, but seemingly little personal significance.  That’s a bit troubling because, in the face of unspeakable horror and a possible bleak future, our parents and grandparents had stepped up and done their duty, making possible the world we take for granted today.  Looking back, it’s sometimes hard to realize just how precarious and uncertain the outcome was and how close Hitler and his allies came to winning- and equally unimaginable the kind of world we would have inherited, had the Allied efforts failed.

For those of us too young to have experienced those war years, I recommend viewing Ken Burns’s gripping documentary series, The War and Tom Hanks and Stephen Spielberg’s excellent mini-series, Band of Brothers, based on the book by Stephen Ambrose, a factual account of the 101^st Airborne’s Easy Company. These epic productions offer an unflinching look into the realities of World War II as ordinary citizens were called upon to do extraordinary things in order to preserve our way of life.   Both series present a portrait of war which is radically different than the glamorized, sanitized, action-adventure ambiance of the typical John Wayne film.

You know what I’m talking about: the kind of flag-waving guts-and-glory entertainment we young children in the ‘50s used to watch while commanding our miniature plastic infantrymen on cozy living room rugs in Levittown-style ticky-tacky neighborhoods across the country.  There he was… The Duke, storming the beachhead through a hail of Hollywood bullets,

lantern-jawed and fearless. We would cheer, secure in the knowledge that he was on our side and imagine ourselves as helmeted, M-1 toting Cracker Jack heroes in this magnificent fantasy.  World War II was a comfortable historical event for us back then- Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan had yet to appear on our event horizon.  It was almost as much fun as cowboys and Indians!

Recently I came across a website offering this whimsical Wayne quote: “War isn’t very civilized business.” He should know, right?  I mean, he was the star of Sands of Iwo Jima, They Were Expendable, In Harm’s Way, Back to Bataan, The Fighting Seabees and The Flying Leathernecks, to name a few.  One would think he fought World War II single-handed.

Ironically, the Duke may have found the business of World War II to be so good that he couldn’t spare the time to enlist himself.  I did a little research; as a fan of the film persona known as John Wayne, I really wanted to discover a legitimate reason why such a Hollywood war hero and virulent right-wing Vietnam hawk was unable to join up with his fellow actors from the Greatest Generation when it was his time to serve.

It turns out that there really wasn’t one.  In fact, on the surface, our beloved flying leatherneck would appear to a bit of a draft dodger.  With his star on the rise, he would repeatedly allow Republic Studios (under which he was contracted) to apply for deferments on his behalf, taking advantage of the opportunities opening up from the film industry’s vacancies as many “A list” actors went off to war.

But then, there are two sides of the story- there are Duke’s supporters who go to great lengths to emphasize his attempt to join the OSS, his being too old for the initial draft (age 34) or his injuries from doing his own movie stunts which would have probably rendered him 4F.  On the other side, there are the myriad other celebrities who had pulled strings, lied about their age and health statuses or, failing to get in, had put themselves in harm’s way by serving in the Merchant Marines (extremely dangerous, when U-boats were sinking thousands of tons of U.S. shipping every month) or other risky endeavors, such as espionage.   Peter Falk, missing an eye due to a childhood illness, had tried to memorize the eye exam chart in a failed enlistment attempt before becoming a merchant seaman.   Even the gentle, soft-spoken “Captain Kangaroo,” Bob Keeshan, had joined the Marine Corps at the tender age of 17, two weeks before the bombing of Hiroshima, as our forces were facing the possibility of a horrendous invasion of the Japanese mainland.

I was shocked to learn that Wayne’s apparent reluctance to enlist or be drafted was the exception among movie stars at that time- in fact so many celebrities had served in WWII combat roles that it boggles the mind.  The real “reel” heroes?  Here’s a random sampling: Mel Brooks fought in the Battle of the Bulge.  Clark Gable flew missions with the 91^st Bomb Group, Tyrone Power flew missions as a PBY4 pilot and James Stewart saw combat as a B24 pilot in Europe. The complete list of unlikely war veterans is staggering. It even includes “The Professor” of Gilligan’s Island, Russell Johnson- who earned his Purple Heart in a B24  and “Mr. Chicken/Barney Fife” himself- Don Knotts, who served in the Army.

Audrey Hepburn, although just a child, served as a courier delivering messages for the Dutch Resistance.  Julia Child was an OSS spy, serving in Washington, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and China.

The strongest argument in favor of John Wayne’s willingness to serve is supported by official documents from the National Archives which include his actual application to the O.S.S.  In fact, he had been approved for duty with its Field Photographic Unit but he apparently never followed up on his application nor responded to the letter of acceptance.  I’m sorry, but this doesn’t sound like a man itching to see combat.  In fairness, it should be noted that Wayne did visit the Pacific theater of war in 1944, as a part of a USO tour.  Dan Gagliassiano of the blog Big Hollywood describes his enduring 130 degree heat to hang out with the troops and quotes him as saying “I got to go places the average entertainer wouldn’t get to go.”

As I continued my research, it soon became obvious that not all entertainers had difficulty in seeing combat.  Wayne’s Donovan’s Reef co-star, Lee Marvin, got to go to Saipan as a Marine, where he was shot in the ass during a beach landing.  (It’s interesting that Marvin seemingly had no problem with Wayne’s lack of service.)  And Marvin wasn’t the only celebrity casualty.  Director John Ford was wounded while filming aboard a Navy vessel at Midway, amtrak operator Eddie Albert was wounded at Tarawa, Airborne private Rod Serling was wounded on Manila, Charles Durning was shot on the beach at Normandy and James Arness was wounded at Anzio.  Jack Palance was seriously wounded and required extensive facial reconstructive surgery after a mission in which his B17 had crashed. There’s more, but you get the idea.  These media types weren’t doing photo ops.

If, as it appears, John Wayne did indeed make some attempt to serve in an active military role during the war, then what’s with all the sniping at his lack of an actual war record?  For me, the answer is simple.  Had he just been an actor who was also a conscientious objector, or had actually been medically disqualified, there would be no criticism.  Unfortunately, after the war  John Wayne would become a high-profile politically active conservative, a supporter of Senator Joe McCarthy and Richard Nixon, a member of the John Birch Society and an enthusiastic advocate of our involvement in Vietnam, an immoral and unpopular conflict in which thousands of young Americans were forced to serve against their will.

But World War II was not Vietnam.  Although not everyone was in favor of the U.S. entering the war, history seems to vindicate our politicians and their ultimate decision to stand up to the Axis.  The general mood of the time was so different; most Americans were eager to do their part.  In fact, there were reports of suicides among those who were rejected by the armed forces.  So, in view of Wayne’s hawkish nature and his assertion that he was “only playing himself ” in all those action movies, his selective service deferment record and halfhearted attempts to join the O.S.S. seem almost embarrassing. In later years, he even expressed a certain amount of embarrassment himself, much to his credit.

At this point, you may ask: who am I to judge? For the record, I’m not a veteran- I was and am still opposed to our country’s involvement in any non-defensive war fought over ideology, economics or politics. I was called up in the 1969 Lottery and duly reported for my pre-induction physical but luckily, due to being under the care of an orthodontist, I had received a temporary postponement of my induction.  It would be several years before I realized that they weren’t going to call me to report- you might say that I, quite literally, escaped by the ‘skin of my teeth.’  No, I didn’t want to fight in Vietnam and, yes, I was against the war from the start.  Would I have reported, had the induction gone forward or would I have fled to Canada?  To this day I can’t answer that question.  But I value and respect the sacrifices made by those who did serve and grieve for the over 50,000 who had lost their lives, some of whom were my friends. I pass no judgment on those who fled and feel neither pride nor guilt over my not serving in Vietnam.

Though it’s fair enough to say that I have no right to criticize anyone for not entering military service in wartime, in the case of John Wayne, given his gung-ho screen image, conservative politics and pro-Vietnam War position, you have to wonder why he has been given a pass by even his more hawkish friends on his tepid efforts to enlist.

Having said all that, I still can’t help being a fan of The Duke.  It’s a guilty pleasure watching him in action.  I want to believe in his courage, his heroism, his simple virtue and vibrant, iconic image of oak-tall, iron-sinew American manhood.  Was he, as he has been quoted, simply playing himself, or someone he had hoped to be? Perhaps it’s time to reconcile the actual person, Marion Michael Morrison, with the screen persona we all know and love as John Wayne.

In my favorite John Wayne film, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence, a newspaperman justifies withholding pertinent facts surrounding a past gunfight between James Stewart’s character and the villain Liberty Valance, so effectively portrayed by Lee Marvin: ”When the legend becomes fact, print the legend,” he says. So I suppose that I will continue to enjoy the film legend and root for his character, whenever he is storming the beach at Iwo Jima or shooting it out on Rio Bravo.  But sadly, the fact of the man behind the image may be no more substantive than the decaying celluloid reels upon which he has been immortalized. One can only speculate that, if he had been pressed into combat, John Wayne may have indeed turned out to be the hero he so often portrayed; more importantly, actual combat might have tempered his unbridled enthusiasm for sending others off to war in later years.  We’ll never know.

Duke was right: War isn’t very civilized business.  Perhaps if he had experienced its horrors firsthand, he wouldn’t have later on made it appear to be such an attractive business- and that’s my point.  We should continue to honor the sacrifices all our veterans have made but not glamorize or white-wash the horrific conditions under which they served.  War should never become entertainment.

We must remember the real heroes, thank them for their service and work harder towards the ultimate goal of finding a more civilized way to solve our nations’ differences.