Louis Shalako
Here’s a funny thing. John Wayne wasn’t acting. In the early days, he might have had to do some acting in order to become the role. Those were all westerns, and Mr. Wayne could ride a horse, he was from Texas. He enjoyed the outdoors, shooting, hunting and fishing for example.
(If you ever see me on a horse, you can assume I am not only acting, but way out of my depth.)
It wasn’t a great leap of
the imagination, when it came time for him to get in front of the camera. The
man didn’t even have to change his shirt or pull on a set of cowboy boots. He
was already dressed for the role, when he came walking in that front door. Once who John
Wayne was, or became what he believed
himself to be, once all of that had been defined, all he had to do was keep on
keeping on. After that, all he ever did was to play himself.
Writers were tasked with writing a film, (or
screenplay), and that much is true. It is also true that almost anyone might
have been cast in some of the roles. The actual premise went a little something like this: what would John Wayne
do, when confronted with a given situation. What would John Wayne do if he was a senior officer in the
Green Berets. There is no acting here. The political and social commentary is
all John Wayne, ladies and gentlemen.
A sort of cultural
anachronism, the rah-rah patriotism, the Battle Hymn of the Republic kind of
film. I reckon everyone in this film was a Republican, even David Janssen.
A film so bad, it's taken me three days to watch it and I actually like crummy old war movies. The Green Berets is a reactionary movie in the fullest sense. John Wayne was trying to project, or to correct a narrative, this at a time when there were student protests, journalists were investigating, that 24-hour news cycle was just coming on, with film literally flown home for the evening broadcasts. (It took about 48 hours to get a film back to the U.S., priority jet flight.) Congressional and Senate committees were inquiring into the conduct of the war. There was bad news all around from Vietnam. You can bet the pollsters were all over it, and politicians listen to the pollsters, don't they. Even the Viet Cong are Republicans in this film.
It's interesting to see Batjac Productions stock actors regurgitated all through the film. Most of them appeared in many a western produced by Batjac. I'm recognizing face after face. It strikes me that your politics had better be correct or you would never work with Mr. Wayne. He simply wouldn’t have you, no matter how suitable or how good you were in a role. That is, in a word, reactionary.
Over the years, many people have blamed micromanagement from the White House for the U.S. defeat. They’ve had fifty years to figure it out, and yet they still haven’t. Some have blamed Communist infiltration, paid demonstrators, (sound familiar?), professional agitators poisoning the minds of students. Some have blamed the news media for the loss of the war. The news media do not have the power to deploy battalions and institute military plans. Some have blamed General Westmoreland for fighting WW II tactics and strategies in unsuitable terrain and social conditions. Some have blamed Robert MacNamara’s focus on body counts, and some have blamed the corruption and incompetence of South Vietnamese political and military leadership. (Also, a capitalist leadership. But we'll try and ignore that. - ed.) It is also true that a strategic bombing offensive isn't very effective against mud, hills and villages of straw huts, and when the major city and port of the enemy are off limits.
Very few acknowledge the fact that the war was unwinnable before the U.S. ever got involved.
The Japanese found that out. The French found that out
at Dien Bien Phu. The Chinese have found out, both before, and since, that time
period. The lessons were there, they were simply ignored. The lessons are still
being ignored.
Ho Chi Minh, a key figure in
Vietnamese history, attended the 1919 Versailles Peace Conference in Paris,
hoping to seek recognition and support for Vietnamese independence from
France. He used the platform to deliver an eight-point petition demanding
equal rights and autonomy for Indochina. While he hoped to meet with
President Woodrow Wilson, he was ultimately unsuccessful and did not secure the
support he sought. (AI overview)
One of the more obvious
lessons here. A motivated and ideologically-pure entity will prevail over a
decadent and hedonistic entity by virtue of discipline and energy.
Communism was scary shit to
the America of the time, and that still holds true today, even though true
communism has never been successful. The idea of Marxist-Leninist communism is
essentially dead. In that sense, it is the word
that holds power and not the reality. This is why so many Americans foam at the
mouth at the word socialism.
More from our AI overview:
However, at the time of the
Versailles Conference, Hồ Chí Minh was
committed to a socialist program. While the
conference was ongoing, Nguyễn Ái Quốc was already delivering speeches on the
prospects of Bolshevism in Asia and was attempting to persuade French
socialists to join Lenin's Communist International.
That is also one of the
lessons, and it is also why when reactionaries talk about socialism, they also
point to places like Venezuela, China, North Korea. Which may have communist or
socialist overtones, but are anything but benevolent to the common people.
They are authoritarian
dictatorships, extractive, exploitative, and anything but benign. They are not only corrupt, from the top down in the usual fashion, but also incompetent. They are, in fact, the antithesis of socialism.
***
Nietzsche believed that a
man's belief about himself is not a fixed entity, but rather a product of
his own creation and interpretation of his existence. He argued that
individuals must "become who they are" by cultivating their unique
virtues and facing the challenges of life head-on. This process involves
self-discovery, self-reflection, and a constant striving for self-mastery. (AI overview)
In a sense, John Wayne was
self-invented. Whether we agree with his political or social views or not, that
was one hell of an achievement, ladies and gentlemen. I'm in the process of doing something very much like that myself.
It's crazy enough, it might just work.
Others have done it before.
END
The Green Berets. A John Wayne film and more.
Batjac Productions. (Wiki)
Battle Hymn of the Republic, sung, ironically enough, by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
Louis Shalako has books and stories on Google Play.
See his works on Fine Art America.
Thank you for reading.
