Veterans and John Wayne - Democratic Underground

erpowers

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Thu Mar-24-05 05:46 PM
Original message

Veterans and John Wayne

I was skiming through the book "American Terminator". In the book the authors mentions that John Wayne mainly dodged the draft and avoided going to World War II in order to promote his career. How do veterans feel about John Wayne considering that he stared in so many war movies and I think large numbers of people see him as a great person and maybe even a war hero?

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WI_DEM

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Thu Mar-24-05 05:49 PM
Response to Original message

1. All I know is that Jimmy Stewart, Henry Fonda, Clark Gable,

Tyrone Power, Robert Montgomery, David Niven and many others put their careers on hiatus and served. Fonda was in his late 30's and had two children and a wife. Most of thenm were up in age. Meanwhile "Duke" Wayne makes war movies and passes himself off as a great patriot.

Stewart when he returned repeatedly turned down war pictures saying he didn't want to cash in on his war hero status.

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Greylyn58

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Thu Mar-24-05 06:05 PM
Response to Reply #1

6. John Wayne tried to enlist

Edited on Thu Mar-24-05 06:14 PM by Greylyn58

but was told he couldn't. He was given a 4-F. If I remember correctly he had a heart murmur.

So since he couldn't serve he made war movies.

on edit: correction on my part: Ironically, he was exempted from military service in real life because of an ear infection developed during underwater shooting on Reap the Wild Wind

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WI_DEM

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Thu Mar-24-05 06:13 PM
Response to Reply #6

8. I don't know for sure, but here is an interesting link

http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a5_004.html

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lastliberalintexas

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Thu Mar-24-05 06:13 PM
Response to Reply #6

9. Turned down because of his age

Supposedly, anyway. All claims to this come from the rights wingers, so who really knows? What we DO know, however, is that many people, famous and not, enlisted even though they were also in their 30s. As WI Dem noted, Fonda was in his late 30s even. And LBJ was actually the exact same age as Wayne, and yet he was able to enlist. Their claims of rejection truly ring a bit hollow, don't you think?

And the outspoken leftist British actor Leslie Howard was even killed by the Nazis for daring to speak out against their regime. Yet somehow the oh so manly John Wayne still avoided service.

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erpowers

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Thu Mar-24-05 06:09 PM
Response to Reply #1

7. Henry Fonda

Isn't he critized a great amount these days? I heard of bumper sticker that said "I'm not fonda Jane or Henry". Maybe the Henry mentioned in the bumper sticker is the son Henry and not the father.

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Ironpost

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Thu Mar-24-05 05:50 PM
Response to Original message

2. my experience, damn near 57 years, is those overly macho

later in life were wussy early on. I suspect this to be the case.

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DURHAM D

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Thu Mar-24-05 05:58 PM
Response to Reply #2

3. Did you ever see the picture of him carrying a purse and wearing

high heeled sandals. Think he was in Jamica - probably early 50s.
He was not in drag for a movie - it was the way he dressed. Very, very interesting pic and perhaps a window into who/what he really was.

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dogman

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Thu Mar-24-05 05:59 PM
Response to Original message

4. He is typical GOP.

That was then, now they have a war hero of the future, Arnold. They know they are heroes because they saw it in the movies.

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EST

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Thu Mar-24-05 06:01 PM
Response to Original message

5. Have you made this point to a fundie?

I have- their eyes glaze over and the shutters come down.
Might as well save your breath. Any suggestion that the Duke was a draft dodger and not the heroic figure he's painted as is met with the same clarity as Sadaam was behind 9-11-not!
Had he been a dd in the cause world peace, my level of respect would much higher.

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jedr

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Thu Mar-24-05 06:14 PM
Response to Original message

10. this one pushes all my buttons:

then , if you can stand it, read the VFW magazine and see Adds for John Wayne comemeratives....as if he ever served!!!!...too many kids in Nam died trying to act like John Wayne....then you take real hero's like Max Cleland and John Mc Cain and the repukes dis' them...not to mention the Swift Boat liars....What will it be like for these guys coming home, 20 yrs from now??? god help you if you have any medals and run for public office...by the way " thanks for serving"... the repukes love it when they don't have to go

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Steel City Slim

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Fri Mar-25-05 12:28 AM
Response to Reply #10

11. American Legion

The same thing in the AL mag too.

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jedr

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Fri Mar-25-05 07:23 AM
Response to Reply #11

12. welcome to d/u

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