John Wayne: Forgiving an American Idol

Vietnam 1970 - I had been in country one week when my squad leader said, "We don't need any John Waynes in this squad."

At first, it was hard for me to understand why everyone seemed so down on the duke.

At 19 (photo right) I knew very little about politics. 

I learned that Wayne used his iconic status to support conservative causes that kept the war going. That included rallying support for the Vietnam war by producing, co-directing and starring in the critically panned Green Berets in 1968.

That movie was propaganda, pure and simple. 

After a while, I understood why his name had come to represent the establishment and the senseless war we were fighting. 

I found out firsthand that there were no heroes like the ones in the movies. Just survivors. 

Most of the South Vietnamese (who we were supposedly fighting for) I met wanted us to go home. I slowly became aware we were just invaders, not saviors.

I never saw anyone cry out, "For God and Country" and charge into enemy bunkers with M-16 blasting away. That's not the war I saw. I saw corruption on the South Vietnamese side and the American side. A thriving black market. Master sergeants in supply getting rich. And lots of Americans doing drugs.

How could my boyhood hero have supported such a massive mistake? What made Marion Mitchell Morrison side with the bad guys? 

Time hasn't been kind to him.

People still hold John Wayne in contempt for the paradox between his early actions - he never went into the military - and his rampant patriotism in later decades.

His widow suggested he was that way because he felt guilty, and not because he was a hypocrite.

I once use to work as a security guard at the gated community where he and his wife Pilar lived in Newport Beach (1974), and I saw him there regularly. 

He was easy to talk with. We had many interesting conversations, him in his non-descript Ford station wagon, and me standing there in a rent-a-cop uniform at the front gate.

When Wayne found out I was a Vietnam veteran he treated me with even more respect, which at the time was a rare experience for Vietnam veterans throughout the country. 

One day, when I told him I was getting married, he gave me a cigar and wished me the best of luck.

You know what? I forgave Wayne a long time ago for being a hawk during the war. I believe he meant well.

As it Stands, I wonder what that cigar would have sold for at auction. I'll never know because I smoked it to a stub the first chance I got.