John Wayne explains the meaning of freedom
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5 comments:
There were many movie stars in Hollywood who risked their lives for our Nation. Jimmy Stewart, David Niven,Gene Autry and Audie Murphy come immediately to mind. John Wayne NEVER once was in harm's way in the service of our Nation! It used to make my highly decorated, wounded WWII veteran Daddy very angry that most people don't seem to know John Wayne ACTED the part of heroes but wasn't one! This super Patriot, didn't enlist to FIGHT and he could have, he was 34 on Dec 7th. Plenty of Hollywood stars did enlist immediately. The words are right, the spokesperson is all wrong.
Yep:
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1055/was-john-wayne-a-draft-dodger
There are many great, patriotic Americans who never risked their lives in service to our Country.
Measuring someone by something they could have done as opposed to what they did is simply LOOKING for an excuse to belittle.
John Wayne stirred many people's patriotic fire and served well in that role. He was symbol of what it meant to be American.
In the book "John Wayne American" his wife Pilar, says that he was guilt ridden for the remainder of his life due to the fact that he never signed up. I believe the rule was that two or more kids gave one a deferment but one could still join.
I was very disappointed when I learned the truth about the Duke's lack of service, but I think overall, his movie roles were a net plus for the culture.
Randy Dunlap
Flora
He was an ACTOR. He read words written by others about heroes. He didn't do anything other than pretend to be something he wasn't. So, Jane Fonda starts to do patriotic movies and all is forgiven by 'Nam vets? I don't think so.
There were guys who never came home or who came home never having another pain free day who could have gotten out because they were fathers. And, there was no question this was a just war.
And, I guess what gets me the most is he had the audacity to make his fame and fortune off playing the guys he refused to serve with. He wasn't to guilt ridden to make a buck off their sacrifice.
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