A True American

For years now The Duke has been on my short list of favorite actors. I have bought just about all of his movies. There was just something that I liked about the man so I decided that I would see what he was all about. As I was doing some research and fact finding on the web about him I found out some interesting things about this man and I decided that he deserved an article about him on this conservative page. Wayne liked acting out parts that made him who he was. What you see on the screen was basically who he was in real life. He was a true American first and then a conservative second. He did have, as one of his movies was called, "TRUE GRIT" He would speak out loud and clear on the major issues of his day. Below are some of the things that I found out about John Wayne on www.wikipedia.org. He truly was, besides being a good actor, a True American. We need more conservative actors and true Americans in Hollywood, today, like John Wayne. Then as I looked deeper into the actors of the past most all of them were conservatives like The Duke. Let's talk about John Wayne being we started out with him. After reading about him I wondered, what has happened in Hollywood today with some of these people that call their selves actors? I wonder what The Duke would say about Hollywood today! All I can say is after reading his history "He was a man that loved his country and was very out spoken about how he felt."

The Duke was a conservative
Republican and a true American He was a committed anti-communist, and spoken supporter of the House Un-American Activities Committee. In 1951, he made Big Jim McLain to show his support for the anti-communist cause. He also claimed to have been influential in having Carl Foreman
blacklisted from Hollywood after the release of the anti-McCarthyism western High Noon, and later teamed up with Howard Hawks to make Rio Bravo as a right-wing response. A supporter of then Vice President
Richard Nixon's bid for the White House, he famously showed his vision of loyalty for this country when John F. Kennedy won the election The Duke said, "I didn't vote for him but he's my president, and I hope he does a good job." I wonder how many of the actors today that never voted for Bush would say the same thing.

John Wayne used his star position as a star to support conservative causes, including rallying support for the Vietnam War by producing, co-directing, and starring in the critically acclaimed and highly praised movie, The Green Berets. He was not like Jane Fonda Who made her films sitting on top of a North Vietnam Tank waving the enemies flag while our soldiers were dying on the battle field. Due to his enormous popularity, and his status as the most famous Republican star in Hollywood, prosperous Texas Republican Party backers asked Wayne to run for national office in 1968, as had his friend and fellow actor, Senator George Murphy. He declined, joking that he did not believe the public would seriously consider an actor in the White House. However, he did support his friend Ronald Reagan's runs for Governor of California in 1966 and 1970. He was also asked to be the running mate for Democratic Alabama Governor George Wallace in 1968. Wayne passionately rejected the offer because of his beliefs that all people are created equal. Wayne actively campaigned for Richard Nixon, and when Nixon lost to Kennedy, The Duke said "I never voted for him, but he is my president. I hope he does a good job." I wonder how many actors today would say the same thing about President Bush! John Wayne also addressed the Republican National Convention on its opening day in August 1968. Wayne also was a member of the conservative and anti-communist John Birch Society.The next thing I found out, while I was researching John Wayne was his strong anti-communist politics led to a particularly frightening and alarming situation. Information from Soviet archives, reported in 2003, indicates, in black and white, that Joseph Stalin ordered Wayne's assassination and elimination, but died before the killing could be accomplished. His successor, Nikita Khrushchev, evidently told Wayne during a 1958 visit to the United States that he had personally rescinded, putting a stop, to the order. Wayne was so out spoken about his stand on communism that Stalin wanted him dead. What does that tell you about the man?

In an interview with Playboy magazine in May 1971, Wayne made controversial remarks. He noted that, as someone living in the 20th Century, he was certainly not responsible, nor was anybody else for the way people, who lived one hundred years before him, had treated Native Americans and he was so right. In the second comment he made, he noted that African-Americans had been deprived of educational opportunities and he resented that fact, but he went on to say that past mistreatment did not give good reason for turning over positions of responsibility and accountability to blacks on the basis of skin color alone without regard to the ability, schooling and training to fill the position. He believed that the best qualified person, capable of doing the job, should get the position no matter what the color of their skin was. How right he was again. John Wayne had a open mine and he spoke the truth and always did what was right. He was so popular in his day and still is well liked today, even after his death, not just because of his acting ability, which was superb, not because of his conservatism, not because he was a republican, but because he was proud to be an American and John Wayne, my friend, was a true American.