President Reagan's Interview on John Wayne on September 12, 1988

hi grace when he did this that he believed Duke wasn't necessarily in favor of the war but once we were in it he wanted to win it and we'd like to have your thoughts and his attitude about this well I think well a number of us had that that same feeling and I think that what Duke felt was what I felt at the time and that is the great immorality of the Vietnam War was for our government to be asking young men to give up their lives in that war when the government had no intention of winning it because they were afraid of what might follow that might be worse if we tried to win that particular war and as I say I think that was the great immorality I think Duke felt the same when he made the Green Berets there was something more going on in Hollywood at that time than just whether people weren't in favor of the war I remember that we'd called the theater when the picture first opened it opened to reserve seats like a play would be and Nancy and I couldn't get tickets to it and we'd call the box office and say has anyone turned in their tickets or anything that we could and we couldn't and finally we called someone else that was supposed to be in charge of the tickets and found out that there were tickets for any night you wanted them but you were being told that the box office that there weren't any tickets available in other words the people who were supposed to be promoting the attendance of that picture we're literally keeping people away and I called Duke and told him and I think some John Wayne action took place rather quickly about that was the opening opening successful because I haven't researched that yet you recall with I can't remember now what the outcome was or when I think oh I think it did fine once that it was past that period and then available in theaters without reserved seats both you and Duke wore the same powr a slit Stephenson's for a long time it's but even on on camera I noticed and apparently it had special meaning to him because Steve had sent his wife a picture and comback you're the typical inscription you know me is John Wayne which has become a Americanism could you comment on that story and your feelings about Steve Hanson well just that I thought you might be asking about it that's my Larry Stephens bracelet but I did I have to say I did wear more than their side had several that I felt that I had to kind of change off on because there was another naval officer that was shot down that was it was his widow she didn't know he was shot down she thought it was missing in action not this one's wife but there's other one that back and the very beginning of the families coming together to form an organization about this and this was mrs. Hansen and she came to when I was governor there was a meeting in the Cabinet Room there and she was talking and I'll remember that particular story for a long time because the midway in the meeting I felt something tugging at my pant leg and I looked down and it was a little three-year-old boy who when I looked down at him said will you bring my daddy home well then a naval officer returned who was able to tell her that he was not missing in action he was dead as was Larry Stephens and they are no married they subsequently married this officer who came home and Todd the little three-year-old boy is now a naval officer himself went to Annapolis and all but yes do felt very strongly about things like that and I didn't know as much as evidently he knew about the Larry Stevens case but as I say I had several of these from family members and I I used to try to get in some they're wearing of all of them let's say we found some old news footage from Andy Devine introduced you at a political party that you and Duke both attended and the footage doesn't begin at the right place and what only part we found we don't really know what the vine said but when it's your turn to speak you first thing you said he stood up and said well I'd vote for Duke too so Devine must have said something I don't know if you recall it or not but everybody laughed I got a great laugh I don't I can't recall that but it was true that believe me that Duke Wayne was very often at political gatherings and so forth and most supportive of of me and I was very grateful to him for it and he was typical John Wayne when when things happened for or against I remember however a meeting and this was before politics for me but back when I was president of the Screen Actors Guild and this was at a time when there was a great communist infiltration of the motion picture industry I don't think very many people are aware of this that that it really was and it wasn't just something that a few of us dreamed up the FBI was very much involved in it and there was no question but that on orders from the Kremlin it was to try and get control of the product of the motion picture industry because at that time Hollywood pictures took about 90% of the playing time of all the screens of the world and Stalin had publicly stated what a this was the greatest medium for propaganda possible and I remember one night at a Screen Actors Guild meeting and I had been tipped off by the agency that how they operated to control meetings and to keep them going to the late hours until people would begin leaving and then they knew their own count and when they were then in the majority for enough people left then they would start passing the motions that they wanted so I was made aware of that and you know you and I if we were going to control them you think we'd go in a body and sit together they scattered so that every time the floor was released and I was chairing the meeting their hands went up all of them so that no matter who you pointed to you about a 90% chance of catching one of them well being aware of this and when it started the thing about that when the legitimate business was over one of our people did what I had proposed doing and that is made a made an emotion for adjournment and there was a second of the motion and I called out of the audience and I said a motion to adjourn is always acceptable they started yelling point of order point of order well their point of order was that that the second was just an anonymous voice from out in the audience and how could I claim that this had been moved and seconded and so forth I hadn't and I just looked out of the audience and I saw Duke Wayne sitting out there and I said well not at all anonymous I said Duke that was you wasn't it that seconded the motion of Duke says of course it wasn't me you could count on him at a press conference after his death you told the story about attending a a gathering Jimmy Stewart who you know had just lost his stepson I believe it was and Duke saw to it that a war protester was leaving a Vietcong flag was stopped I mean a deference to Jimmy Stewart you recall that there he was yeah I can't remember exactly what he did about it whether he was did the person I would settle that that's probably what he did but anyway suddenly there was no longer any demonstration or interference with the meeting he had that power didn't he made his play herself yes even a solid citizen which you asked him answer one last time please sir now hasn't been an effective speech in 68 in a Republican convention commenting on his hopes and dreams of his small daughter and could you comment on your action to that of the crowd's reaction his dreams for this country is no this one I don't know whether I was not present at that particular session because I wasn't at all of them and or not and but I I was not present when he spoke so I can't can't come in and then I'm sorry to say but they like math your your comments any comment you like to give to close out that we're doing this documentary is for public television on John Wayne called an American Hero I might add so any last closing comments like to make for us about the man well there's one thing that I think shows the character of that man as well as anything there was a strike while I was president of the Screen Actors Guild it was the first strike the only strike the actors had ever taken and I was getting quite a lot of abuse in the the in the media and the press over this and so forth and at that time I was not well acquainted with with John Wayne you know when you were it's different studios you knew about each other but you didn't run into them as often as you might and so I didn't know him well at all and in the mornings for seven months I was out of that house two meetings that we were getting trying to get this thing settled at all and Nancy be there but the morning papers and sometimes they were worse than others and I came home one day and Nancy told me that she'd had a phone call that morning after I left and it was John Wayne and John also was reading the papers and John she had never met him and John said I just thought you might want to hear a friendly voice about this time and then told her how supportive he was and so forth of what I was doing and he did that every morning when the press was hostile she could count on a call from John Wayne just to cheer her up and shortly after he had started that another man who was a good friend of our Jimmy Cagney so she had two boyfriends calling her every morning after after I left and it was typical of you he was and I remember in campaigning and so forth that and Prescott questions directed to him and regarding the campaign that he was as strong as anyone could be he really has come to epitomize an American hero and a right true sense of that word hero yes it was deservedly so thank you sir thank you

Channel: Reagan Library

Views: 1,156,185

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Keywords: U.S. National Archives, Ronald Reagan, Reagan Presidential Library, Interview, John Wayne, Library, Vietnam Veterans

Id: 80vhQ1fypOU

Length: 11min 35sec (695 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 30 2018