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Rambo

By Barry Romo

RAMBO or How I won the Vietnam War Ten Years after the 'Politicians' Lost it!

The U.S. may have lost the war in Vietnam, but it sure as hell is winning the movie version of the war. The latest in a crop of crap is Rambo: First Blood, Part 2.

This is the fourth movie to be released about 40-year old Vietnam vets returning to find MIA's alive; it is grossing millions and is probably almost as profitable as the war itself—to some people. If these movies were merely the dream of some REMF* about what combat was about they would be harmless. After all, middle-aged men running around the jungle (and I do mean running) without getting heat stroke, drinking paddy water without getting dysentery, surviving in the jungle without losing weight, and able to leap tall buildings at a single bound all of this is ridiculous to most vets who have seen real combat. But unfortunately, these movies carry a very subtle message to the younger generation, which does not remember the Vietnam War. Killing is fun again! Like the John Wayne movies of our youth, death and killing have been cleared up as the nation looks forward to another Vietnam in Central America. No where do men have their legs blown off and live; no one is confined to a wheel chair; no one has children born handicapped because of chemical defoliants. In fact for the most part the "good guys" don't even die, just thousands of nameless, faceless "gooks" who don't respect life anyway.

There is an interesting twist to all these movies. In order for Americans to be the "good guys," and in order for them to win, they become guerillas. There is a grand role reversal in which the American fights with his hands (instead of with B-52's) and the "bad guys" have the helicopter gunships. Pardon me if my CIB* is showing, but I seem to remember the VC making grenades out of C-ration cans and facing the overwhelming power of battleships, gunships, Puff and all the rest.

These new attempts to entice young people set a challenge to VVAW. Already many chapters and members do work in high schools and with youth groups to counter the lies and promises of military recruiters. Coupled with this is the necessity of explaining what Vietnam and combat are really like. And there is the further necessity of putting a face on the "enemy" who was like as not, a 14-year-old fighting against the foreigners who were invading his country and who bombed his home—and this is the "enemy" the U.S. is likely to face in Central America.

I supposed some will think it is cheap to attack the personalities starring in these movies, but I just can't help but burn watching these new John Wayne types play 'Nam vets. Most of these "heroes" are old enough to have had the chance to "play" war for real if they had tried. Stallone is a prime example. While Vietnam was an act in the process of looking for extras, "Rocky" was in Europe going to school. As Vietnam continued, "Rambo" was making bucks making porno flicks; as Vietnam ended Stallone became a true patriot. It seems that from one generation to the next ones who make the wars and the ones who make the movies are never the ones who do the fighting or the dying.

—Barry Romo
VVAW National Office

• REMF stands for "rear echelon mother-fucker.
• CIB is the Combat Infantryman's Badge.

Nam Vets Picket Rambo

A group of Vietnam vets in San Francisco have been picketing "Rambo: 1st Blood, Part II"

Edward Cohen, spokesman for the Veterans Speakers Alliance told THE VETERAN that they "took offense that Stallone would make a movie at a time when our country is openly intervening in Central America."

Cohen, a veteran of the 173rd Airborne, was "upset that Stallone is depicting himself as the voice of Vietnam vets when he neither served in Vietnam or in the armed services....He exploits our sacrifice in Vietnam as well as the tragedy of the MIA's families."

The veterans have continued their picket line from Thursday through Saturday since July 24th and have been successful in exposing the film both movie goers and in the media. They have offered to debate Stallone concerning Vietnam and vets.

The group hopes that other vets across the country will take up the challenge that this movie presents and picket it as Vietnam vets.

For more information, contact:

Veterans Speaker Alliance
P O Box 40755
San Francisco, CA 94140