John Wayne Knew Controversial Vietnam Film ‘The Green Berets’ Would Cost Him a Generation of Fans—He Made It Anyway

For decades, John Wayne seemed almost untouchable at the box office. From the late 1930s through the 1950s, the actor’s name alone could draw audiences into theaters. Westerns like Red River, The Searchers and Rio Bravo, along with films such as The Quiet Man and The Longest Day, helped turn Wayne into one of Hollywood’s most recognizable and dependable stars. But by the late 1960s, both the country and the movie business were changing—and Wayne found himself at the center of a cultural storm.

Released in 1968 at the height of the Vietnam War, The Green Berets was both a war film and a clear statement of John Wayne’s personal beliefs. Co-directed by Wayne, the film follows an elite team of U.S. Army Special Forces soldiers as they carry out missions in Southeast Asia, presenting the conflict through a strongly pro-military lens that sets it apart from many later Vietnam-era films. The cast includes David Janssen—best known to television audiences as the lead in The Fugitive—as a skeptical journalist whose views evolve over the course of the story; and George Takei, recognized for his role as Sulu on Star Trek, as part of the military team.

According to biographer Scott Eyman, author of John Wayne: The Life and Legend, the turning point came with the 1968 film The Green Berets. If there was a moment when Wayne’s relationship with younger audiences began to shift, Eyman believes it was this one. “I think The Green Berets cost him an entire generation of the audience,” he suggests, “but he didn’t care, because he was putting his money where his mouth was.”

The impact of ‘The Green Berets’

At a time when the war had become one of the most divisive issues in the United States, Wayne took a firmly supportive position. “He produced that picture himself and it did alright,” Eyman explains. “Not a huge money maker, but it didn’t lose anything. He was going to tell it like he saw it, and he thought Vietnam was a wonderful idea and that we had to stop the commies or they’d overrun us.”

For Wayne, the film was a statement of personal conviction. He believed strongly in the cause and was willing to risk his popularity to express that belief. But the reaction from younger audiences—particularly those opposed to the war—was often harsh. “Nobody believes that now, and nobody really believed it then,” Eyman says. “But there was a faction that did.”

Even Eyman himself, who had grown up watching Wayne’s films, remembers reacting negatively to the movie when it was released. “I was 18 when The Green Berets came out, and I thought it was just a godawful picture,” he says. “Even aside from his politics, it’s a World War II picture he’s making about Vietnam, and they’re two totally different things. But he just didn’t care.”

Did ‘The Green Berets’ hurt John Wayne’s career?

Despite the controversy, Wayne continued working steadily through the late 1960s and early 1970s. In fact, the very next year brought one of the biggest successes of his career. True Grit (1969) earned Wayne an Academy Award for Best Actor and introduced him to new audiences as the gruff but memorable U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn. Even so, Eyman says the cultural shift happening around Wayne was difficult to ignore.

“You could see as the ’60s became the ’70s, his box office is beginning to deteriorate,” he explains. “Even though True Grit was a huge success, and Big Jake made money, nobody was going to retire off the returns from films like McQ or Brannigan or, for that matter, The Shootist, even though it’s a wonderful picture.”

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Part of the challenge, he says, was simply generational. “He had not brought a younger audience into his pictures,” Eyman notes. “Now most 65-year-old movie stars don’t, let’s face it. When you get to be a certain age and you’re a star, basically you’re working the audience you already have.”

The younger generation, growing up during a turbulent era of protests and cultural change, often viewed Wayne as a symbol of an earlier America—one that didn’t necessarily reflect their own experiences. “It’s very hard to get 20-year-olds,” Eyman notes, “because they look at you and they see their grandfather’s hero and they don’t care about that.”

Still, the controversy surrounding The Green Berets never seemed to trouble Wayne very much. By that point in his life, he had already built a career spanning nearly four decades. And for better or worse, he was determined to stand by his beliefs. In the end, the film may have cost John Wayne some younger fans, but it also revealed something essential about the man behind the legend: he was never afraid to say exactly what he thought, even if it meant taking a risk.