Robert Scheer sits down with Vietnam veteran, author and peace activist Ron Kovic to discuss what we have learned and not learned about the lessons of war since his time in combat in Vietnam.
While serving as a Marine in the Vietnam War, Ron Kovic suffered a spinal cord injury that left him paralyzed from the chest down. Kovic's book, Born on the Fourth of July, published 40 years ago, discusses his time on the battlefield as well as the fight after coming home to end the war and get better treatment for veterans.
In their conversation, Scheer and Kovic talk about the decades-long struggle to get his book made into an unflinching movie directed by Oliver Stone and starring Tom Cruise. In addition, Kovic delves into the 17-day hunger strike in which he and other veterans took part in 1974 that led to changes in care for veterans and which inspired his forthcoming book, Hurricane Street.
Adapted from KCRW.com
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Robert Scheer: Hi, this is Robert Scheer in another edition of Scheer Intelligence, where I interview people that have been produced by this crazy quilt of American culture, with all its national backgrounds, religions, regional prejudices, racial differences and complex history in this great American experiment in democracy, and has produced some individuals who stand out for their courage, their wisdom, their insight. And my guest today, Ron Kovic, is certainly a great American original. He's someone who as a young man was living in Massapequa, Long Island; I should pronounce that better, I'm probably getting it wrong--
Ron Kovic: Massapequa.
RS: Massapequa, but I know the place, 'cause I used to fish nearby as a kid from the Bronx. We'd go out in Freeport, Long Island--
RK: Yeah, Freeport, yeah.
RS: We've reminisced about this. And Ron Kovic, in 1964--how old were you then?
RK: I was 18 years old, and I had just turned 18 on the Fourth of July; the independence day is my birthday. And I joined the Marines out of high school in the fall of 1964.
RS: So you were at Massapequa High School. And the movie, that I'm sure people, some people are familiar, if not, they should know about it, Born on the Fourth of July, directed by Oliver Stone; Tom Cruise plays Ron Kovic in a brilliant performance based on your book, Born on the Fourth of July. Published, amazingly enough, 40 years ago. But let me just back off onto this history a little bit. After being in high school, and you joined the Marines and hit that training--
RK: Yeah, I went to book camp; I went to Paris Island, South Carolina, Marine Corps boot camp in September of '64.
RS: Yeah. And then when were you first sent to Vietnam?
RK: Well, I volunteered, Bob. I volunteered to go to Vietnam; I had never flown across the country before in my life, and I flew across the country, and I spent about a month and a half at something called staging battalion in Camp Pendleton, California. And it was my first experience with California, and about a month later, in December, I went to Vietnam for the first time in December of 1965. I remember standing around a pool table in the recreation room in Camp Lejeune; I was stationed there for a while after boot camp. That's on the--Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. And I was standing around a pool table with a bunch of Marines, and the television was on. And all of a sudden it became very quiet, and they started talking about--Marines, young Marines started saying, 'We're going to war, we're going to war.' And that was during the Gulf of Tonkin incident.
RS: Yeah, and for people unfamiliar with that history, we were already at war; I mean, we'd actually been involved in South Vietnam, supposedly protecting it against North Vietnam, a country that had been occupied by the French. And there'd been a war against the French, a war for independence; but there were supposed to be elections; they didn't happen. Back in the fi
While serving as a Marine in the Vietnam War, Ron Kovic suffered a spinal cord injury that left him paralyzed from the chest down. Kovic's book, Born on the Fourth of July, published 40 years ago, discusses his time on the battlefield as well as the fight after coming home to end the war and get better treatment for veterans.
In their conversation, Scheer and Kovic talk about the decades-long struggle to get his book made into an unflinching movie directed by Oliver Stone and starring Tom Cruise. In addition, Kovic delves into the 17-day hunger strike in which he and other veterans took part in 1974 that led to changes in care for veterans and which inspired his forthcoming book, Hurricane Street.
Adapted from KCRW.com
Also available in iTunes
Click, subscribe, and share.
Read the full interview below:
Robert Scheer: Hi, this is Robert Scheer in another edition of Scheer Intelligence, where I interview people that have been produced by this crazy quilt of American culture, with all its national backgrounds, religions, regional prejudices, racial differences and complex history in this great American experiment in democracy, and has produced some individuals who stand out for their courage, their wisdom, their insight. And my guest today, Ron Kovic, is certainly a great American original. He's someone who as a young man was living in Massapequa, Long Island; I should pronounce that better, I'm probably getting it wrong--
Ron Kovic: Massapequa.
RS: Massapequa, but I know the place, 'cause I used to fish nearby as a kid from the Bronx. We'd go out in Freeport, Long Island--
RK: Yeah, Freeport, yeah.
RS: We've reminisced about this. And Ron Kovic, in 1964--how old were you then?
RK: I was 18 years old, and I had just turned 18 on the Fourth of July; the independence day is my birthday. And I joined the Marines out of high school in the fall of 1964.
RS: So you were at Massapequa High School. And the movie, that I'm sure people, some people are familiar, if not, they should know about it, Born on the Fourth of July, directed by Oliver Stone; Tom Cruise plays Ron Kovic in a brilliant performance based on your book, Born on the Fourth of July. Published, amazingly enough, 40 years ago. But let me just back off onto this history a little bit. After being in high school, and you joined the Marines and hit that training--
RK: Yeah, I went to book camp; I went to Paris Island, South Carolina, Marine Corps boot camp in September of '64.
RS: Yeah. And then when were you first sent to Vietnam?
RK: Well, I volunteered, Bob. I volunteered to go to Vietnam; I had never flown across the country before in my life, and I flew across the country, and I spent about a month and a half at something called staging battalion in Camp Pendleton, California. And it was my first experience with California, and about a month later, in December, I went to Vietnam for the first time in December of 1965. I remember standing around a pool table in the recreation room in Camp Lejeune; I was stationed there for a while after boot camp. That's on the--Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. And I was standing around a pool table with a bunch of Marines, and the television was on. And all of a sudden it became very quiet, and they started talking about--Marines, young Marines started saying, 'We're going to war, we're going to war.' And that was during the Gulf of Tonkin incident.
RS: Yeah, and for people unfamiliar with that history, we were already at war; I mean, we'd actually been involved in South Vietnam, supposedly protecting it against North Vietnam, a country that had been occupied by the French. And there'd been a war against the French, a war for independence; but there were supposed to be elections; they didn't happen. Back in the fi