The State : ‘Rambo’ Could Bring War, Veterans Say

Sylvester Stallone and his big box office movie “Rambo: First Blood II” could lead young people to war, a group of San Francisco veterans of the Vietnam War said during picketing of a theater. A half-dozen members of the Veterans Speakers Alliance carried such signs as “Rambo Opens Wounds That Were Healing” and “The Greatest Warriors Are the Ones Who Stand for Peace.” In the movie, Rambo rescues U.S. prisoners of war from Vietnam and kills hundreds of Vietnamese in the process. “We feel it is promoting war in South America like John Wayne movies got us ready to go to Vietnam,” Jim Hendrickson, who lost his right arm in a rocket blast, said. “The veterans want people who feel they must see the film to do so with the knowledge that ‘Rambo’ does not represent real Vietnam veterans and that the film presents a twisted glorification of combat that in no way imparts to the viewer any idea of what the real horror and tragedy of war are like,” organizer Eduardo Cohen said.