Anti-War Activist Kovic in Spotlight Again With Movie

Ron Kovic was an all-American boy from suburban New York who grew up to be a “Gung Ho” Marine, was paralyzed in Vietnam and returned to became a passionate anti-war activist.

His story is now being told in a new film that opens around the country this week. Called “Born on the Fourth of July,” it stars Tom Cruise and was directed by Oscar-winning Vietnam veteran Oliver Stone, who also directed “Platoon.”

“I never thought I’d be saying this but my wound has become a blessing in disguise,” the 43-year-old Kovic says. “It’s enabled me to reach millions of people with a message of peace and hope.”

The film was to have been made in 1978 by producer Martin Bregman with Al Pacino playing the role of Kovic. But last minute financing difficulties canceled the project.

Bob Muller, founder of the influential Vietnam Veterans of America and the man who first coaxed Kovic into actively opposing the Vietnam War in 1969, says: “There’s no denying that Ron made a tremendous contribution to the anti-war movement by bringing the human cost of the war home to people.”

One of the most dramatic scenes in the movie depicts Kovic and Muller, who is also a paraplegic, being thrown out of the 1972 Republican National Convention in Miami after shouting anti-war slogans during President Richard M. Nixon’s acceptance speech.

The film ends with what had been until now the most triumphant moment in Kovic’s life, his speech before the 1976 Democratic National Convention in New York.

“The movie is going to make Ron Kovic the most celebrated Vietnam veteran in America. I’m very curious to see how he handles the spotlight,” said Muller, now director of a project working to restore relations between Washington and Hanoi.

In preparing to play the role of Kovic in the film, Cruise, who was born on the third of July, made several wheelchair excursions around Los Angeles with Kovic, including a visit to a Veterans Administration hospital.

Kovic, who wrote the film’s screenplay with Stone, gave his Bronze Star to Cruise as a birthday present during filming in Dallas.