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Israel/Zionism See other Israel/Zionism Articles Title: DOCUMENTS REVEAL PENTAGON CENSORSHIP OF MILITARY SUICIDES, TRAUMA IN HOLLYWOOD A 2016 study found that 20 US veterans kill themselves every day. Department of Defence (DOD )statistics show that the suicide rate among veterans is around twice the rate in the non-military population. An analysisin 2017 said that a suicide attempt in a military unit makes other attempts more likely, and that 20% of all the suicides in the US are by military veterans. These brutal statistics testify to the futility of our post-9/11 wars, as well as the horrors inflicted on those employed to fight these wars on the ground. What has never previously been reported is the extent to which the Pentagon’s entertainment liaison offices manipulate and censor films, TV shows and documentaries to try to downplay or erase the widespread problem of military PTSD and suicide. Among the stories we discovered while writing our book National Security Cinema is that there was a raging argument on the set of Iron Man between writer/director Jon Favreau and DOD Hollywood liaison Phil Strub. Strub refused to let Favreau include a line where a military character says that he knows people who would ‘kill themselves for the opportunities he has’. Though the line was changed, this scene did not appear in the finished film. Using documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, along with files from a newly-opened archive in Georgetown, I investigated the Pentagon’s approach to projects that feature or reference military PTSD and suicide. I found that the DOD has repeatedly censored and refused to support films, TV shows and documentaries that feature military suicide, and tends to only support those projects that make it look like the DOD is solving the problem. SAYONARA (1957) It wasn’t always this way. In 1957 Warner Bros. approached the Pentagon to request support for their film Sayonara, about two Air Force pilots stationed in Kobe who fall in love with Japanese women. They face opposition and racist hostility from within the military establishment, who begin ordering all enlisted men who are married to Japanese women home to America, without their brides. Eventually, Joe Kelly (Red Buttons in an Oscar-winning role) and Katsumi (Miyoshi Umeki) commit double suicide rather than face separation. The politically controversial nature of the script did cause some concern, with the DOD’s Hollywood database recording how the Air Force was: ‘initially reluctant to provide assistance because of inter-racial dating and suicide of one of its enlisted men.’ However, they ‘ultimately provided planes and equipment’ to help make the film. Given that the military’s policy at the time forbade fraternising with occupied people as well as inter-racial marriage, the film was not deemed inaccurate and so support was granted. It probably helped that James Michener, the writer of the novel on which the film was based, was a Pulitzer Prize winning author and a WW2 Navy veteran. THE OUTSIDER (1961) Ira Hayes was one of the six Marines pictured in the famous photo Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima near the end of WW2. He was the only Native American among the six, and played himself in the 1949 movie Sands of Iwo Jima, but he was never comfortable with his fame and the attention it brought. In the years following the war he descended into alcoholism and depression, and in January 1955 he died of alcohol poisoning and exposure to cold, after collapsing outside following a heavy drinking session. Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima While not a suicide, there is little doubt that Hayes’ death was partly a consequence of his experiences during the war. He once told a reporter: I was sick. I guess I was about to crack up thinking about all my good buddies. They were better men than me and they’re not coming back. Much less back to the White House, like me. His death was widely reported and some pointed the finger at the Marine Corps for failing to help Hayes with his mental health and alcohol problems. This story was portrayed in The Outsider, where Hayes was played by Tony Curtis, with the Pentagon’s database commenting that the film: ‘showed how the Marines, the military and the government used Hayes to raise bonds for war effort but did not help him when he became alcoholic.’ The document goes on to note how the decorated Marine Corps Lt Gen Victor Krulak ‘believes the Marines were guilty of his death because of this [failure to help Hayes].’ DOD-Hollywood database excerpt on The Outsider Despite this the Marine Corps granted full cooperation to The Outsider, allowing them to film at a recruit depot in San Diego and at Camp Pendleton. However, in exchange the ‘filmmakers toned down death of Hayes’, diminishing the emotional impact of the story on the audience. This was an early warning sign of a shift in policy within the Pentagon’s film office, which would come to fruition in the following decades. COMING HOME (1978) The Vietnam War drama Coming Home also sought DOD production assistance but unlike The Outsider and Sayonara it did not qualify for support. This may be because military suicides spiked during and after the Vietnam War, leading to a change in thinking in the Pentagon’s film office. A 1987 study by the CDC found that in the five years following discharge there were 1.7 suicides among Vietnam veterans for every suicide in the non-veteran population. The trend continues — a 2012 article reported how ‘suicide rates among Vietnam veterans are the highest of any particular group’. Coming Home tells the story of Sally — Jane Fonda — whose husband is fighting in Vietnam. In his absence she falls in love with a severely wounded Vietnam veteran, Luke — played by a young Jon Voight. Another wounded veteran, Billy — John Carradine — is traumatised by his experiences in the war and kills himself by injecting air into his veins. The Pentagon’s databaseincludes an entry on Coming Home recording how it was denied assistance because the script: Contained reference to Leathernecks in Vietnam cutting ears off dead Vietcong, portraying an officer suffering a breakdown from his war experiences and committing suicide, and a paralysed Vietnam vet attacking the Marines........ Poster Comment: As the stars whore for the producers' peecee dementia, the studios don't make a move the fedgoons don't approve. Who's on top the heap? Some Soros type, I promise you. Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
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