In 1974, John Wayne gave a foreign correspondent an interview. It was classic John Wayne. Plain talk with no sugar coating. An interview that would get him blackballed by Hollywood today. And once the powers that be see it, they will likely ban it and anyone who posts it on their site. John Wayne was a strange combination.
He was a movie star and a man of the people at onr time. He was once asked what men are made of and he said: “I am what men are made of.” And, of course, he was.
The Hollywood legend took on some rather touchy topics in his no-nonsense manner, including the changes brought by the women’s liberation, civil rights and racial grievance movements at the time.
To be sure, while some may disagree or even be somewhat offended with the particular wording of some of his responses — based on what is deemed allowable and offensive by the standards of the current day — there is no denying there is an element of common-sense conservatism behind most of what he said.
“We are being represented by men who are kowtowing to minorities so they can get votes,” Wayne said. “And I think it’s bad for our country, and I’m sad to see minorities make so much of themselves as a hyphenated American now.
“I wish they’d all get to thinking that they’re Americans, as they should, and as they’ve luckily been born here and couldn’t be better off in any other place — there shouldn’t be so much whining and bellyaching.”