The Political Impact of the Department of Defense on Hollywood Cinema

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Acknowledgment

I wish to extend my heartfelt thanks to Tricia Jenkins for her collaboration on this article. She consulted the primary documents at Georgetown Library, such as they were, and acquired the material from David Robb. She also wrote an early draft of the paper but felt it would be inappropriate to accept a joint credit.

Notes

1. According to the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), projects seeking full cooperation must meet four main criteria before their application will be approved. The film must be deemed “authentic in its portrayal of actual persons, places, military operations and historical events,” and fictional portrayals must depict a “feasible interpretation of military life, operations, and policies” (DOD FA-15-0157 Redacted Responsive Documents: Part 1—-Response to Freedom of Information Act Request by Tom Secker and Matthew Alford, 2, emphasis added). The film must also contain informational value and be “considered to be in the best interest of public understanding of the U.S. Armed Forces and the Department of Defense” (Ibid., emphasis added). The script “may” also, but does not have to, enhance recruiting and retention programs, and, finally, the script must not contain material that “appears to condone or endorse activities by private citizens that are contrary to U.S. Government policy” (Ibid., emphasis added).

2. Suid, Guts and Glory: The Making of the American Military Image in Film, 674-678.

3. Ibid., xii.

4. Ibid., xii.

5. Alford, Reel Power, Hollywood Cinema and American Supremacy, 2010.

6. Robb, Operation Hollywood: How the Pentagon Shapes and Censors the Movies, 25.

7. Suid, Guts and Glory, xi.

8. Robb, Operation Hollywood, 25.

9. Suid, email to Quarterly Review of Film and Video article author Matthew Alford, on December 13, 2011.

10. Buchtel, email to Alford, December 13, 2011.

11. Strub, email to Alford, November 7, 2014.

12. DOD, FA-15-0157.

13. Ibid.

14. Wayne, Letter to Bill Moyers, February 18, 1966, [collection], para. 1.

15. Staats, Report to The Honorable Benjamin S. Rosenthal, June 19, 1969, [collection]. para. 5.

16. Suid, Guts and Glory, 253.

17. Tully, Memo to Director of Security Review, March 24, 1967, para. 1 [collection].

18. Worthing, Email interview with Tricia Jenkins, June 20, 2013.

19. Tully, Memo, para. 1 [collection].

20. Hinkle, Memo to Director, Defense Information. March 27, 1967, para. 1 [collection].

21. Tully, Memo, para. 1 [collection].

22. Hinkle, Memo, para. 1 [collection].

23. Wayne, Michael, Letter to Donald Baruch, February 22, 1968 [collection].

24. Robb, Operation Hollywood, 35.

25. Ibid., 37.

26. Hogel, Action Memorandum to Special Assistant (Audio-Visual) Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, June 17, 1993.

27. Greer, USAF Memo to General Hogel, July 23, 1993.

28. Robb, 29-32.

29. Strub, Email to Mr. Tom Pevsner, Exec Producer of Goldeneye at Eon Productions, January 20, 1995.

30. Suid and Robb, “Review,” in Film and History.

31. Robb, Operation Hollywood, 29–31.

32. Strub, November 7, 2014.

33. Robb, Operation Hollywood, 18.

34. Ibid., 55.

35. Ibid., 56.

36. Suid, Guts and Glory, 648.

37. Ibid., 670.

38. Robb, Operation Hollywood, 93.

39. Bowden, Black Hawk Down, 119.

40. Gray, Geoffrey. Activists Protest No. 1 Movie: “Black Hawk” Damned, February 6–12, 2002. <http://www.banadir.com/damned.shtml>

41. Ibid.

42. Robb, “To the Shores of Hollywood: Marine Corps Fights to Polish Image in ‘Windtalkers,’” in Washington Post, C01.

43. Strub, Email to Captain Morgan, March 7, 2000; Nyhart, Email to Captain Morgan: “Windtalkers Media Plan”, June 13, 2000.

44. Robb, Operation Hollywood, 64.

45. Webb, James. Letter to Philip Strub, December 27, 1993.

46. Ibid.

47. Ibid.

48. Broeckert, Letter to J.M. Shotwell, October 18, 1993 [collection].

49. Broeckert, Jerry, Letter to Shotwell October 18, 1993. In the Fields of Fire folder.

50. Boomer, Request for Production Assistance for Feature Motion Picture, January 12, 1994, para. 1 [collection].

51. Ibid.

52. Strub, Letter to W. E. Boomer, n.d. [collection].

53. Strub, Letter to Webb.

54. Shotwell, Memorandum, para. 2 [collection].

55. Webb, Letter to Philip Strub, December 27, 1993a.

56. Klady, “Backlot: Robin's Wooed; Fox follies; Uppity Secretaries,” in Daily Variety, January 18, 1994.

57. Robb, Operation Hollywood, p. 46.

58. Ibid., 44.

59. DOD Inspector General. Tailhook 91: Events At The 35th Annual Tailhook Symposium.

60. Robb, 44–45.

61. Ibid., 356.

62. Ibid., pp. 353–355; Blair, The Atomic Submarine and Admiral Ricover (1954).

63. Robb, Operation Hollywood, 182; DOD Inspector General.

64. Robb, Operation Hollywood, 152.