The Green Berets

Marion Mitchell Morrison , better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. An Academy Award-winner, Wayne was among the top box office draws for three decades, and was named the all-time top money-making star. An enduring American icon, he epitomized... rugged masculinity and is famous for his demeanor, including his distinctive calm voice, walk, and height. Wayne was born in Winterset, Iowa but his family relocated to the greater Los Angeles area when he was four years old. He found work at local film studios when he lost his football scholarship to USC as a result of a bodysurfing accident. Initially working for the Fox Film Corporation, he mostly appeared in small bit parts. His acting breakthrough came in 1939 with John Ford's Stagecoach, making him an instant star. Wayne would go on to star in 142 pictures, primarily typecast in Western films.
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Mervyn LeRoy was an American film director, film producer and sometime actor. Born to Jewish parents in San Francisco, his family was financially ruined by the 1906 earthquake. To make money, young Mervyn sold newspapers and entered talent shows as a singer. Through this he worked his way into... vaudeville. When his act broke up, he and his cousin, Jesse Lasky, went to Hollywood. LeRoy worked in costumes, processing labs and as a camera assistant until he became a gag writer and actor in silent films. His first directing job was in 1927's No Place to Go. When his movies made lots of money without costing too much, he became well-received in the movie business. In 1931 he directed two key films which launched Edward G. Robinson into major stardom, the Oscar-nominated critique of tabloid journalism Five Star Final, and the classic gangster epic Little Caesar.
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Edgar Ray Kellogg was an American film director from Iowa. During World War II, Kellogg was a US Navy Lieutenant with the O.S.S. Field Photographing Branch where he became acquainted with John Ford. Following the war Kellogg went to Hollywood working in special effects for 20th Century Fox,... eventually heading the unit. He made his debut as a director with The Killer Shrews and The Giant Gila Monster in 1959. Both films would later be parodied in Mystery Science Theater 3000. He died in Ontario, California of cancer.
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John Lewis Gaddis is a noted historian of the Cold War and grand strategy, who has been hailed as the "Dean of Cold War Historians" by The New York Times. He is the Robert A. Lovett Professor of Military and Naval History at Yale University. He is also the official biographer of the seminal 20th... century statesman George F. Kennan, for which he won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography in 2012. Raised in Cotulla, Texas, Gaddis attended the University of Texas at Austin,. He received his B.A. in 1963, his M.A. in 1965, and his Ph.D. in 1968, under the direction of Robert Divine. He taught briefly at Indiana University Southeast before joining Ohio University in 1969. At Ohio, he founded and directed the Contemporary History Institute and was named a distinguished professor in 1983. In the 1975-1977 academic years, Gaddis was a Visiting Professor of Strategy at the Naval War College. In the 1992-1993 academic year, he was the Harmsworth Professor of American History at Oxford University. He has held visiting positions at the Naval War College, Princeton University, and the University of Helsinki.
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