John Wayne is one of the most famous American actors in history. Some of his most notable movies include True Grit, The Alamo, Sands of Iwo Jima, and Rio Bravo. In the eyes of many, he is the quincuncial Cowboy. In the eyes of many others, he is the American War hero every soldier should strive to be. But to Joseph Stalin, he was a problem. Mr. Wayne's vigorous and unrelenting distaste towards Communism was made known throughout a multitude of his films and press conferences. He was no stranger to bashing Communism and the tyrant himself. For this Stalin said he must go. A plot was hatched. Two KGB agents were sent to the U.S and would pose as U.S FBI agents and assassinate him on set no less. Luckily the FBI caught wind of this scheme and told Mr. Wayne and they decided to catch these Soviet agents. When the agents arrived to kill Mr. Wayne in his office, the real FBI agents came into the room and subdued them. They were apparently so afraid of returning to Russia with reports that their mission failed that they willingly stayed to give intelligence and information to the FBI. Ultimately, this decision came about when Stalin was in his mad years and it's very apparent that was the case. This story seems like it came straight out of a movie but it was true. Swear to god. And I'm very glad Mr. Wayne survived this ordeal and came out on top.
Sources:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/aug/01/film.russia
https://allthatsinteresting.com/john-wayne-assassination
Wow. Sounds like the Russian/American relationship today, just a bit! I agree Stalin must have been mad to go after a movie actor, one of many who openly criticized communism. It's crazy the lengths to which politicians will go to maintain and grow their power. I wonder whether he ever learned of his agents' betrayal; after all, Wayne did not die then and the agents clearly must not have reported back to Stalin if they had no good news to offer.
ReplyDeleteThis really does sound straight out of a movie. I wonder what were the consequences going to be for the two agents if they came back to Russia with the news that Mr.Wayne hadn't been killed. Knowing how crazy Stalin was acting at the time he, I feel like he would have killed them.
ReplyDeleteWhile it is understandable that Stalin would harbor negative feelings for John Wayne due to his criticisms on communism, many European political figures had the same opinions towards communism. Why did Stalin focus on assassinating Wayne? An American actor and war idol seemed to be the most trivial issue to Stalin, who was having a difficult time maintaining the USSR economy and its satellite states. To which extent did Wayne affect the massive propaganda campaign issued by Stalin that would result in his attempted assassination?
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting topic that I had never heard of. Good choice!
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