Ron Kovic

"I'm a Vietnam veteran, I'm here tonight to say, this war is wrong, this government lied to me, lied to my brothers, the people in this country tricked us into going thirteen thousand miles to fight a war against poor peasant people who have a proud history of resistance who have been struggling for their own independence for one thousand years, the Vietnamese people, I can't find the words to express how the leadership of this country sickens me, people say "if you don't love America, then get the hell out," well I love America we love the people of America very much but when it comes to the government it stops right there, the government are a bunch of corrupt thieves, they are rapists and robbers, and we are here to say "we don't have to take it anymore", we are here to tell the truth, they are killing our brothers in Vietnam, this wheelchair, our wheelchairs, this steel, our steel is your Memorial Day on wheels, we are your Yankee Doodle Dandy come home."

- Kovic, speaking to a reporter.

Ronald Lawrence "Ron" Kovic was the protagonist of the 1989 film Born on the 4th of July.

Kovic was portrayed by Tom Cruise.

As a young child Kovic played war in the woods near his family home in Massapequa, Long Island, New York. In 1961 he saw Kennedy's inaugural address, which inspired him when Kennedy asked what people could do for their country. Following graduation from high school Kovic enlisted in the Marines.

During his time in Vietnam Kovic was involved in a friendly fire accident - he shot and killed a young Marine named Wilson. When Kovic tried to confess to his superior officer the officer brushed him off and told him to forget about the incident. Kovic was later seriously wounded and paralyzed from the mid-chest down. Kovic was carried from the battle by another Marine and received life saving surgery at a mobile hospital.

Kovic was then sent to a VA hospital in the Bronx. The conditions at the hospital were deplorable, with rats freely scurrying across the floor, the staff neglectful of the veterans at the hospital, and most of the patients and staff there high on drugs. While at the hospital Kovic tried to walk again despite doctors telling him not to. Kovic injured himself further, and doctors almost had to amputate his leg.

Some months later Kovic returned to his home. Suffering from PTSD, Kovic went to a 4th of July parade the sound of a crying baby and firecrackers intensified the pain, and he was unable to finish a speech he planned on giving. During this time Kovic finds himself at odds with his family, especially his staunchly anti-war brother and his religious mother who doesn't know how to relate to her son now. Kovic becomes disillusioned and begins to think of things like honor, patriotism, and courage as illusions that he would give up in a heartbeat for the chance to walk again.

After a major fight with his mother Kovic decided to leave his family home and traveled to "The Village of the Sun" - a small village in Mexico that was an enclave of sorts for wounded veterans. While there he had a sexual experience with a prostitute. Thinking of asking the prostitute to marry him, he soon realizes he was nothing to her.

Kovic eventually decided to return to Long Island. He first made a side trip to Georgia to meet Wilson's family and confess what he had done. While Wilson's wife was unable to bring herself to forgive Kovic, the parents are more sympathetic. With that weight off his shoulders Kovic decided to take an active role in opposing the war.

Joining the Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW), Kovic and other wounded veterans traveled to the 1972 Republican National Convention. Making their way onto the floor during Nixon's acceptance speech they created a commotion on the floor that made it on to the national news. Kovic tried to speak to a reporter about his experiences and how the Vietnamese people were fighting a foreign occupation. The interview was cut short by convention guards. With angry Nixon supporters raging around them the guards ejected Kovic and his fellow veterans from the hall and tried to turn them over to the police. Kovic and his supporters broke free and tried to charge the hall again.

Following the convention Kovic continued his anti-war activism. Four years after the Republican convention Kovic finished his auto-biography, Born on the Fourth of July. The film concludes as Kovic is preparing to speak at the 1976 Democratic National Convention.

Trivia

 * After filming the real Ron Kovic presented Tom Cruise with his Bronze Star for his work on the film.