Ron Kovic
- In full:
- Ronald Lawrence Kovic
- Born:
- July 4, 1946, Ladysmith, Wisconsin, U.S. (age 78)
- Notable Works:
- “Born on the Fourth of July”
Ron Kovic (born July 4, 1946, Ladysmith, Wisconsin, U.S.) is a Vietnam War veteran, activist, and author who became a leading antiwar figure in the 1970s. Kovic had been wounded and paralyzed during his service in the war. In 1976 he detailed his experiences in the best-selling memoir Born on the Fourth of July, which was adapted into an Academy Award-winning film by Oliver Stone in 1989.
(Read Britannica’s essay “War Stories: 13 Modern Writers Who Served in War.”)
Early life
The second oldest of six children, Kovic was born in Wisconsin but grew up in Massapequa on Long Island in New York. Kovic’s mother, Patricia, was a stay-at-home mom. His dad, Eli, was a World War II veteran and a supermarket clerk. The Kovics were devout Roman Catholics and very patriotic. Kovic was proud to have been born on the Fourth of July, the holiday marking the passage of the Declaration of Independence in the United States. He was also proud of the hard work that his dad put in at the supermarket, yet Kovic had no desire to become tied down to such work himself, especially after he began working part-time at another supermarket. In his memoir, Kovic wrote, “I wanted to be somebody. I wanted to make something out of my life.” He excelled at sports and had aspirations of pursuing a baseball career after high school. But after hearing a speech by a military recruiter at his school, he decided to enlist in the U.S. Marines. In 1964, the summer after he graduated from high school, he signed up for military service.
Vietnam War experience
Kovic was deployed to Vietnam in December 1965. During his first tour of duty, he served with a reconnaissance battalion on long-range patrols. He returned home after 13 months and volunteered for a second tour, maintaining a belief in the necessity of his country’s efforts to stop the spread of communism in Vietnam. During his second tour, he accidentally shot and killed a young U.S. corporal in the chaos of his battalion’s ambush of a North Vietnamese Army unit. He attempted to confess his mistake to one of his superiors but was quickly dismissed. Soon afterward Kovic took part in the wounding and slaying of several Vietnamese children and women after being ordered to fire into a hut that was believed to be harboring Vietnamese soldiers.
In January 1968 Kovic was shot by enemy fire, first in his right foot and then in his right shoulder. The latter wound resulted in a collapsed lung and severed his spine, leaving him paralyzed from the chest down. The first Marine who tried to rescue him from the battlefield was killed in the process; another soldier successfully carried him to safety but was killed later that afternoon. Kovic spent a week in intensive care in Vietnam before returning to the United States for further treatment. He was awarded a Bronze Star for valor and a Purple Heart, but Kovic felt guilt and shame about his military service and was not consoled by his awards.
Kovic experienced horrid conditions in the Veterans Administration (VA; now known as the Department of Veterans Affairs) hospital in the Bronx where he received treatment. In his memoir he describes the hospital as being filthy with rats scurrying about. The veterans were neglected for hours because of a staff shortage. When he returned home to Massapequa, he was welcomed as a hero by some members of the community. But, ultimately, he experienced deeper alienation, loneliness, and rejection from many of his peers and some of his family. He began to question the purpose of the war and of his and other veterans’ service.
In 1969 Kovic enrolled in Hofstra University on Long Island on the G.I. Bill. There he became exposed to other perspectives on the Vietnam War. But it was the Kent State shooting in May 1970 that directly inspired his antiwar activism. In his memoir, Kovic recalls hearing on the radio that the Ohio National Guard had shot and killed four unarmed college students during antiwar demonstrations at Kent State University. He felt compelled to attend a local march and then a rally in Washington, D.C., a few days later.
Antiwar activism and Born on the Fourth of July
In 1970 Kovic began visiting high schools to speak out against the Vietnam War. Soon he quit college to move to California with a friend. On the West Coast he became involved with the organization Vietnam Veterans Against the War, leading peace rallies and giving press interviews. Of his involvement with the group, Kovic told The New York Times in 1976, “It gave me a sense of purpose, something to do beside feel sorry for myself.” He was arrested nine times for his antiwar activities in the early 1970s.
In 1972 Kovic attended the Republican National Convention in Miami, during which he interrupted U.S. Pres. Richard Nixon’s acceptance speech for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination by shouting antiwar slogans along with other veterans and protesters. A television news crew filmed him telling the crowd:
I’m a Vietnam veteran. I gave America my all, and the leaders of this government threw me and the others away to rot in their V.A. hospitals. What’s happening in Vietnam is a crime against humanity, and I just want the American people to know that we have come all the way across this country…to let the American people see for themselves the men who fought their war and have come to oppose it. If you can’t believe the veteran who fought the war and was wounded in the war, who can you believe?
Kovic was spat upon by delegates and was removed from the convention by security guards, but the incident helped get him national attention. In 1974 Kovic led a group of wounded veterans in a sit-in and hunger strike at the office of U.S. Sen. Alan Cranston in Los Angeles. Protesting the poor conditions and treatment at VA hospitals, the group had selected Cranston’s office because he was chair of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs and was up for reelection. Their sit-in lasted 19 days and the hunger strike 17 days, ending after the veterans were granted a meeting with the head of the VA to voice their complaints.
Two years later Kovic gave an outstanding speech at the Democratic National Convention in New York City, where he seconded the vice presidential nomination of Fritz Efaw, a military draft resister whose nomination was symbolic. That same year Kovic published his memoir, Born on the Fourth of July, which tells the story of his transformation from a patriotic soldier to an antiwar activist. A deeply personal and searingly honest book, it begins with an epigraph that Kovic also recited at the start of his speech at the Democratic National Convention:
I am the living death
the memorial day on wheels
I am your yankee doodle dandy
your john wayne come home
your fourth of july firecracker
exploding in the grave
“The book was my last gasp,” Kovic told The New York Times after its publication. “I had reached a point of desperation in my life that I cannot describe. I was so upset, so distraught.”
The memoir had a lasting cultural impact, as did Kovic’s activism. In 1974 folk singer Joan Baez wrote the antiwar song “Where’s My Apple Pie?” after meeting Kovic. Rocker Bruce Springsteen was also inspired by Kovic. In a foreword that he wrote and read for a 2016 audiobook version of Born on the Fourth of July, Springsteen recalled that he first discovered the memoir in 1978 and soon afterward met Kovic and became friends with him. After Kovic invited Springsteen to a veterans’ center in Los Angeles, the singer was inspired to do a benefit concert for the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation and the Mental Health Association in 1981. Kovic’s experience and that of other Vietnam veterans also inspired Springsteen to write the songs “Shut Out the Light” and “Born in the U.S.A.” (both 1984).
Meeting Oliver Stone and portrayal by Tom Cruise
Shortly after Kovic’s memoir was published, a film production company planned to turn it into a movie, but the project was canceled because of a lack of financing. Brokenhearted over the missed opportunity to reach even more people with his story, Kovic spent the next decade drifting around the country and starting various creative projects that he never completed.
On the last day of filming Born on the Fourth of July, Ron Kovic gave Tom Cruise his Bronze Star. Kovic had earned the medal for his service in the Vietnam War, but he gave it to Cruise for his “heroic performance” playing Kovic.
During this time he had a chance meeting with Oliver Stone, an unknown young filmmaker and a Vietnam War veteran, in California. When Kovic told him about the failed movie plans, Stone replied that he would circle back to the idea if he ever broke through in Hollywood. In 1987, after Stone’s Vietnam War film Platoon (1986) won the Academy Awards for best picture and best directing, Stone reconnected with Kovic. They began writing a screenplay for a film version of Born on the Fourth of July, which came out in 1989. Stone directed the film, and Tom Cruise starred as Kovic. The movie was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including best adapted screenplay, and it won for best director and best film editing. It also won four Golden Globe Awards, including best screenplay for Kovic and Stone.
Later activism and other books
In the 1990s Kovic participated in peaceful demonstrations against the Persian Gulf War (1990–91) and in peacemaking efforts after the U.S. bombing of the Chinese embassy in what was then Yugoslavia during the Kosovo conflict (1998–99). He continued to be active in the antiwar movement in the 21st century and spoke out against the Afghanistan War (2001–14) and the Iraq War (2003–11) while advocating for the wars’ wounded, disabled, and homeless veterans.
In 2016 Kovic published Hurricane Street, which details the 1974 sit-in and hunger strike in Los Angeles. In the book’s introduction Kovic calls it “a work of both memory and fiction.” In its postscript he writes, “A man needs his dignity no matter how much he has lost. I am so grateful to be alive.” In 2024 Kovic published A Dangerous Country: An American Elegy. The book revisits Kovic’s Vietnam experiences, with excerpts from a diary he kept during the war and more insight on his psychological struggles and his journey to renewed strength and faith.