Pre-production Columbia Pictures, having bought the book's pre-publication film rights, was not able to produce a script that the Army would approve, while producer
David L. Wolper, who also tried to buy the same rights, could not obtain financing to make the movie. A screenplay was written by
George Goodman who had served with the Special Forces in the 1950s as a
military intelligence officer and had written a 1961 article about the Special Forces called
The Unconventional Warriors in
Esquire magazine. Columbia sent Goodman to South Vietnam for research. Robin Moore felt the Pentagon pressured Wolper into breaking an agreement with Moore. Wayne was a steadfast supporter of American involvement in the war in Vietnam. He co-directed the film, and turned down the "Major Reisman" role in
The Dirty Dozen to do so.
Screenplay Although
The Green Berets portrays the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army as sadistic tyrants, it also depicts them as a capable and highly motivated enemy. The film shows the war as one with no
front lines, meaning that the enemy can show up and attack at almost any position, anywhere. It shows the sophisticated spy ring of the VC and NVA that provided information about their adversaries. Like
A Yank in Viet-Nam, it gave a positive view of South Vietnam and their anti-communist allies. The US Army had objections to James Lee Barrett's initial script. The first was that the Army wanted to show that South Vietnamese soldiers were involved in defending the base camp. That was rectified. The Army also objected to the portrayal of the raid where they kidnap a NVA general because in the original script this involved crossing the border into North Vietnam. Robin Moore has stated that while all of the other stories in his book are
roman à clefs of actual Special Forces missions and incidents, the mission to capture General Ti was completely fictitious. Wayne wished the screenplay to have more development of the characters, but Warner Bros. made it clear they wanted more action and less talk, as
The Alamo was heavily criticized for having too much dialogue. Scenes shot with
Vera Miles as the wife of Wayne's character were jettisoned. (However, Miles was again cast as the Duke's wife in Wayne's next film
Hellfighters).
Filming Wayne wrote a letter to President Johnson requesting military assistance in the production of the film, stating that he thought "it is extremely important that not only the people of the United States, but those all over the world, should know why it is necessary for us to be [in Vietnam]", and that a motion picture would serve this purpose, "Some day soon a motion picture will be made about Vietnam. Let’s make sure it is the kind of picture that will help our cause throughout the world". After reading the script and suggesting changes which were subsequently made, the Department of Defense decided to aid in the film's production. Much of the film was shot in the summer of 1967 (before the
Tet Offensive) at
Fort Benning, Georgia.
Department of Defense cooperation with the film was extensive, with the
United States Army providing several
UH-1 Huey attack helicopters and a
C-7 Caribou light transport. The
United States Air Force supplied two
C-130 Hercules transports and two
A-1 Skyraider attack aircraft as well as film footage of an
AC-47 Puff the Magic Dragon gunship and an
HC-130 Hercules employing the
Skyhook Fulton recovery system for use in the film. The Army also provided authentic uniforms for use by the actors, including the
OG-107 green and "Tiger Stripe" tropical combat uniform (jungle fatigues), with correct Vietnam War subdued insignia and name tapes. John F. Schultz played pivotal roles as an extra as a U.S. soldier and a North Vietnamese Regular. He said of John Wayne, "At lunch, the producers were going to feed us peons hamburgers and hotdogs while the main characters ate steak. John Wayne said '...we all get steak or nobody does.' Colonel Lamar Asbury "Bill" Welch, the actual commander of the
United States Army Airborne School at Fort Benning in 1967, makes a brief cameo Skeet Shooting with John Wayne. Welch wears a 1960s US Army Fatigue Baseball Cap (common issue during the Vietnam War) in the scene while the actors wear green berets. Soldiers exercising on the drill field – that Wayne shouts to – were actual Army airborne recruits in training.
Music The original choice for scoring the film,
Elmer Bernstein, a friend and frequent collaborator with John Wayne, turned the assignment down due to his political beliefs. As a second choice, the producers contacted
Miklós Rózsa then in Rome. When asked to do
The Green Berets for John Wayne, Rózsa replied: "I don't do Westerns". Rózsa was told "It's not a Western, it's an 'Eastern'". As a title song, the producers used a
Ken Darby choral arrangement of
Barry Sadler's 1966 hit song "
The Ballad of the Green Berets," which had been co-written by Robin Moore, author of the original
Green Berets novel. Rózsa provided a strong and varied musical score including a night club vocal by a Vietnamese singer Bạch Yến; however, bits of "
Onward Christian Soldiers" were deleted from the final film. ==Reception==