JOHN WAYNE TRIBUTE WEEKEND: The Duke must die...

In 1949 Stalin sent a film director, Sergei Gerasimov to America to attend the Cultural and Scientific Conference for World Peace in New York. Gerasimov was a big noise in Stalin's party and he made a speech denouncing American cinema as devoid of any moral standing. He also claimed that actor, John Wayne was denouncing Stalin and all things Russian. The actor was also against the newly created People's Republic of China and its leader Mao Tse-tung.

When Gerasimov returned to Russia he brought news to Stalin that John Wayne was trying to crush communism in America - indeed the actor had just been made president of the Motion Picture Alliance for the preservation of American ideals. Stalin upon hearing the news decided that John Wayne had become the single greatest enemy of the Soviet Union.

Just one of Wayne's anti-communist movies

Russian screenwriter Aleksie Kapler was a Jew and Stalin hated Jews. Initially Kapler came to know Stalin when he was hired to write a film about Lenin but after an affair between the screenwriter and Stalin's daughter, Kapler was accused of being a British spy and thrown into the notorious Vorkuta Camp.

Whilst in prison Kapler was able to use some of his Jewish friends to get word to American intelligence that Stalin was hatching a plot to kill John Wayne. The news was not taken seriously but Wayne was warned of the potential threat to his life. Reportedly the actor went into a fit, screaming that, "the commie sons-of-bitches could come and give it a try."

"Stalin saw John Wayne as some sort of secret weapon, more subtle than nuclear weapons but nonetheless just as deadly to his ideals and the Russian state." Kapler


It is not clear what happened with the plot to kill Wayne but when Stalin died in 1953 many of those he had imprisoned, including Kapler were released and it was then that full details of the plot against Wayne were revealed. The actor simply brushed the news aside when it came to him, but many of those close to the actor were not at all surprised, and it was common knowledge that Wayne's flag waving had angered both Stalin and China's Mao erTse-tung. Assassinating the actor would have been considered a great propaganda victory for both leaders.