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Populist leader Bo Gritz embodies the intrigue of America's right wing
Related Story:
• Gritz's Idaho community leaves some residents feeling they've
been had
By JUDY L. THOMAS - The Kansas City Star
Date: 03/13/99 22:15
Bo Gritz is a leader in the Christian Patriot movement, a talk-show
host and a one-time presidential candidate. He calls himself the
most-decorated Green Beret commander from the Vietnam War and the
"real-life Rambo."
Supporters call him a hero. An American freedom fighter.
Critics call him a huckster. And perhaps a fraud.
Whatever he's called, Gritz (pronounced "grites") is used to the
labels. Now it appears that Kansas City had better get used to him.
Next month Gritz will be among 200 exhibitors at a "preparedness expo"
at Bartle Hall. His mission: teach people how to cope with the
computer- and millennium-related chaos that he believes will erupt in
the year 2000.
Gritz also told The Kansas City Star that he wanted to form a
"constitutional covenant community" in the Ozarks similar to Almost
Heaven, a colony he founded in Idaho.
In Almost Heaven, residents must sign a "covenant" pledging to defend
the constitutional rights of their neighbors. If authorities come for
them, they will protect one another, even if they have to take up
arms.
"I'm looking into securing property that can be formed into a safe
area for Americans," Gritz said. "The Ozark station will be
affordable, undeveloped, with little or no restrictions."
Gritz's increased presence in Missouri intrigues authorities and those
who monitor the far right. His appearances, they say, may provide a
forum in which disparate zealots can come together. Once together,
authorities fear, they may give voice to their anger, which could lead
to violence.
Talk of a covenant community in the Ozarks also worries observers.
"He accumulates into these places a hodgepodge of very eccentric
folks," said Bill Wassmuth, director of the Northwest Coalition
Against Malicious Harassment, in Seattle.
"These leaders fill these guys full of rhetoric and ideas and
ultimatums and paranoia and fear and anger, and then, sooner or later,
one or two of them loses it...and starts committing violence."
Gritz, 60, who lives in the state of Nevada, scoffs at such talk.
"Those detractors have never been to Almost Heaven," he said. "They've
never read anything I've written or heard anything I've said."
Gritz's many followers remain loyal.
"If you ever meet the man up close and personal, one of the things
that you find with him is a sincerity and an honesty that you can see
in his eyes and his face," said Ron Stafford of Kansas City, who calls
himself the "general" of the United States Militia.
Others in the movement, however, call Gritz a phony.
"All Bo Gritz does is get people inflamed," said Clay Douglas,
publisher of The Free American Newsmagazine, a patriot publication
based in New Mexico.
"He doesn't give them any real facts. He doesn't offer any solutions.
The only thing he wants to do is take your money and fly around the
country in his airplane."
No stranger to news
Gritz made national headlines in the 1980s when he led several forays
into Laos in search of American soldiers who many thought were still
being held as prisoners from the war in Vietnam. He made news in 1992
when he talked white separatist Randy Weaver into surrendering in the
standoff at Ruby Ridge, Idaho.
Four years later he tried -- unsuccessfully -- to mediate in the
"freemen" standoff in Jordan, Mont. Last August he led dozens of
colleagues through the North Carolina mountains in a fruitless search
for Eric Rudolph, a suspect in bombings of abortion clinics.
Then, after his wife of 24 years told him she wanted a divorce, Gritz
shot himself in the chest. He survived, and many -- including police
and his own son -- questioned whether the former Special Forces
commander had really intended to kill himself. Gritz says that he
wanted to die but now thinks God saved him for a purpose.
Whatever people think of Gritz, all agree that he has been a very busy
man. Among his accomplishments, all of which can be verified:
He earned a bachelor's degree in law and corrections from the
University of Nebraska and a master's in communications from American
University.
He led dozens of special military operations in Southeast Asia.
He is a commercial pilot and flight instructor.
He holds a sixth-degree black belt in karate.
He is an underwater demolitions expert and a certified
hypnotherapist.
Going beyond accomplishments that can be verified, though, Gritz also
says that he was featured as "the" American soldier in Gen. William C.
Westmoreland's memoirs, A Soldier Reports. And Gritz says he was the
model for the hero in the "Rambo" movies.
A closer examination suggests that some of the claims are overstated.
Westmoreland, who was Vietnam field commander from 1964 to 1968 and
Army Chief of Staff from 1968 to 1972, said he was not referring to
Gritz as "The American Soldier" in the chapter by that name in his
book.
Five pages of the 21-page chapter describe Gritz's accomplishments.
Referring to Gritz as a "daring young commander," Westmoreland
describes how Gritz and his South Vietnamese guerrilla force recovered
the "black box" from a U-2 spy plane after it exploded along the
Cambodian border.
In a telephone interview, however, Westmoreland said the chapter title
was not referring to anyone in particular.
"My intent was to talk about the typical American soldier," he said.
Westmoreland described Gritz as "a very energetic, can-do type of
guy." But he also said Gritz was "a loose cannon."
"You never knew where...he was going or what he was going to do," he
said. "You want people like that...on the battlefield. But to
translate that to a peacetime civilian society is another matter."
As for Gritz's being the most decorated Green Beret commander, an
Army spokesman says there is no such category.
"We don't want to shortchange anyone by trying to make a category that
is so subjective," said Col. John Smith of the Army's public affairs
office. "So if someone makes that claim, I would be suspicious."
Rudi Gresham, a spokesman for the Special Forces Association, said
that even if there were such a category, "in order to be the most
decorated, you would have to have gotten the Medal of Honor, and he
certainly has not gotten the Medal of Honor."
By the end of his 22-year career in the Army, Gritz had accumulated 62
decorations, including five Silver Stars, 10 Bronze Stars, two Legion
of Merit awards, the Distinguished Flying Cross, two Purple Hearts,
the Soldier's Medal and 26 Air Medals.
Gritz said he was once referred to as the "most decorated Green Beret
commander" at a medal ceremony in Vietnam.
"Somebody asked a question about the decorations, and somebody
answered, `Bo Gritz is the most decorated Green Beret commander,' " he
said. "That's how that came about."
As for the Rambo label, Gritz routinely refers to himself as "Rambo"
in speeches and in interviews.
But David Morrell, the author of First Blood, the 1972 book whose
character, John Rambo, spawned the movie series, said he had never
heard of Gritz until 1985.
"No real-life Vietnam soldier was ever used as a model for the
character, although Audie Murphy (from World War II) came to mind,"
Morrell said. "Certainly...Rambo of First Blood had nothing to do with
him (Gritz) or anyone else.
"I don't know if the "Rambo" producers had Gritz in mind when they
made the second movie, but I knew them reasonably well and never once
heard his name mentioned."
In the "Rambo: First Blood Part II," movie, John Rambo goes to
Cambodia in search of American POWs and finds he's been duped by Uncle
Sam.
Gritz acknowledged that he had never spoken with anyone associated
with the "Rambo" movies. But he said it was obvious that the movie was
modeled after him because of the similarities between his experiences
and Rambo's.
An early military start
James Gordon Gritz was born on Jan. 18, 1939, and from an early age he
loved the idea of being a soldier.
His father, 1st Lt. Roy L. Gritz, a World War II pilot, was killed
Nov. 19, 1944, while on a mission. At 14, Gritz used $10,000 of his
father's insurance policy to enroll at a military academy.
Gritz joined the Army in 1957, finding his calling in the newly formed
Special Forces. When the Vietnam War came along, he couldn't wait to
go.
"I needed to be tested," he wrote in his 1991 book, Called to Serve.
"I wanted to go out and hit something."
Daring and courageous, Gritz -- by this time known as "Bo," short for
"Jimbo" -- became a hero among his comrades.
"James G. Gritz is one of the finest Army officers I have ever known
in my life," wrote one of his superiors.
"He displayed a positive genius for winning the fanatic devotion of
his native troops and the absolute loyalty of his American officers
and men. They would follow him into the jaws of death confident that
he would bring them through to victory."
But in 1974, Gritz was still struggling with an identity crisis
brought on, he said, by the 400 Viet Cong he killed.
"In special operations, I never had a job where I wasn't out in the
jungle killing people," he said. "It really screws you up."
Gritz retired in 1979 as a lieutenant colonel. He says he was asked by
a Pentagon official to retire so he could lead POW rescue missions.
By the end of 1980, Gritz began to organize Operation Velvet Hammer to
do just that -- find Americans still being held prisoner. In March
1981 he began training 25 former Green Berets for the task, but the
mission was called off. Gritz says he was told by government officials
that the Delta Force already had a plan to rescue the POWs.
He started putting together a new mission, called Operation Grand
Eagle. That plan was shelved in January 1982.
A determined Gritz picked up the pieces and began assembling Operation
Lazarus. He hired guerrillas and entered Laos in search of POWs in
November 1982. The mission was aborted when the party was ambushed.
In February 1983, Gritz and four others -- including a University of
Kansas graduate searching for her lost father -- were arrested in
Thailand for illegal possession of a radio transmitter. They were
ordered to leave the country.
It was later revealed that Operation Lazarus was financed by private
donors, including actor Clint Eastwood.
After Gritz's highly publicized expeditions into Laos, he was invited
to testify before a congressional committee, where he said he thought
that at least 50 Americans were still being held.
When asked for evidence, Gritz said: "I have the same evidence, sir,
that might be presented by a clergyman to convince you that God
exists."
Then-Rep. Robert Torricelli, a New Jersey Democrat, replied: "Colonel,
time is either going to prove you to be one of the great heroes of our
time, or you are going to have a very difficult time with your
conscience for raising the hopes of desperate families."
In the hearings, the State Department's Richard Armitage testified
that analysis of two bags of bones recovered by Gritz's team had
determined that the remains were those of two southeast Asians mingled
with those of animals.
Gritz later acknowledged that he had no solid POW evidence, saying
that the pictures taken of a camp in Laos where American prisoners
were allegedly being held had not turned out, because he had used the
wrong camera setting.
In her 1994 book, Prisoners of Hope: Exploiting the POW IA Myth in
America, Susan Katz Keating criticized Gritz, saying that "at best,
Gritz is an inveterate publicity hound."
"But if Gritz at first comes across as an amusing egotist, he is also
a charismatic leader gone wrong, a man who has toyed with human lives
while in pursuit of his goals," Keating wrote. "In the process, he has
earned a dubious distinction, a place of note among the charlatans
whose claims have so distorted the MIA issue; for it is Bo Gritz,
American hero, who is directly responsible for constructing much of
the framework that supports the POW hoax today."
Gritz says his efforts were sincere.
"I knew there were American prisoners being held," he said. "And none
of them came home."
He blamed the government for the failure of his POW missions.
"If we could do all the things I did in Vietnam, why...couldn't we do
something kind of simple, like in Laos?" he said. "Every time we got
into a place where we could accomplish the mission, something
happened. It was just too much coincidence."
The political fray
In March 1988, Gritz attended the Populist Party's national committee
meeting and gave such an electrifying speech that the delegates
nominated him for vice president.
His presidential running mate: former Ku Klux Klansman David Duke.
"It's Duke and Rambo!" proclaimed the April 1988 cover of "The
Populist Observer" newsletter.
Gritz says he did not know that Duke would be on the ticket when he
accepted the nomination. He eventually withdrew, but four years later
he ran for president on the Populist Party ticket.
"It's Bo's continuing denial," said Wassmuth of the Northwest
Coalition Against Malicious Harassment. "He'll sidle up to somebody,
then that person gets identified in public as a racist, then Bo backs
away."
Gritz has also been criticized for his connections to the Christian
Identity movement. According to Identity teachings, Jews are the root
of all the world's problems, and nonwhites are inferior to whites.
Gritz, who has spoken at several Christian Identity functions, says
that doesn't mean he accepts the doctrine.
"I absolutely reject the premise that if you're not white, you don't
have a soul," he said.
After dabbling in politics, Gritz founded the Center for Action in
1989 to "put accountability back into government."
Through the Center, Gritz sponsors SPIKE Delta Force training. SPIKE
stands for "Specially Trained Individuals for Key Events." The
training, Gritz says, is the same as that received by elite troops in
the Army's Special Operations Command.
Gritz has turned the Center for Action into a full-time business and
says he has trained more than 5,000 students, or "Spikers." Sessions
include courses on everything from performing emergency surgery to
passing a lie-detector test.
One session took place in Kansas City in January, when about 140
persons paid $150 each to learn how to pick locks. Gritz says he'll be
conducting phase two of his SPIKE course when he returns in mid-April.
"This will be primarily to assault-proof every man, woman and child,"
he said.
Douglas, of the Free American, says the sessions are dangerous.
"I think what he does is give the people just enough training to get
themselves hurt," he said.
Gritz also has a radio show, "Freedom Call," broadcast Monday through
Friday. In the Kansas City area the show runs from 9 to 11 a.m. on
KCXL, 1140 AM. It can also be picked up on shortwave radio.
One of the show's main topics these days is a cause that could land
Gritz in prison. Gritz is facing a 40-year sentence for trying to help
a Connecticut woman regain custody of two children in a divorce case.
Gritz and his son are charged with conspiracy to commit kidnapping.
Gritz denies the accusations. "Absolute hogwash," he said.
Suicide or sympathy?
Gritz was back in the national spotlight last August when he announced
that he was going to Andrews, N.C., to try to persuade Rudolph, the
abortion clinic bombing suspect, to turn himself in.
The searchers went home empty-handed after eight days.
When Gritz flew his plane back to Idaho, he knew something was amiss
when his wife, Claudia, didn't pick him up at the airport.
She filed for divorce Sept. 11, citing irreconcilable differences. She
could not be reached for comment.
"When Claude left me, it was kind of like I didn't have any gas
anymore," he said.
On Sept. 20, Gritz got up, showered, shaved and put on his uniform. He
grabbed his Colt .45 service pistol, loaded it with ammunition and
drove to a nearby town. There, he confronted his wife, and then drove
to a gravel road a mile from town and climbed out of his truck.
"I remember I put the pistol just at the lower row of ribbons on my
chest," he said. "I saw my finger squeeze the trigger, and the gun
went off. I felt the bullet. The next recollection I had, I was on the
ground, looking up. The gun was still in my hand. I just figured I
would probably die there."
The bullet entered Gritz's chest and exited through his armpit,
blowing several medals off his uniform.
Skeptics wonder whether Gritz really meant to kill himself.
In his report, Sgt. Clyde Burgess of the Clearwater County sheriff's
office wrote: "It is this officer's observation that Mr. Gritz did not
truly intend to kill himself, but instead, to raise sympathy from his
wife."
Even Gritz's oldest son, Jim, has questions.
"Rambo can't kill himself?" he asked sarcastically. "I think he was
trying to put a point across -- that his heart was broken."
On Nov. 12, Gritz filed a motion seeking a temporary restraining order
and alimony from his wife. He said she had $100,000 worth of precious
metals and rare coins and was conducting business at Almost Heaven,
which gave her access to all the community's assets.
"I am currently living in a borrowed motor home with only my military
pension to subsist upon, which is inadequate for my normal living
expenses that I have enjoyed throughout the course of my marriage to
the plaintiff," he said in court papers.
A divorce was granted Nov. 25, ending Gritz's third marriage.
Gritz got the Center for Action business. His ex-wife got Almost
Heaven.
The shows go on
At the Tulsa Grand National Gun, Knife and Preparedness Show on Feb.
27, more than 2,500 exhibitors were hawking their weapons, Y2K goods
and survival gear.
It was a patriot's dream.
Gritz was sharing a booth with Randy Weaver. As soon as the doors
opened, customers lined up to buy Gritz's book, Called to Serve, for
$25, and Weaver's The Federal Siege at Ruby Ridge for $20.
Business was brisk, with up to 20 persons in line at times, some with
assault weapons slung over their shoulders.
Nearby, Jim Gritz was running the Close Quarters Combat course. For
$30, participants learned how to fire a weapon and "clear" a house of
intruders, and then used paintball guns to shoot posters of "bad
guys."
Later, Bo Gritz gave a talk that ended with his traditional finale:
burning the United Nations flag.
"You embrace an unrighteous system, and you're going to end up a
crispy critter," he said to the crowd's delight.
Gritz's enthusiastic reception does not surprise critics such as
Wassmuth.
"Bo is a charismatic speaker," he said. "And there's that bravado,
blustery image that some people find engaging....I suspect that he
will continue to keep right on rolling."
Does Gritz agree with that prediction?
"I've had a wonderful life," he said. "And I'm not finished yet....So
I'll just keep trying to help people to be self-reliant, confident.
Like Kansas City, the next time through.
"I'm proud of people in Missouri. They're hard, like woodpecker lips.
They've got a good reputation. I like that. And I like people that
say, `Show me. Don't be talking to me about it. Show me.' "
To reach Judy L. Thomas, call (816) 234-4334 or send e-mail to
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
All content © 1999 The Kansas City Star
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