The Green Berets (1968)

They were crack troops skilled in the techniques of unconditional warfare, the soldiers of the Special Forces and the focus of Hollywood's first feature film about the Vietnam War: The Green Berets. John Wayne stars in and co-directs this depiction of America's Vietnam effort, based on Robin Moore's novel. Wayne wrote to President Lyndon Johnson to request military assistance for the film and got more than enough firepower to create an impressive spectacle. Its soldiers fit the tried-and- true mold of earlier Wayne war classics like Back to Bataan and Sands of Iwo Jima. Their heroics are timeless.