The Green Berets is the 1968 John Wayne war film that was one of the few movies made about the Vietnam War while the US was still involved in fighting it. Holding a somewhat dubious honor of being the only (somewhat) pro-Vietnam War movie of the era, Wayne's film received substantial support from the Department of Defense, who lent accurate equipment and weaponry for the production.
At the beginning of the film, when a group of civilians and reporters are being briefed about the capabilities of the U.S. Army Special Forces a number of captured weapons are seen on a display board behind the MSG Muldoon (Aldo Ray) and SFC McGee (Raymond St. Jacques), they include:
The MAT-49 sub machine gun was used widely throughout (then) French Indo-China with a great deal of them being left behind after the defeat at Dien Bien Phu. The weapon displayed here could be a locally manufactured copy which chambered the 7.62mm Tokarev round.
Also seen on the board is an M1928A1 Thompson. The M-1928 and A1 models could have their butt stock removed and were commonly seen with the Vietcong because of the First Indochina War, Chinese Civil War, and Korean War.
This ubiquitous Russian PPSh-41 Sub Machine Gun is also seen on the captured weapons display but, like the SKS above it could very well be a Chinese clone. Sgt. Muldoon (Aldo Ray) refers to the weapon as a "ChiCom K50 submachine gun". The ChiCom version normally was loaded with a "stick" magazine instead of the drum magazine seen here.
The Airborne Colonel who shoots skeet with Col. Kirby (John Wayne) (and who was the real commander of the Airborne School at Fort Benning, Georgia where the film was shot) uses a Browning over-under shotgun.
In the movie, Kirby's men carry a XM16E1 rifles noted by the presence of a forward bolt assist, partial magazine fence and early model three prong flash suppressor. In actuality, the U.S. Army Special Forces were one of the first units to actively field the M16 in combat.
Later in the movie, Col. Kirby is seen dramatically smashing an M-16 against a tree. If you look carefully, the "weapon" is actually a Mattel M-16 Marauder, a plastic toy gun manufactured in the 1960's. Also, it would be near impossible for him to smash the aerospace-grade aluminum receivers by hand against a tree, which is what he would have done to really render the weapon unusable to the enemy. Like in most movies, this was done just to give viewers a 'macho' impression on the screen. The Marauder is also briefly seen in the hands of Kirby after the watchtower is brought down by enemy fire.
Error creating thumbnail: File missingMattel M-16 Marauder Toy GunError creating thumbnail: File missingWayne prepares to smash his fallen comrade's 'M16 rifle', making it useless to the Vietcong if they ever got a grip of it. The "weapon" is actually a Mattel M-16 Marauder, a plastic toy gun manufactured in the 1960's.Error creating thumbnail: File missingThe rifle briefly seen in the hands of Kirby after the watchtower is brought down by enemy fire also is the Maurader toy gun.
M1 Carbine
The M1 Carbine is seen mainly in the hands of the ARVN troopers, VC fighters, as well as numerous US military personnel. Reporter George Beckworth (David Janssen) also is briefly seen with the rifle.
NVA Regular soldiers are seen grabbing their Mauser K98k Rifles during the extraction. It should be noted that both the NVA and the Viet Cong used a considerable number of Mauser Kar98k rifles during the Vietnam War (many of which were provided by the Soviet Union) and the rifles (along with the Mosin-Nagant) were used alongside the more prevalent AK-47 rifle and SKS carbine.
During the VC/NVA Assault on the basecamp, three VC killed on the wire appear to be armed with T-62 Civilian Defense Model rifles/carbines. Similar weapons were used in the 1967 Dean Martin film The Ambushers as well as in the television series Get Smart.
M60 machine guns are seen manned by doorgunners in Huey helicopters as well as carried by US troops entering their tour of duty at the end of the film. This is one of the first appearances of the machine gun in a motion picture and not likely a prop weapon (the production was granted full cooperation with the US Department of Defense).
This system, consisting of two double sets of M60C machine guns mounted above 7 shot rocket pods is seen attached to a UH-1 "Huey" (probably a C or D model) gunship in the movie.
Seen mounted on tripods throughout the A Camp is this aircraft version of the venerable Browning M2 easily denoted by the full length ventilated barrel shroud. The reason for using the M2 Aircraft version on film was the ease of blank conversion compared to the M2 Heavy Barrel ground gun.
Seen in the interior of Puff the Magic Dragon (a nickname of the AC-47 "Spooky" gunship, a ground-attack variant of the venerable C-47 Skytrain transport aircraft) are a pair of devastating GAU-2B/As, the Air Force designation for a variant M134 minigun. The AC-47D carried three such guns after the replacement of the SUU-11/A gunpod (which used the original fixed-mount M134 under its Air Force designation, GAU-2/A) with the MXU-470/A gun module starting in January 1967.
This is also one of the first appearances of the weapon in a motion picture: it appears the production managed this by borrowing a real military AC-47D.
The M79 Grenade Launcher glimpsed briefly (though never actually fired) in the movie is one of the U.S.'s more reliable light support weapons. An M79 is also carried by MSG Muldoon (Aldo Ray).
This standard (and extremely devastating) M18A1 Claymore U.S. anti-personnel mine makes a brief appearance in the film (though the "mine" displayed is clearly a training model given the blue coloring visibly bleeding through on the lower lip of the front plate).
