The movie “Ride the Thunder” hasjust shown in Orange County inMarch of 2015. Richard Botkin,

author of the “Ride the Thunder” book,shared that the purpose of the movie wasto honor Vietnamese soldiers. In particu-lar, the movie depicted the friendship be-tween the U.S Counselor John Ripley andVietnamese Major Le Ba Binh duringtheir mission to destroy the Dong HaBridge in order to protect Da Nang andHue.

Mr. Richard Botkin was not a Viet-nam War veteran, but he did spend 10years researching and making 4 trips toVietnam with Major Le Ba Binh to cap-ture relevant details.

Richard Botkin, together with direc-tor Fred Koster and a few friends, madethe “Ride The Thunder” movie with asmall budget of just one million dollars.The film was shot in Hawaii, with excel-lent main actors including Joseph Hieuand Eric St. John – who played the rolesof Major Le Ba Binh and Counselor JohnRipley.

Hoang Lan Chi: Most Vietnameserefugees are deeply impressed by boththe movie and book "Ride The Thunder."How successful is the movie?

Richard Botkin: Our film has shownin Westminster, San Jose, Houston,Phoenix/Tempe, Las Vegas, Oceansideand San Antonio, and Prescott, Arizona.Prescott is where we filmed many of thedomestic US scenes. It will be a true testof the film where there will be very littleVietnamese support.

Our initial premier was in Westmin-ster California. We showed the film forone week only in one theater with twoscreens. We had an incredibly successfulshowing there. During the opening week-end, the film had the highest revenue perscreen of any film in the entire country.We pulled the film after the first week aswe wanted our initial numbers to lookvery strong.

We also pulled the film to makesome changes to it that we thought were

important. One thing we are working onis producing a version that has Viet-namese language subtitles so that theolder people who do not understand muchEnglish, will understand what we are try-ing to say. We have also learned that the

people who initially translated our filminto Vietnamese must have been pro-communist as the translations came back,

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RICHARD BOTKIN’S "RIDE THE THUNDER"

Richard Botkinwith actor

Joseph Hieu.

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in some cases saying the exact oppositeof what we meant. We are fortunate tohave trusted Vietnamese friends to en-sure we get the correct translation. Wehope to have that done in the next weekor so. When we have that ready, we in-tend to go back into the main marketswhere the Viet Kieu live.

In regards to the other marketswhere we showed the film, we did wellin Houston and Phoenix, so-so in San Joseand Las Vegas, and poorly in Oceansideand San Antonio. We have learned thehard way that we need to have better con-trol over the locations of the theaters weshow the film in. Going forward we needto make sure the film is in or near Viet-namese neighborhoods. And we alsoneed greater resources to market the filmmore effectively.

Hoang Lan Chi: What did you expectfrom making this movie? If there are anyprofits, would it be used in making an-other Vietnam War movie?

Richard Botkin: I have never made amovie before so I had no expectations, al-though I did this with the intention that wewould at least break even. My personalplans, if the film is a success is to share atleast 50% of the profits with a few chari-ties which are important to me. The firstis the Semper Fi Fund which supportwounded warriors from Iraq andAfghanistan. My second charity is AgapeInternational Ministries. They rescueyoung girls from the sex slave trade inCambodia. Every year since 1998 I takea small team of dentists and physiciansand we go to Cambodia for two weeks inNovember. We work with Agape there.In addition to those charities, and I do notknow much about it yet, but I do knowthat there are many Vietnamese veteranshere in the US who receive none of theservices American vets receive. If we areblessed with resources, I would love toassist this underserved group. In terms offuture projects, I answered that in a laterquestion, but the short answer again is,yes, there is much more work to be donein telling the truth about the VietnamWar.

Hoang Lan Chi: How is the movie com-pared to the book? Did the director accu-rately portray your primary points in themovie? Who wrote the movie script?

Richard Botkin: The book is far morecomprehensive than the film. If someonereads the book, they will learn a greatamount of history. When they watch thefilm they will learn that the communistsare bad. My partner Fred wrote the scriptfor the movie with some input from me,but he was given wide latitude to tell thestory, and I think he did a great job, espe-cially since we were limited on money.He did a great job conveying that thecommunists are evil, which is one of ourmain points along with the point that theSouth Vietnamese fought valiantly.

Hoang Lan Chi: It seems the movie ismore impactful than the book. Were theredisagreements between you and the di-rector while working on this movie?

Richard Botkin: As you mention, theemotional impact of the film is powerful.Fred did a great job. We were quite for-tunate in that we agreed on nearly every-thing. Our friendship is extremely strong.We are like brothers and, after threeyears working together, have had no se-rious disagreements. I trust him and hisjudgement completely.

Hoang Lan Chi: I understand that youkept the cost of making the movie to aminimal. If you have a bigger budget,what parts of the movie would you re-make in order to send your completemessage to the viewers about US foreignpolicies?

Richard Botkin: This is a great ques-tion. If we had had an unlimited budgetthen we would have had more prisonersfor the reeducation camp scenes. We alsowould have had several combat scenes toinclude blowing up the Dong Ha Bridge.

Hoang Lan Chi: How do think “People onthe Left” will react with this movie?

Richard Botkin: People on the Left,those who are pro-communist or who hateAmerica will not like this film. We haveseen that already in some reviews. ManyAmericans who were of military age backduring the Vietnam War made them-selves believe that Ho Chi Minh was agood man, that the communist invasion ofSouth Vietnam was just a civil war, andthat the South Vietnamese were corruptand cowardly, and that communism wasnot so bad. By allowing themselves to be-lieve this, these people who would not

serve did not have to feel guilty abouttheir cowardice and looking out only fortheir own self interest. The truth we dis-play in the film disturbs their beliefs thatprotesting the war and failing to servewas somehow honorable, when in fact iswas completely shameful and dishonor-able.

Hoang Lan Chi: What are your main rea-sons for writing the book and making thismovie?

Richard Botkin: I believe that Godhad a direct hand in guiding me to writethe book and then produce the film. Ibegan work on the book in 2003. It tookme five years to write it in my spare time.Before it was edited it was 800 pageslong. Now it is ‘only’ 600 pages. I wentto Vietnam four times to walk the battle-fields and the streets of Saigon to gain thebest perspective that I could. One of mytrips was with my main character Le BaBinh. He showed me where he grew up,the places he played as a boy, and manyof the places he fought the communists. Ialso criss-crossed the US many, manytimes interviewing and re-interviewingmany of the American Marines and theirwives and children who are in the book.

I learned many things I did not knowbefore I began my research. The most im-portant thing I learned is that the war didnot need to end the way it did. I learnedthat the South Vietnamese, who werekeeping the communists in check upthrough 1973, were doomed mostly be-cause the American congress cut theirfunding in 1973, 1974 and 1975. Thatguaranteed their loss, especially since theRussians and Chinese, while the US wascutting funds, the communists got muchgreater support. In addition, the passageof something called the Fulbright-AikenAmendment in the summer of 1973 basi-cally outlawed President Nixon from hon-oring the personal commitments he hadmade to President Thieu to get him toagree to go along with the Paris PeaceAccords. The freedom-loving people ofSouth Vietnam were the biggest victimsof the American Watergate crisis.

After the book came out, I began torealize that very few people read seriousbooks. Most Americans can talk aboutsports or what is on reality TV, but theyknow very little about history or thingsthat really matter. I met my film partner

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Fred Koster, and we realized that the wayto influence people’s attitudes is withfilm. Unfortunately, the film record forthe Vietnam War is horrible. Movies like“Apocalypse Now,” “Deer Hunter,”“Platoon,” “Full Metal Jacket,”“Rambo,” and on and on all portray theAmerican fighting man poorly and ourVietnamese allies even worse. If we donothing, it will be these pro-communist orat least anti-American films that will be-come ‘history’ to those generations whocome after us.

Hoang Lan Chi: What other reasons mo-tivated and urged you, a US veteran, todevote many years to learn about theVietnam War?

Richard Botkin: My time as a Marinewas in the 1980s. The men who were myleaders though were all Vietnam veteransand I have tremendous regard for them. Ialso love our country deeply. Since be-coming involved in this project in 2003, Ihave gained greater respect for theAmericans who served without gettingthe recognition they deserved. More im-portantly than greater appreciation for theAmerican effort in Vietnam, is that I amlearning—still learning after 12 years—of the tremendous prices paid by the Viet-namese to fight for their freedom. I amreally am in awe of what the Viet Kieuhave done. I do know that it is not possi-ble to overstate how evil the communistsare. It is also not possible to overstatewhat a blessing to the US the Vietnamesediaspora have become.

Aside from taking care of my family,I believe to my soul that God’s mission tome for the remainder of my life is to fightfor the truth about the Vietnam War.President Nixon said: "The Vietnam Waris the most misunderstood event in Amer-ican history. It was misreported then. It ismisremembered now.” There is nothingwe can do about the misreporting. That ishistory. But we can change the way thewar is remembered. That is our missionwith “Ride the Thunder.” We intend tochange the way the world remembers theVietnam War. We want to bring the truthto light, and give some recognition tothose Vietnamese and Americans whosacrificed so much in a very worthy ef-fort.

Hoang Lan Chi: When writing about the

Communist prisons, how many people didyou interview? Why was the cruelty ofthe way the communist treated prisoners"softened" in the movie? Is this becausethe director did not want to include toomuch violence in the movie?

Richard Botkin: This is a great ques-tion. I interviewed several men who wentto prison after the war, but I interviewedLe Ba Binh the most because this is hisstory. His experiences are meant to rep-resent what happened to many people,but not to everyone. I am well aware, forexample, that many wives were raped byprison guards when they came to visittheir husbands, and that many prisonerssuffered much more than we showed inthe film. At the same time we did notwant to change Binh’s story because weknow that the communists will come afterus and I need to stick with what Binh andhis wife shared with me. In my interviewswith her, she never indicated that she wasraped by prison guards.

Similarly we kept the figures weused for the numbers of those who diedin prison, those who were executed andthose who died as Boat People low. Wedid this so that the communists could notaccuse us of inflating the numbers. As Imentioned above, I do not believe it ispossible to overstate how evil the com-munists are, nor is it possible to overstatethe suffering of the Viet Kieu, so many ofwhom are still suffering from depressiontoday. I am more and more aware of that.

Hoang Lan Chi: You have fulfilled yourduty as a soldier, a family man, a personthat gives a credible voice to the VietnamWar by creating the “Ride The Thunder”book and movie. What do think about thisview?

Richard Botkin: Thank you for say-ing that I completed my duty. Actually, itis my belief and that of my partner FredKoster, that we are only just beginning.We have a great deal of work left to do.The history of the Vietnam War is ex-tremely complex and a movie of 105 min-utes is not enough to get it all correct. Oneof our Vietnamese friends has suggestedthat if we could take the entire book“Ride the Thunder” and turn it into a 40-week television series (the book has 40chapters), sort of like “Band of Brothers,”then we could really tell more details ofthe history and educate many more peo-

ple. To do that we need far more re-sources than I am able to provide. I reallydo have all my life savings in the film,along with the help of a few friends.

Hoang Lan Chi: What role did your wifeand kids play in your quest to properlyhonor the US and Vietnamese soldiers?

Richard Botkin: I have been espe-cially blessed to have a wife who has sup-ported me in all my efforts with the bookand film. We have been married nearly33 years. She has never once complainedabout the time or the funding I have takento do these projects. My children havelikewise been very supportive. I thinkthey also understand that there is a battlefor our nation’s soul. America was correctto fight the communists in Vietnam. Thecombined effort of the Vietnamese andAmericans, while not the outcome wewanted, did at least buy time for the restof Asia to grow free of communist domi-nation. If it weren’t for our effort there,the rest of Asia would look very differenttoday. And I always feel it important topoint out that the biggest upside to thewar’s outcome was that America hasbeen greatly blessed to have two millionnew citizens from Vietnam who lovefreedom and value their citizenship heremore than most. The Vietnamese haveblessed America beyond measure.

And the last words I want to say thatOur film effort has been aided greatly bya number of extremely important friendsin both the American and Vietnamesecommunities. Without their selfless andcontinuing assistance, we could not havedone what we are attempting to do. Andthese are people who are not doing thisfor the money. They have helped becausethey are likewise committed to 'gettinghistory right' and have a great love forAmerica, the American veterans, and forall the people of the Republic of Vietnamwho suffered so much for so long to gaintheir freedom. We--Fred Koster and I--would not have been able to get this farwithout their love and support. We callthese friends our "Ride the Thunder Fam-ily." There are about 35-40 people in thisgroup. I could write lengthy stories abouteach one of these folks. Without them, wewould have accomplished very little.<