During his service in Vietnam in 1965 and 1966, Cronauer opened his Armed Forces Radio show with the phrase, ‘Goooooood morning, Vietnam!’<\/b>
\nNORFOLK, Va. \u2013 Adrian Cronauer, the man whose military radio antics inspired a character played by Robin Williams in the film \u201cGood Morning, Vietnam,\u201d has died. He was 79.
Mary Muse, the wife of his stepson Michael Muse, said Thursday that Cronauer died Wednesday from an age-related illness. He had lived in Troutville, Virginia, and died at a local nursing home, she said.
During his service as a U. S. Air Force sergeant in Vietnam in 1965 and 1966, Cronauer opened his Armed Forces Radio show with the phrase, \u201cGoooooood morning, Vietnam!\u201d
Williams made the refrain famous in the 1987 film, loosely based on Cronauer\u2019s time in Saigon.
The film was a departure from other Vietnam war movies that focused on bloody realism, such as the Academy Award-winning \u201cPlatoon.\u201d Instead, it was about irreverent youth in the 1960s fighting the military establishment.
\u201dWe were the only game in town and you had to play by our rules,\u201d Cronauer told The Associated Press in 1987. \u201cBut I wanted to serve the listeners.\u201d
The military wanted conservative programming. American youths, however, were \u201dnot into drab, sterile announcements\u201d with middle-of-the-road music, Cronauer said, and the battle over the airwaves was joined.
In the film, Williams quickly drops Perry Como and Lawrence Welk from his 6 a.m. playlist in favor of the Dave Clark Five.
Cronauer said he loved the movie, but he said much of the film was Hollywood make-believe. Robin Williams\u2019 portrayal as a fast- talking, nonconformist, yuk-it-up disc jockey sometimes gave people the wrong impression of the man who inspired the film.
\u201cYes, I did try to make it sound more like a stateside station,\u201d he told The AP in 1989. \u201cYes, I did have problems with news censorship. Yes, I was in a restaurant shortly before the Viet Cong hit it. And yes, I did start each program by yelling, \u2018Good Morning, Vietnam!\u201d\u2018
The rest is what he delicately called \u201cgood script crafting.\u201d
When the film was released, the presidential campaign of Democrat Jesse Jackson called asking if Cronauer would help out. The conversation died quickly after Cronauer asked the caller if she realized he was a Republican.
In 1992, George H. W. Bush\u2019s re-election campaign taped a TV ad slamming Bill Clinton\u2019s draft record. In the ad, Cronauer accused Clinton of lying.
\u201cIn many ways, I\u2019m a very conservative guy,\u201d he said. \u201cA lifelong, card-carrying Republican can\u2019t be that much of an anti-establishment type.\u201d
Cronauer was from Pittsburgh, the son of a steelworker and a schoolteacher. After the military, he worked in radio, television and advertising.
In 1979, Cronauer saw the film \u201cApocalypse Now\u201d with his friend Ben Moses, who also served in Vietnam and worked at the Saigon radio station.
\u201cWe said that\u2019s not our story of Vietnam,\u201d Moses recalled Thursday. \u201cAnd we made a deal over a beer that we were going to have a movie called \u2018Good Morning, Vietnam.\u201d\u2018
It wasn\u2019t easy. Hollywood producers were incensed at the idea of a comedy about Vietnam, said Moses, who co-produced the film and wrote the original 30-page story.
\u201cI said \u2018It\u2019s not a comedy \u2013 it\u2019s the sugar on top of the medicine,\u201d Moses said.
Writer Mitch Markowitz made the film funny, and director Barry Levinson added the tragic-comedy aspect, Moses said. Williams\u2019 performance was nominated for an Oscar.
Moses said the film was a pivotal moment in changing the way Americans thought about the Vietnamese and the war.
Muse, the wife of Cronauer\u2019s stepson, said the movie \u201chelped open dialogue and discussion that had long been avoided.\u201d
\u201cHe loved the servicemen and servicewomen all over the world and always made time to personally engage with them,\u201d she said.
She added that he was \u201ca loving and devoted husband to his late wife Jeane (as well as a) father, grandfather and great-grandfather.\u201d
Cronauer attended the University of Pennsylvania\u2019s law school and went into the legal profession, working in communications law and later handling prisoner-of-war issues for the Pentagon.
\u201cI always was a bit of an iconoclast, as Robin (Williams) was in the film,\u201d Cronauer told the AP in 1999. \u201cBut I was not anti-military, or anti-establishment. I was anti-stupidity. And you certainly do run into a lot of stupidity in the military.\u201d
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