Paperback Vigilante (1974)
Paperback Vigilante (1974) E. Howard Hunt was an American spy. Zelig-like, Hunt seems to have been everywhere dancing with the devil: coordinating anti-Japanese efforts with the Nationalist Chinese during World War II, providing logistical support for the Central Intelligence Agency’s bought-and-paid-for-Guatemalan “liberators” in 1954, and, most notably, heading up the CIA’s covert operations in support of the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961. After his official retirement from the CIA, high ranking officials in the Nixon administration recruited him for the “plumbers unit” Hunt became a major organizer of the break-in of Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist’s office and the bugging of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate office complex.
Paperback Vigilante, a documentary directed by Peter Davis and Steffan Lam originally released in 1974, presents a straightforward narrative, accompanied by extensive archival footage, of Hunt’s exploits. Periodically throughout the film, Hunt himself looks back at his career, clarifying events, defending himself, and sometimes expressing genuine incredulity that any decent American could ever dare to question the righteousness of his actions.
Hunt was a prolific writer of paperback spy novels at the same time he was a flesh and blood (with apologies to Austin Powers) “international man of mystery.” The major theme of Paperback Vigilante focuses on the profound irony that Hunt’s fictional protagonists became increasingly amoral and cynical at roughly the same time their creator did in real life. There is further irony, as Hunt’s vigilante heroes continue to succeed in a fictional world of “black ops,” while by the nineteen sixties Hunt’s own clandestine schemes reveal him to be an operational imbecile.
The point and counterpoint between Hunt’s fiction and his genuine exploits are not why Paperback Vigilante remains a film worthy of serious viewing. More than thirty years since the film’s release Hunt’s novels are largely forgotten. Paperback Vigilante persists as a vivid chronicle of mid-twentieth century American foreign policy. Anyone studying U.S./Soviet relations must confront the likes of E. Howard Hunt, a man who battled the Communists bare knuckled, no holds barred, with the support of an American government and public convinced that the Cold War was a fight to the death and the ends justified the means.
At the close of Paperback Vigilante, E. Howard Hunt still stands unrepentant, though he is unable to hide the anger and hurt he feels that increasing numbers of Americans seem repulsed by his methods. Today, this documentary continues to remind us that E. Howard Hunt, and all the other red- white-and-blue Frankenstein monsters like him, were doing precisely what most Americans and their government wanted them to: ignore the Marquis of Queensbury rules and defeat the Red Menace using any methods. America eventually won the Cold War. The Paperback Vigilante survives as a thought-provoking primary source, as historians focused on the twentieth century ponder the failure of “limited war” in Vietnam and observers of current events debate our nation’s methods in the war on terror… including whether the United States of America should sanction torture. Hunt never had any doubts.
Peter Bales Queensborough Community College PBales@qcc.cuny.edu
