Reply #6: Willie Schumann is from the movie "Wag the Dog" [View All]

"...As the "war" effort stalls, Motss and Brean decide that what every war needs is a war hero. They find a mental patient named Willie Schumann, and trot him out as America’s new hero. The Fad King, inspired by Schumann’s surname, orchestrates the "discovery" of an old blues tune "Old Shoe." Women weep at the mere invocation of Schumann’s name, and masses of school children take part in great shoe-related demonstrations in a "spontaneous moment of sheer patriotism."

The whole thing ends as every militaristic farce must– with a state funeral for the dead soldiers as the politicians (all alive and well) look on. Willie Schumann is laid to rest by the invented Special Forces Unit, "the men of the 303." The public swoons, the President is re-elected, and secrecy is assured forever when Stanley Motss soon turns up dead following a "heart attack." Americans sit glued to their television sets drinking it all in, staring blankly, believing everything."