About Steve :: Person ::
USO Tour 1990

In the fall of 1990 during the buildup before the Gulf War, Steve and his wife Victoria Tennant, went on a good will tour with the USO to visit American troops in the desert.  They were not allowed to do any shows because of the feelings of their Saudi hosts. 

The following articles include interviews with both Steve and Victoria, as well as news reports on their activities.

Los Angeles Times
October 16, 1990, Tuesday, P.M. Final
Part P; Page 1; Column 1; Late Final Desk
STEVE MARTIN VISITS SAUDI ARABIA

CAMP MIDWAY, Saudi Arabia:  Comedian Steve Martin, whose "well excuuuuse me" line entered American lingo, visited U.S. troops in the desert today but kept it more a social call than a show.

The first entertainer brought to Saudi Arabia by the USO, Martin and his wife, actress Victoria Tennant, signed autographs, cracked a few jokes and walked among about 500 members of the 24th Infantry Division, an M 1 tank unit based at Ft. Stewart, Ga.

Climbing aboard one of the huge tanks, Martin joked "we're going to put a condo here" next to the tank, which bore a sign reading "Speed and Power Beach Club."

"The pool is on the other side," Martin said.

He explained to the troops that rather than putting on a show "They said they didn't want us to do a show" that he would just talk with the soldiers.

"What we're going to do is do what they call grip and grin we grip your hand and grin at you. It's all we can do."
 

[excerpt from longer interview]
LARRY KING: Comedian and actor Steve Martin talks about his latest film, "L.A. Story", and discusses his movie career.

KING: In times of crisis, America has always turned to Hollywood for relief. No one knows the dichotomy of this better than our next guest, Steve Martin. Three months ago, Steve and his lovely wife went on a morale boosting tour of Saudi Arabia and now he is home and, starting this Friday, will give audiences a dose of romance, laughs, and a happy ending in a wonderful new movie that I saw this past Monday here at the Motion Picture Theater building in Washington called L.A. Story. Steve wrote this film. And he guests with us in Los Angeles, and he's our first non war guest in three weeks.

You are the first, Steve, so you should be complimented that we have our first diversion here from the Persian Gulf. But I wonder what your thoughts are before we discuss the movie since you were there, now?

STEVE MARTIN: Sorry?

KING: In other words, how you feel now

Mr. MARTIN: Oh, oh, oh

KING: that you were there where these guys are now shooting at each other?

Mr. MARTIN: Well, obviously, I have a little more of a personal feeling about it, having been there and having met so many soldiers, both men and women, and having shook hands with them. And you always wonder what those people are doing now, and if they were hurt. But you get, when you step back from it And I'm just another citizen who's hearing about it on the news like everyone else, so other than those specific feelings, you know, I think I feel the same as everybody.

KING: Are you glad you went?

Mr. MARTIN: Oh, it was fantastic. It was probably more exciting for me than the soldiers. I mean, I came away with an incredible experience because I'd never been around anything military in my life. It was extremely impressive, I must say. The level of competence seemed incredibly high.
 

KOPPEL: When we come back, we'll discuss the pros and cons of rotating troops now in the Gulf with one of America's most decorated soldiers, Colonel David Hackworth, and with former assistant secretary of defense during the Reagan administration, Lawrence Korb. And joining us later in our broadcast, one of the first entertainers to visit troops in Operation Desert Shield, Steve Martin.

****

KOPPEL: All right. If you gentlemen will be good enough to stand by, when we come back, one of the most talented entertainers in this country, Steve Martin, who spent time with troops in the Gulf last month, he will join us.

[Commercial break]

[By January, almost two thirds of all Marine combat units will be deployed in the Persian Gulf.]

KOPPEL: Yes, we were talking about that Steve Martin. He and his wife were in Saudi Arabia last month as part of a USO sponsored morale boosting program. And he had the opportunity to talk with hundreds of servicemen and women. Steve Martin joins us live from New York. In a sense, Steve, you're sort of surrogate family. A lot of reporters out there who are trying to tell us what's happening out there. I'm asking you to feel it for us. How did they feel to you?

STEVE MARTIN, Actor: I thought they felt great. I thought the morale was very good. I also think you know, when you hear morale is bad, you expect to see soldiers with their weapons dragging in the sand and kind of weeping, and I didn't see any of that. I saw a lot of very strong men and women who were very prepared and happy to see people. They were happy to feel that people back home were thinking about them. They were very cut off. They don't get newspapers, and so anything from home they really like. So they would come to life, you know, when we would be around. But I also think that we'll never quite know the truth, because it's kind of like looking at an atomic particle. It changes when you start looking at it and I think when I look at it or when the press looks at it, there's a slight shift. You might talk to soldiers, really, to tell you.

KOPPEL: Well, did you since you did that, and you talked to I don't know if you had a chance to talk to any of them individually for more than a couple of minutes at a time, but did you get any sense of frustration at not knowing what's going on?

Mr. MARTIN: That was the biggest concern, is they didn't know how long they were going to be there. And I think that if they knew, they would be a lot happier. They're not unhappy, and they do feel that they have a sense of purpose there. I felt that they understood that whether they fight or not, they have a mission there, and just their being there had some purpose. So they didn't feel useless.

KOPPEL: What is it, do you think, that could help morale the most, that can be done by people back home?

Mr. MARTIN: Well, the first thing, I think, would be if they were given some kind of indication of how long they were going to be there. Short of that, the second thing is letters from home. The USO has a program of "To Any Soldier." You can write a letter to any soldier I don't have the address, I'm sorry or to any Marine. And they really like getting those letters. They also like getting food from home, things that don't perish in the heat like cookies. They talked about cookies all the time. That was a very big deal.

KOPPEL: Do you get I mean, I understand that you were somewhat restricted in what you were allowed to do for fear of offending Saudi sensibilities and for security reasons, right?

Mr. MARTIN: Well, that's not true. That's a sort of a myth, I think, that was created because it seemed easy to do a story about, but it was never intended that we do a show. We were never asked to do a show, primarily because we were the first people over there. Because there's very little communication about what to expect, because they don't want I guess, you know, this to be intercepted in some way. We had no idea what to expect. And we met with General Schwarzkopf, who said it's very important to go out and see the men in the front lines. And you really can't do a show out there. You might meet 10 men at a time, you might meet 25 men, or 200, and you never know the circumstances. And they didn't want to congregate masses of soldiers in one place, because they felt it would be dangerous, which makes sense.

KOPPEL: What about this notion of an alien culture? I mean, obviously, to most of these young men, many of whom, I guess, have never been out of the country, to suddenly be placed into a culture where really the demands and the restrictions are far different from anything they've ever known before, what kind of reaction did you get to that?

Mr. MARTIN: First, the culture is very alien, and I think every soldier is briefed on it. I know we were. But a lot of the soldiers aren't in the culture. They're really out in the desert. They don't see Saudis and they don't see burnooses, you know, they just see each other. And when the soldiers do mix in the towns, it's just very restricted. They stay to themselves. They're on bases. And it's very closed off. So they really don't mix in the town. That's a frustration, actually, because they never get to go in and let off steam. There's no place to let off steam. Someone told me that these soldiers are in the best condition of any soldiers ever, because there's no alcohol, there's no cigarettes, there's no anything.

KOPPEL: Colonel Hackworth, take me back to Vietnam for a moment, because part of what I'm hearing here from Steve Martin was also true in Vietnam. There wasn't a great deal yeah, they were allowed to go back to Danang or they could go back to Phu Bai, or they could go to Saigon on leave, but most of the time there was an effort to sort of keep Americans segregated from the Vietnamese. To what degree is that a disadvantage, that these young men are over there and really don't know a great deal about the culture in which perhaps they may one day have to fight?

Col. HACKWORTH: Well, in Vietnam, much like the situation in Saudi Arabia, there's a very small point of the spear. And in Vietnam, 10 percent of all the forces that were there were the fighters. They were the ones that were always either hunting the enemy or being hunted by the enemy. They never got to see the big town. For example, there were 560,000 people in the theater, and only 60,000 in the line units out fighting the enemy. And we find the situation in the Gulf, there's about four percent of our military that's on the thin red line. What we have is a huge military with a great flapping tail and only one small tooth. In that tooth are those young kids that you saw tonight. But the key to that is keep them occupied with hard training, with adventure training, with using combined arms, tanks, helicopters and so on. And when I was a little kid, the generals kept you busy. And I think that we've got a great man in Schwarzkopf, and we're lucky. He's a Patton like warrior. He knows soldiers and we're blessed to have somebody of that quality. I think he'll train them up hard. And we've got about three months before they're going to be crossing the line of departure.

KOPPEL: You say that with some degree of certainty. I wasn't going to ask you another question, but based on what do you say three months?

Col. HACKWORTH: Well, by the time the forces are deployed from NATO and the United States, the Big Red One, we'll have sufficient combat force ready to go in about February. The war, as I see it, Ted, will take about four weeks to from womb to tomb, from beginning to end. And in that four weeks I see about 50,000 American casualties in the battlefield. So I really question if it's worthwhile, and what the hell it's all about.

KOPPEL: That's a whole 'nother debate, but Larry Korb, let me just give you a chance to respond in the few seconds we have left.

Mr. KORB: Well, I think that's the point. We don't want to have a war. What we want to do is get our objectives without getting into a shooting war. And a rotation policy will give you much more flexibility than you have, because you won't have to go to war at the first part of next year and that's our objective. And by the way, if you want to write to the servicemen, just "Any Serviceman," APO or FPO New York, New York, and it'll get there.

KOPPEL: All right. Lawrence Korb, Colonel David Hackworth, and David Martin, thank you all very Steve Martin, forgive me.

Mr. MARTIN: That's okay, Ted.

KOPPEL: Thank you all very much for joining us. I'll be back in a moment.

[Commercial break]
 

The Record
October 17, 1990; WEDNESDAY
ALL EDITIONS
NEWS; Pg. A14
STEVE MARTIN VISITS TROOPS, SCRAPS ROUTINE

SAUDI ARABIA
Bob Hope it wasn't.

Entertaining homesick American soldiers overseas is as much a part of American military lore and legend as G.I. Joe and Hershey bars. And U.S. troops deployed in this barren desert kingdom had been waiting months for their first visit from Hollywood.

But when it finally happened Tuesday, the military's fears about offending their Saudi Arabian hosts resulted in a display so disheartening that comedian Steve Martin offered a public apology. 

"They said they didn't want us to do a show," Martin said when soldiers, who had been waiting atop a sand dune for nearly three hours, pleaded for him at least to tell a few jokes.

Under scorching sun on a forbidding desert, this was United Service Organizations entertainment, Desert Shield-style: no dancing girls, no stand-up comedy routines, and precious few laughs.

Why? Because this is Saudi Arabia, and the military is not taking any chances. "I don't think anybody is ready for a USO show right now," a military official said.

Visitors in a society that permits no public entertainment, U.S. military officials have learned how easy it is to cross the line and offend their hosts. An early attempt at soldier-style diversion backfired when American employees of the Saudi oil company put on a show that included a risque dance number. Commanders quickly canceled further attendance.

Now, commanders say, the troops have to be content with periodic concerts by divisional brass bands and the odd talent show. Mostly, the troops listen to music over headphones on personal stereos, leaving camps oddly silent, without even the camaraderie of common song.

And while the USO-sponsored visit this week by Martin and his wife, actress Victoria Tennant, marked an effort to break the routine, the limitations were more striking than the entertainment.

The 500 troops from the 24th Mechanized Infantry Division waited hours for Martin and clearly anticipated a show. They cheered when he arrived and again when he introduced his wife.

But the comedian, who climbed atop an M-1 tank bearing a sign inscribed, "Speed and Power Beach Club," instead opted for earnest greetings from the home front. "We appreciate what you guys are doing," Martin said, "and there's a lot of support back home."

Then came the bad news. "What we're gonna do is what they call grip and grin," Martin said. "We grip your hand and grin at you. It's all we can do."

Martin and Tennant made their way through the ranks, signing autographs and handing out cards and fliers to the soldiers. "Don't squeeze too hard," Martin told one who shook his hand.

When one soldier asked, "Can't you stay?" Martin ad-libbed, "Oh God, I've got a meeting."

The comedian's visit to this remote forward base camp was the third of five appearances scheduled for the day, and his outfit of combat fatigues and a red USO baseball cap was already adorned with flier's wings and other military emblems from his previous appearances.

But in the entire visit, Martin delivered only a single one-liner relating to the Persian Gulf crisis: "I've got the answer for Saddam Hussein. If the press would just keep talking about his mistress, his wife would kill him." The joke got a laugh from the troops close enough to hear it.