20 Things You Somehow Missed In Apocalypse Now
19. Colonel Walter E. Kurtz Was Based On An Actual American Officer
Colonel Kurtz was largely based on Mister Kurtz from Conrad's Heart of Darkness: a white colonialist making his fortress deep upriver in an invaded land, where he establishes himself as a god-king, albeit with the setting changed from the ivory trade in Congo to the war in Vietnam and Cambodia. However, another significant source for the character was U.S. Army Colonel Robert Rheault, who commanded the Fifth Special Forces Army Group from May to July of 1969.
Like Kurtz's character, Rheault was a beloved officer, destined for eventual promotion to general. Things changed due to the intimate relationship between the Special Forces and the CIA, which made for complicated internal politics and muddied the waters of the military's rules of engagement. Rheault's unit was responsible for finding leaks in the CIA's intelligence ring, but when a Vietnamese man accused of being a double agent for the North Vietnamese was murdered, Rheault and several others were arrested. Charges were dropped when military and CIA officials refused to testify, but Rheault's career was irreparably damaged.
The affair was widely covered in the American press. Screenwriter John Milius read about Rheault in Life magazine and decided to incorporate details of the story into Apocalypse Now.