During World War II and for many years afterward, Audie Murphy personified heroism on the battlefield. His death-defying exploits were the stuff of legend, but to many Americans Murphy is a virtual unknown. As Don Graham observed in his biography of Murphy, “we prefer video fantasy-Rambo-a kind of MTV celebration of American machismo…. [But] Audie Murphy was the real thing…. And the real thing is always more interesting.”
