Some were angry then, some had been through enough wars to see what was coming. What made working with him particularly dangerous was that he was known for switching sides during several conflicts with Afghanistan. Like in the film (available to watch here), at first they tried giving him horse feed but General Dostum wasn't impressed. Dostum, a former Communist general, had a reputation for violence. And waited. There were some deep unresolved internal conflicts because of the death of Mike Spann and why they over their protests had been sent to Kunduz. Our warhad been big footed by Iraq. An old man yells, God bless you. It feels more than a bit odd to be recognized for my books and TV showas someone who specializes in traveling to the worlds hot spotswhile poking around a war in Afghanistan. In exploring how accurate 12 Strong is, we learned that some members of the ODA 595 Special Forces team had been involved in a nighttime training exercise along the Cumberland River. Nuri is chatty, although he often looks to the silent Faizal before answering my questions. Then he rides up on horseback with one pant leg untucked, looking like Bluto.. Ive arranged through intermediaries to spend a month with the general, but for the past week, he has been a hundred miles east, trying to subdue Taliban forces that control the city of Kunduz. Military families will relate to the goodbyes. We are alive thanks to you. As Dostum stands on the porch, looking at the place of his birth, he chokes up. The crowd of men follows Dostum into his fathers compound. 12 Strong stars Chris Hemsworth (Thor from the Avengers movies, in case youre not up on pop culture) and Oscar nominee Michael Shannon and is produced by Alcon Entertainment, Black Label Media, and Jerry Bruckheimer Films. Dostum enlisted in the Afghan militaryone of the few ways for poor men to escape lives of labor and hardship in rural Afghanistan. They use simple wooden saddles covered with a piece of carpet, and short stirrups that put our knees up by our heads. We had hardened fighters holed up in the middle of an urban area who wanted to die, says Will. This is the first close-air-support strike in years in an urban area, says Air Force Steve. I asked for a few Americans, he says finally. At the time, General Dostum did have a reputation for violence and turning on allies during battle. When the pilot radioed that he needed to return to base, the other pilot swung into action. This part of Afghanistan is ancient, arid, windblownand is the real cradle of its history and wealth. Yes. The CIA provided intel on which ethnic leaders to work with, including Afghan General Rashid Dostum. Dozens of dark-eyed men in turbans scramble into battered Toyota pickup trucks and assorted four-wheel-drive vehicles. In 2012, to honor their extraordinary heroism, a statue of a Horse Soldier was dedicated at the World Trade Center site." . What happened next was the first of many distortions and fictional retelling of their story. They are currently enjoying some well earned recognition now that the film 12 Strong has been released but again, the filmis not anywhere close to the truth. This was a guy we considered part of our unit, says Mark. The deadline is noon. He was quick to defend the weak and if negotiations failed he had no shortage of armed men that would stand beside him. who will play the wife of Mitch Nelson opposite her real-life husband, Chris Hemsworth. We had an entire 250-man cavalry ready to charge. The Regulators wanted Dostums right-hand man, Commander Lal, to hold off while they got their aircraft in position, but Lal had already given the order. Mullah Faizal and Mullah Nuri soon surrendered Kunduz to Dostum, and Walker was imprisoned with the other foreign volunteers in the bunker at Qala Jangi. By the time they come up and look, you are on them. The latter approach was well suited to Dostums style of attack. It was at K2 that their team received new orders, after which it was no longer a mission about personnel recovery. A day laterThursday, five days since the uprising broke outthey are still firing sporadically at soldiers removing bodies from the courtyard of the fortress. No. -ABC News. He is so sincere; whenever I see him, I feel joy. He pauses for a moment, lost in reflection. Late in the afternoon, a convoy of mud-spattered off-road vehicles pulls up, and a dozen dusty Americans in tan chocolate chip camo climb out. It was September 12, 2003. To this day the war continues and Dostum as First Vice President remains a staunch ally of America. Almost immediately after the bombs exploded, the horses swept across the objectivethe enemy was so shell-shocked. It was put on display across from Ground Zero in 2012. Both are awake, both unwilling to break the silence as their young child sleeps nearby. It was indeed as much of a surprise to the real team as it is in the movie. The warm smell of gangrene and human waste hits me as I open the door to the triage room. Dostums men load RPGs and check their ammo drums. Some hide their faces, others convulse and shiver. Their motto is To Free the Oppressedsomething they have done so far in this war with no civilian casualties, no blowback, and no regrets. This time I had less worries with just a few hours waiting for Uzbek guards to look the other way while we hustled our kit over the blockade Friendship Bridge at night. Mitch Nelson, a U.S. Army captain with Green Berets Operational Detachment Alpha (ODA) 595, is moving into a new home with his wife and daughter on September 11, 2001, after receiving an assignment to staff duty under Lieutenant Colonel Bowers. Submit an Article ), Commander Abdul Karim Fakir, who was in charge of the fortress while Dostum was in Kunduz, had worked with the Green Berets since they landed in Afghanistan. The soldiers stay well away from the al Qaeda prisoners as I interview them. The wholesale conversion of talibs to the government side during theKunduz surrender had created confusion in how many Taliban existed in the North. When we climbed up to the top of that hill, we could see the Taliban on the other side, regrouping for the final attempt to stop us. I asked him to describe it, just to be sure, says Will. Beyond that, all I know is that Dostum, born a poor peasant, grew up to be a brilliant commander, a general, and a warlordone of the many regional leaders across Afghanistan whose power derives both from ethnic loyalties and from military strength. A small group of CIA that included Mike Spann, flew in to the Darra-e Suf the day before ODA 595 would land. The U.S. refused to work with Dostum until former UN envoy Charlie Santos pointed out to the CIA that the only functioning fighting group besidesthe Panjshiris ofMassoud wereDostums Uzbeks. Planning a one-day live-ammo training exercise can require six months of paperwork. Like in the 12 Strong movie, the real Horse Soldiers were able to liberate Afghanistan's fourth largest city, Mazar-i-Sharif, in just three weeks. The bread we ate was half-mixed with dirt. But the US Armed Forces were thin on the ground, and were potentially facing around 50,000 Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters. That heavy reliance on tanks and trucks meant the Taliban wound up fighting a defensive, Russian-style war. In a village on the outskirts of Balkh, the convoy rumbles to a halt near an ancient castle that is now a rounded mound of tan mud. He has ended the bloody battle for Kunduz by negotiating with Mullah Faizal and Mullah Nuri, the two most senior Taliban leaders in the north. Dating at least to the days of Genghis Khan, the violent game is not so much about scoring as it is about using every dirty trick possiblebeating, whipping, kickingto prevent the opposing team from scoring. It was somewhere between harassing and accurateenough to keep our heads down. It turns out theyre staying next door, guests in Dostums house. Once the ODA 595 linked up with Dostum, they were to "render the area unsafe for the Taliban and terrorist activity," says Green Beret Mark Nutsch, portrayed by Chris Hemsworth in the movie. Furthermore, as shown in the movie, they were grossly outnumbered. -Legion of Brothers, No. Three hours later, I am awakened by a massive explosion a few yards from the houseanother near miss by a rocket fired from inside the fort. -The Fayetteville Observer, ODA 595 was an experienced, mature team of Green Berets that had recently worked with special operations forces in Uzbekistan, Afghanistan's northern neighbor. The task inspires him to try to express his feelings about the past two months. "For all of our teams, the risk was extraordinary," Lt. Gen. John F. Mulholland said. A story of how 12 Americansand a Afghan warlord won the war on terror, if only for a brief time still remains to be told. The estimated 30 Alliance soldiers who died have already been taken away by their friends. The teacher giggles, his white beard shaking with joy. About 200 men have taken up positions around the village, eyeing ragged locals, who stare back from a careful distance. I had first tried to meet the General in May of 1997. Even the CIA was reticent to land paramilitaries and officers to set up the conditions for an Special Forces ODA to be inserted. Mullah Nuri insists he doesnt know them and they refuse to come up. Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. I now have a friend named Mark, Dostum says, referring to the Green Beret captain. When team leader Nelson presented Dostum with a gift of horse feed, Dostum was obviously offended. Some details of their mission they cant discuss. They said, You guys will be on the ground; you figure it out. , Within half an hour of meeting Dostum at the mud-walled compound in the Darra-e Suf, the Regulators swung into action. DP hats, so I dig them out of my bag and pass them around. Now, Cpt. Yes. Drop a bomb on that grid. Pretty straightforward stuff.. The unexplained feeling of relief when you know your loved one is safe. I target the third bunker. One key point noted repeatedly (and military spouses already know this!) When he returns, the dark weariness has lifted. We begged, Mark says, but we were told to stay away. (In the end, the Regulators wouldnt get clearance to enter Qala Jangi until the uprising was over. I screened the war drama 12 Strong with a group of military spouse bloggers recently in Hollywood. Images of them doing this can be seen below and in Alex Quade's short documentary Horse Soldiers of 9/11. It also means a great deal to our families, who sacrifice so much, that what we accomplished is finally being brought more into public light. Now the tiny group of Americans need to show General Dostum what they can do. Dostums father talks to his son as though he were a child, telling him that he and the teacher have been praying for his success. In Doug Stanton's book Horse Soldiers, it was Colonel Max Bowers, portrayed by Rob Riggle, who brought a piece of steel with him from the World Trade Center to Afghanistan. We fought for an idea, says Nuri. General Abdul Rashid Dostum had arrived. However, when the 2009 Horse Soldiers book was being written, Mark Nutsch had requested that his name be changed to protect his identity, as was the case with most of the other Horse Soldiers. The 12 Strong true story confirms that he had been given an administrative staff position in the Fifth Group Headquarters. He would say he is going to attack at about 2 p.m., says Air Force Steve. They huddle in brown blankets, trying to avoid the soaking rain. In the 1980s, as a young army officer in the Soviet-backed government, he fought against the mujahidin. The team had been working together for two years and the average age was 32 years old. However, it's hard to imagine that was the case with the 12 Strong movie, since Nutsch has become a fairly well-known public figure. Headstrong and known to get into fights,was adept at the game of buzkashi, in which horsemen attempt to toss the headless carcass of a calf into a circle. The Taliban had surrendered at Qali i Jangi to CIA officer JR and Dostum and surrenders were under way in Kunduz. Two weeks after Dostum descended on Balkh, things have calmed down, so the warlord climbs into the front passenger seat of a Nissan, and we head across a sandstorm-blasted desert. If he wants to take over the whole country, do it. Until a group of 480 al Qaeda and talibs showed up at the gates of Mazar. Ka-RUMPH! . I thought the guy was this ruthless warlord, one soldier says. No one individual was the model for the statue. 12 Strong tells the story of the first Special Forces team deployed to Afghanistan after 9/11; under the leadership of a new captain, the team must work with an Afghan warlord to take down the Taliban. Then the war began. Over 5000 Taliban remained hidden in surrounding villages. When I look at the terrible conditions and the predicament that Walker is in, I have to ask him if this is what he expected. That group was disbanded and then re-formed in the early 1950s as Special Forces, which John F. Kennedy later nicknamed the Green Berets. The Battle of Bescham wwas fought on 23 October 2001 at the Taliban-occupied village of Bescham during the Invasion of Afghanistan. Then the radios are jammed with Dostums men shouting and celebrating. I figured I could whip my horse and run across an open area, Mike said. "We had seven years of rehearsal for that relationship," says Hemsworth. Outnumbered by enemy fighters 5,000 to 1, the men were also in extreme danger due to the huge bounties placed on their lives by the Taliban. Or maybe that scene in Star Wars: These sand people started jabbering in a language we had never heard. The Americans shouldered their hundred-pound rucksacks while the Afghans hefted the rest of the equipment. Once the plane got there, it circled about six times, Paul says. I grab my cameras and ask Bill, a pensive Green Beret medic, to come with me. As for team leader Mark Nutsch, the real-life counterpart to the film's main character portrayed by Chris Hemsworth, he had no actual combat experience prior to the mission. However, the mission quickly changed and became about convincing ethnic leaders (some were more similar to warlords) to join forces with them to fight their common enemy: the Taliban and its Al Qaeda allies. But I never travel without a few Mr. The first words I wanted to learn in Dari were, How do you make him stop?, Their most important immediate order of business was to establish themselves in Dostums eyes. You could see machine gun fire from both positions. Dostum, a former Communist general, had a reputation for violence. Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. I wondered if they could adapt to these circumstances. -The Fayetteville Observer, In addition to ODA 595, three other teams were selected. Airstrikes, AC130s and Hazara guards had killed all but 86 al Qaeda and Taliban fighters Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. Transfixed, they watch the Christmas tree being lit in Rockefeller Center. Instead, 12 Strong simply tells a storya true one. Dostum chuckles and denies the allegation. Others have speculated that the filmmakers changed some of the names to diversify the Special Forces team for the movie, but that has not been confirmed. First, a soft gray cloud of smoke rises in a lazy ring. I assumed he was fricking mean, hard. Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. You could see horses falling. An outcrop obscured views of the last 250 meters to the target. Mitch Nelson, a U.S. Army captain with Green Berets Operational Detachment Alpha (ODA) 595, . Open your eyes! I had jumped a train in Tajikistan, snuck into Uzbekistan and remained holed up in a dusty border town. Then, here is Dostum, says Will, a guy trained in tanks whos using tactics developed in Genghis Khans time.. Now, in a scene that has been repeated over and over for the past 2,000 years, a warlord is arriving. We were receiving more fire. When the videotape of my interview with Walker hits the airwaves back in the U.S., the country focuses its white-hot anger on him, and some of that anger spills over onto me. Paul points to a misty, triangular peak that forms one side of the gap. Surprisingly Dostum agreed. In the afternoon, when I visit the 1985 fort called Qala i Jangi or Fort of the Soldiers, bullets sing over my head. The conflict we expected to be over in months inexplicably continues on. Within hours, they are gone. We did all that we could. After a final check of their gear, they head into the fortress. "When I went to Afghanistan, I reported to Lieutenant Colonel Max Bowers. As Bill checks for wounds, he talks to the young man briefly in Arabic. The man is terribly thin and severely hypothermic. The crumpled bodies of prisoners, frozen in agony, are scattered everywhere. There are tanks. After a while we soon got along. Biography Mitch Nelson was born in Alma, Kansas, and he married a Hispanic woman and had a daughter. is the manner in which military members tend to downplay their service or push aside thanks, rarely focusing on themselves, but on their team or country as a whole. Hemsworth and Negahban convey the tension between the two men brilliantly, and Negahban had this to say: This was the first film that truly shows what Afghans went through and how we united with them to achieve our goal.. They just cant figure it out. I suggest to Bill that we remove Walker from the hospital, where he might be killed by other patients, many of whom were fighting against him at the fortress. You see the village; you see the bunkers, says a second Steve, one of the two Air Force men attached to the team to help coordinate air strikes. Military families cant escape the fact that weve now been at war nearly 17 years. And I believe it will mean a lot to the Afghan people because it shows their service in that conflict.. We pass the twisted, stripped wrecks of trucks and Toyotas. "The battle at the end was not depicted accurately," says the real Bob Pennington. At first I thought, Why not let them rule? he says. And we were going to oblige them.. A hundred yards away, villagers stand against a long compound. "Sir," he said. Perhaps we really ought to think of the Star Wars icon as an. Also, there was hardly any assurance that the team would be safe with the Afghan fighters they were working alongside. The two Green Berets are solemn; they insist on driving through the gap so they can tell their story from the right perspective. General Dostum knew the area and how to reach the goal faster by cutting through the mountains and finally communicated this when he felt more trusting of Captain Nelson. When a Marxist government came to power in a bloody coup in 1978, the new regimes radical reforms ignited a guerrilla war with the mujahidin who based themselves in the countrys remote mountain ranges. After days of killing as many Taliban as they could they were accused of murdering prisonersin shipping containers. They are direct military descendants of the Devils Brigade, a joint Canadian-American unit that fought in Italy during the Second World War. Some cry out in pain, some are weeping, and others lie still, their faces frozen in deathly grimaces. I tell the prisoner where he is and who hes talking to. He confesses that he had worried at first how the Americans would handle Afghan warfare: It was cold; the food was bad. We only had the time it takes 250 horses to travel 1,500 meters, so I told the pilot to step on it, Will says. At a full gallop, its a smooth ride. That is one of the premises Osama bin Laden operates under. Dostum wasnt about to let an American casualty put a premature end to his battle plan. The sound of canon firecontinues without a break but at a slower pace. The post was in an uproar, says Paul. Theres one time Ill never forget, he says. Up on the parapets, Dostums troops stream toward a gap in the ramparts created yesterday by an errant American 2000 lb bomb. That, says Dostum, was when the war against terror began., Living in caves and raiding Taliban positions, Dostums men slowly began to harass the well-entrenched Taliban along the Darra-e Suf. -Horse Soldiers book, Yes. Beyond the high steel gates is a confusion of trucks, headlights, and guns, and the sound of men moaning in pain. However, one was dropped due to a lack of confidence in the team. Washington, D.C.. It turned out that 900 Pakistani Taliban had been left behind in a madrasah in the center of a compound about the size of a city block, and they were ready to fight to the death. In Hollywood I was asked to join meetings during which actors and producers pitched the story, read half a dozen books in which the idea of John Wayne like cavalry charges and Dostums ogre like cruelty were fictionalized into cartoons. Although I spoke out on behalf of the team the media, didntpublish my eyewitness photos and testimony because it would go against a narrative thata Pashtun backed by a European-backed central government must rule Kabul, not a coalition of regional leaders.We did not want the Taliban voting themselves back into power, yet we restrained the grass roots power of the ethnic minorities. In the courtyard, a soft-eyed cow tries to eat spilled oats just beyond its reach. I could see the horses blasting out the other side. People still walk by the 16-foot bronze statue of a Green Beret on horseback overlooking Ground Zero and are unaware of its significance (the Horse Soldiers monument is pictured near the bottom of this page). But 9/11 changed all that. Their subcommander has told us at least six times over the radio to get out of there. Mitch Nelson in the film about a team of Green Berets on a strategic mission in Afghanistan in the days immediately following 9/11. The Taliban had dug-in, trench-line bunkers shooting machine guns, heavy ma-chine guns, and RPGs [rocket-propelled grenades]. And that ended the resistance. As the three of us climb back into our vehicle, I glance at the battlefield. Up until now the CIA has been hog-tied. Mitch Nelson (Aussie Chris Hemsworth, aka Thor) is the highly trained but not combat-tested leader of the small team dubbed Task Force Dagger and sent by Col. Mulholland (William. How do you love your family and leave them to go to war? The real-life base wasn't built up at that point and amounted to little more than a series of Soviet-era bunkers. We kept moving north on horseback, but at that point, no one could tell where the front line was anymore. It is rated R for violence and language throughout. I was full of emotions. Commandeering whole villages, women in burkas with not even eyes showing, the stoning of a woman only for being caught in adultery, and the execution of a mother for daring to teach her daughters to read. Then theres Steve, a well-mannered southern medic; Pete, the burly chaw spitter; Mark, their blond, midwestern captain; and so on. The men Im staying with have dubbed their unit the Regulators, after the 19th-century cowboys who were hired by cattle barons to guard their herds from rustlers. In the morning Villagers come out in the crisp, golden light of morning, shivering and tired. We havent seen a TV or news in two months, one soldier says apologetically. We set up in a bomb crater and used it as our bunker. Weve spent years apart from our spouses due to Middle East deployments, and some of us, like me, are now sending our sons and daughters to fight the same war in the same places. They are men with wives, children, mortgages, bills. real general dostum and mitch nelson Uncategorized September 20, 2021. Down below, small Afghan horses are nipping the dry grass on the safe side of the hill, their riders chatting while awaiting the order to charge. It feels even more odd when I discover that these are Green Beretssoldiers who truly specialize in the worlds hot spots. With assistance from US special forces soldiers from the US 5th Special Forces Group, Abdul Rashid Dostum's Northern Alliance forces were able to call in close air support against the Taliban fighters in Bescham and drive them out of the village. We thought Kunduz was [going to be] a full-scale attack, says Captain Mark. Soon were winding past an ancient brick bridge that crosses a roaring gorge; on the west side are large caves that shepherds have scooped out of the soft rock over the centuries. At 16, he started working as a laborer in the government-owned gas refinery in nearby Sheberghan, where he dabbled in union politics. Dostum, portrayed brilliantly by Navid Negahban, comes off as a kind of Obi Wan Kenobi, the ancient-wisdom-dispensing warrior. We wind through the tight pass alongside a swollen mountain river, go over the pass, then head a kilometer down the south side of the divide and stop at a freshly mudded house. Sidelined, and in exile in Turkey, In 2009, Dostum was begged by President Karzai to come back from exile to reelect him and again in 2014 Dostum engineered the victory ofPresidentGhani.only to go back into exile. Were not lifting our heads up!, When we turn around and notice whats going on, we see our Afghans have split., The team decided to call in a B-52 strike practically on their own positiona drastic move considering the planes were flying above 15,000 feet. At its core, 12 Strong is not just a war movie; its a story about learning to respect the differences that separate us but also to embrace the qualities that unite us., Terms of Use Like in the 12 Strong movie, Nutsch helped teach the other team members how to ride. He described the building we were sitting on to a T. Finally, Air Force Steve guided the pilot to the correct building, and he dropped the ordnance: direct hit. They cleaned and stowed their gear and awaited the order. The baby was born early while Mark was in Afghanistan. Dostum was very concerned about us getting too close to the battlefield, Captain Mark had told me back at the barracks. The team was ordered to exile to meet Donald Rumsfeld and be interviewed by Robin Moore. When it looked like they would break the back of the position, he would ride through as fast as he could and keep the Taliban on the run., With their knowledge of military history, the Regulators appreciated the ironies of this strange war: The Taliban had gone from the muj style of fightingin the mountains, on horsebackto working in mechanized columns, says Will, another member of 595. We were surprised at how good they were, says Captain Mark. The greatest restrictions they face have been placed on them by Dostum himself. "They didn't expect us to survive," Mark Nutsch said. What your name? The 12 Strong movie has Chris Hemsworth's character (Mark Nutsch in real life) being given the candy-bar-sized piece of metal by Colonel Mulholland. In real life, they learned of the first plane hitting the World Trade Center over the truck's radio on their way back to the base. The credits claim that General Dostum and Captain Mitch Nelson have remained friends in real life . Shannon's character is wounded in the movie for dramatic effect. Despite knowledge of the mission being available to the public, it had remained largely unheard of until the book. We must honor their truth not the fiction that creates more wars. I waited for it, that inevitable politicization of our troops presence in Afghanistan, but was happily surprised when it never came. "They were very mature, very family-orientated," Bob Pennington said. The prisoners were not properly searched by members of the Northern Alliance before they were crammed onto trucks and the troops had not realized the American Lindh was among them. Its a gritty reminder of who our common enemy wasone that not only strove to kill Americans, but also attempted to force its archaic way of life on whole countries. With Chris Hemsworth, Michael Shannon, Michael Pea, Navid Negahban. There is aneed to never forget the sacrifices men make in war. General Abdul Rashid Dostum is a man who has rarely been interviewed but has often been typecast as a brutal warlordusually because of his reputation for winning. There was talk that the team might be split uprumors of differences with a commanding officer who didnt appreciate the traditional independence of the Green Berets. General Abdul Rashid Dostum and Captain Mark Nutsch achieved this unexpected success in November 2001 by breaking out of a rebel pocket of the Hindu Kush Mountains and seizing Mazar i Sharif,. In seconds, 250 men on horseback were thundering toward the Taliban position a mere 1,500 meters away. Ironically, he actually served under the man he is portraying. The horses cast long shadows in the late afternoon. You raise your flag," Nelson says. The Green Berets call it the Gap of Doom. The general climbs out of the tiny black car and tucks his hands into his belt. Captain Mitch Nelson (played by Chris Hemsworth) refuses. In the movie, Nelson and his men must link up with General Abdul Rashid Dostum and his small band of fightersa partnership as much diplomatic as military, according to 12 Strong's director. You felt the air leave. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer, on the decision to make the movie: Remarkably enough, there have been very few films made about the Armys Special Forces. If one was to look for the roots of Dostums warlord reputation it began when he was the direct and most successful enemy of the CIA-backed insurgency of fundamentalist warlords based out of Pakistan. Then came September 11. Around eight oclock on Saturday night, while Im talking with the Green Berets, one of Dostums men comes into the house and asks us to follow him outside. . I looked at Lahl and said, Bombs away. We had 30 seconds till impact; meanwhile, the Afghan horde is screaming down this ridgeline. Of course, war is cruel and brutal; any person who has ever read a single page of history understands the unfortunate necessity and commonality of war in all cultures, in all countries around . At 3:30 a.m., I go to bed. Moments later Mike would be murdered by prisoners. As for why the names were changed, one article stated that the studio did not want to have to pay all of the real-life people for the rights to use their names.