American Hero is a 1993 satirical conspiracy novel, reissued as Wag the Dog: A Novel in 2004, written by Larry Beinhart. It speculates that Operation Desert Storm had been scripted and choreographed as a ploy to get George H. W. Bush reelected to a second term (taking cues from Margaret Thatcher's similar war in the Falkland Islands), while at the same time analyzing exactly why that conflict had been so popular. The book formed the inspiration and basis for the 1997 film, Wag the Dog. Plot On his death bed, Lee Atwater devises a plan to secure president George H. W. Bush's reelection by having a war professionally produced by Hollywood agent David Hartman. The plan is set in motion after Atwater's death, and Hartman hires movie director John Lincoln Beagle to produce the fake war. Beagle cancels other film projects to be able to prioritize the production of the war, among them one with movie star Magdalena Lazlo who hires private investigator Joe Broz to find out why her film was discontinued. Broz, who works for the Los Angeles branch of the large private security company Universal Security (U.Sec.), first moves in with Lazlo as her chauffeur/bodyguard to perform background investigation. When he discovers that Lazlo's house has been bugged by his employer U.Sec., the two stage a simulated love affair to confuse their observers. As part of this cover story, Broz pretends to have taken over as Lazlo's agent, a social ascent that gives him better access to the people that might be behind what the two assume to be a conspiracy against Lazlo. Meanwhile, Beagle has brainstormed for possible war scenarios and has decided to produce a remake of World War II dubbed "WWII--the video." The situation escalates when an aide to Beagle, an aspiring script writer, contacts Broz with a script for Lazlo and when U.Sec., assuming that the aide wants to leak details about Beagle's secret project, steps in and kills the writer. Lazlo and Broz, together with the latter's ex-Marine friends finally begin to understand the background situation better and manage to steal a memo from Beagle outlining the project. In return, U.Sec. kidnaps Lazlo and trades her for the memo. After a martial arts showdown, all parties agree to a truce, but at a film gig in Mexico, U.Sec. decides to act unilaterally, killing Lazlo and a stranger they mistake for Broz. The