In November 2003 , Kovic joined protests in London against the visit of George W. Bush . He was the guest of honor at a reception held at London 's city hall by Mayor Ken Livingstone . The following day , he led a march of several hundred thousand demonstrators on Trafalgar Square , where a huge rally was held protesting the visit of George W. Bush and the war in Iraq . Kovic attended the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver , Colorado . On Sunday , August 24 , 2008 , the day before the convention began , Kovic spoke , then led thousands in a march against the war which ended with him saying , " In the city of Denver , we got welcomed home . " In a new introduction to his book , '' Born on the Fourth of July '' ( 1976 ) , written in March 2005 , Kovic stated , " I wanted people to understand . I wanted to share with them as nakedly and openly and intimately as possible what I had gone through , what I had endured . I wanted them to know what it really meant to be in a war , to be shot and wounded , to be fighting for my life on the intensive care ward , not the myth we had grown up believing . I wanted people to know about the hospitals and the enema room , about why I had become opposed to the war , why I had grown more and more committed to peace and nonviolence . I had been beaten by the police and arrested twelve times for protesting the war and I had spent many nights in jail in my wheelchair . I had been called a Communist and a traitor , simply for trying to tell the truth about what had happened in that war , but I refused to be intimidated . " In 1989 , Kovic presented actor Tom Cruise ( born July 3 , 1962 ) who portrayed him in the movie '' Born On The Fourth of July , '' on the last day of filming , the original Bronze Star Medal he had received , explaining to Cruise that he was giving him the medal as a gift " for his heroic performance . " '' Time '' magazine reported that Oliver Stone said , " He gave it to Tom for bravery for having gone through this experience in hell as much as any person can without actually having been there . " In March 2007 , Kovic checked into the Ernest Bors Spinal Cord Injury ward of the Veterans Administration Hospital in Long Beach , California , for an undisclosed illness
2008 Democratic National Convention
2008 Democratic National Convention
Ron Kovic