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Exactly. Linda Darnell's casting was problematic but positively enlightened when you compare it with say Mickey Rooney's Mr Yunioshi in Breakfast at Tiffany's. And yet Blake Edwards is rarely called out for that or branded a Right Winger while it seems impossible to even mention Ford's name without it coming up - even though he was considered a Left Wing filmmaker up till the war when, from what I can gather, his service in the navy saw him register as a Republican. But certainly no Right Wing ideologue - he opposed McCarthy and showed regret at his own treatment of Indians in his earlier films and by America generally.
"I've killed more Indians than Custer, Beecher and Chivington put together ... . Let's face it, we've treated them very badly- it's a blot on our shield; we've cheated and robbed, killed, murdered, massacred and everything else, but they kill one white man and, God, out come the troops."
His pro-military beliefs during the Vietnam era saw him eventually endorse Nixon and the image of Ford as a Right Winger was set, even though his career was largely over by then.
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