I found that there was very little connection between the story of 임종덕 and of movie Deer Hunter. 
The only thing if you want to look for it, is the Russian Roulette that was allegedly performed during

Vietnam war. The scene in the movie was transferred from the screenplay depicted Russian roulette

in Las Vegas to the Vietnam war. Furthermore it probably never happened during the Vietnam war.

I have to doubt the life story of 임종덕, otherwise proven.

The film was based in part on an unproduced screenplay called The Man Who Came to Play by Louis Garfinkle and Quinn K. Redeker, about Las Vegas and Russian roulette. Producer Michael Deeley, who bought the script, hired writer/director Michael Cimino who, with Deric Washburn, rewrote the script, taking the Russian roulette element and placing it in the Vietnam War. The film went over-budget and over-schedule, and ended up costing $15 million. The scenes depicting Russian roulette were highly controversial after the film's release. EMI Films, who produced the film, released the film internationally while Universal Pictures handled its distribution in North America. - Wikipedia 

http://bemil.chosun.com/nbrd/bbs/view.html?b_bbs_id=10129&num=15674

BEMIL쉼터 

임종덕- 미국 육사 교과서에 기록된 한국인 영웅

작성일: 2020-01-24 10:35:38

제가 영웅들의 이야기를 폄하하고 싶은 생각은 없지만, 제목의 스토리는 아무래도 허위 과장 또는 공갈인 것 같습니다.

우선, 링크된 흥미있는 이야기를 읽어 보시기 바랍니다.

http://m.blog.daum.net/_blog/_m/articleView.do?blogid=0sP2q&articleno=39#none

허위 또는 공갈이라는  근거는 아래와 같습니다.

Thomas Dresser White 미공군 대장은 1961년 퇴역하였으며 그의 양아들 임종덕은1967년 하바드를 졸업하고 미육군에 입대하였습니다.

따라서, 그린베레 임종덕 대위가 월맹포로수용소를 탈출하였다면 대략1970년 전후일 것인데, 양아버지인 화이트 대장이 미공군참모총장으로 백악관에 같이 들어가서 대통령의 치하를 받았다고 한 것은 장군이 1965.12.22일 타계한 점에 비추어 사실이 아닙니다.

장군은 1953년 대장으로 진급하여 1957년 미공군 참모총장이 되었습니다.

제가 다음 등 포털에는  아이디가 없어서 블로그에 질문을 하지 못했습니다.

The most credible media who broadcasted the story was probably MBC 신비한 TV 서프라이즈 

on 12.12. 2015.. Others were mostly individual blogs. I couldn't find any major newspaper writings 

on the story. However, all of it was December 2015. Since then there have been sporadic writings 

now and then. I will ask MBC to answer the following questions if I can.

1. On what ground the movie Deer Hunter was based on his story? According to Wikipedia, Deer Hunter 

    was not based on his story.

2. Was Thomas Dresser White his adopted father? If he is, He and the general visited White House after 1970's

     after his father died on 12.12.1965?

3 If President Park arranged his marriage, was there any news coverage then?

It is very suspicious to me.

기독교의 간증이라는것이 몇%나 사실일가요?

이것이 대개 Peer pressure에 견디다 못해 지어낸 거짓말이 아닌가요?

소위 기독교의 "장노"라는자들중에 몇%나 정직한 사람일지?

White House에서의 기록을 찾아서 임종덕씨의 정체를 증명할 도리가 없을지?

본인도 옛날에 Deer Hunter를 보았지만, 거기에 나오는 Russian Roulette는 Hanoi (?) 뒷골목
도박장에서 일어난 일로 기억하며 포로수용소 얘기가 아니지요(?). 기억이 정확하지않습니다.

혹시 본인이 딴영화와 혼동했을가? such as Apocalypse Now, and etc.

임종덕씨가 아직 살아있는지? 본인보다 한 세너살쯤 많을것 같은데...

하느님의 축복을 "정말" 그리 많이 받었다면 아직도 살아있을만한데...

스토리중에 자꾸 하느님 얘기가 나오길래 약간 본인 맘속으로 불편했었는데

이 모든것이 "간증"용으로 조작된 것이 아닌지.

If his adopted father was General Thomas Dresser White(Stephen Thomas White), he died on 12.12. 1965 at the age of 64.

I could not find anybody else but him who was Air Force General with the name. President Johnson was 

President from 1963-1969. According to his claim, he graduated Harvard graduate school in 1967 and he had 

4 year military training. I am not sure he had the training during 4 years of PhD course or in addition to. 
Let's say he had it during the course. Then he went Vietnam 6 month after graduation. That means he went to 

Vietnam after his father was dead. He could not possibly visit President with his father after the spectacular escape

from Vietcong. Some of the postings on him wrote that his adopted father died at the age of 83 in 70's. I am not sure 

General White was his adopted father. I searched very thoroughly to find generals children in the internet and all

I can find is one daughter that General White had. Did he have different adopted father? I totally lost on the credibility 

of the story. Anyway I urged MBC to do investigative reporting on him.

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/8dpj2i/how_prevalent_was_russian_roulette_during_the/

How prevalent was Russian Roulette during the Vietnam War?

https://youtu.be/aCW9NsrV6VM

Deer Hunter; Russian Roulette 

'간증' reminds me of my experience(?), way back to early '80 through my high school classmate, 정근모, pretty well known among Koreans for his such devotion to Christianity. He went through such personal difficulty with his only son - he gave his kidney to his son with renal failure but at the same time he gave his non-A, non-B hepatitis, later renamed to Hepatitis-C, which we didn't know when we did the transplant - and became a born-again' Christian and gave such famous 간증, many friends quoted me later.  Apparently, such religious performance (?) to show his 100% dedication to Christianity seemed to be well exercised in public and also accepted as a formal ritual(?) to prove his belief as an 'born-again' Christian. But as Steve doubts, I am always skeptical with such strange(?) ritual - I am lousy but a Catholic with biased opinion to Protestants like others!- though I learned its sincerity(?) through my buddy 정근모.

Anyhow, I was quite amused and surprised to learn through a mutual friend that through his 간증, KeunMo confessed that he felt ironical to take his son to me to get the critical help for his son because he hated me most through our high school days as his only competitor. Indeed, I never expected to get involved with his son but the pediatric nephrology team at Georgetown Univ, then, was known as the nation-best so that his sister, the pathologist at Cleveland arranged him to take his son to our Georgetown U team. But, I arranged the surgery/transplant to his son - KeunMo was the donor - to get it done by my mentor Dr. HM Lee at my alma mater/MCV, because I was emotionally too close/attached to his son and rest of his family like my own, and instead of leading the surgery with my team, I took care of his postoperative care only with my Georgetown Univ team.  So, I shared his agony till his son succumbed after the second transplant failed like his family members and watched how much the religion would make the difference though I feel still a bit stupid to 간증!!!

BB Lee

P.S.  '소위 기독교의 "장노"라는자들중에 몇%나 정직한 사람일지?'  is another matter, I wholeheartedly agree with Steve! Same thing with Southern Baptists who approve mother fucker Donald who spent his whole life only to poke around the pussy, while ignoring so-called ' Ten Commandments ' as self-claimed Christians????