The Roger Ailes and Bill OReilly scandals have cast even some old departures in a new light. Oh, my God. She said: I have very few regrets. Christopher Andersen, Citizen Jane (New York: Henry Holt and Company. NORTH: As a matter of fact, no. Its folklore, but folklore of a curiously evolved sort. She was young and famous at the time, maybe the Iraqi insurgents could get some of the present crop of empty headed celebrities, Britney Spears perhaps, to pose next to those Muslim mopes in robes and head towels while they aim their weapons. WebJane Fonda & TheVietnam War. Libertarian commentator Jedediah Bila appeared on Fox's "Outnumbered" and later turned up on ABC's "The View.". Thousands more were on the way, including Ernie Wallace (ph) and Ed Grummett. They have never acknowledged their role in the killing fields of Cambodia and fail to discuss the fact that Vietnam, one of about four communist countries left on the face of this earth, is currently at the bottom rung of third world nations in terms of per capita income. mode: 'thumbnails-b', Each of them suggested that they had done at least one interview with Fonda, and individually they were looking into the historical accuracy behind the claims made about Fonda and why she became such a lighting rod for controversy. Have a tip we should know? You know, we can we can scare her, and boy did they try? Her visit actually took place in 1972. It was treason, nothing more and nothing less. One presumably claimed to have been struck by her, while another claimed to have had his confidence betrayed to his Communist captors. She sided with the Viet Cong as revolutionary liberators. And she travelled to Hanoi at a time when North Vietnamese soldiers were killing Americans. She called our POWs hypocrites and liars and referred to their torture as understandable. Copyright 1949-2022 American Heritage Publishing Co. All Rights Reserved. They called it FTA, which they said stood for Free the Army, but it was also a not-so-subtle nod to the expression f the Army.. "War Stories," Colonel, we'll be watching this Sunday, 8 p.m. as usual. HANNITY: All right. Please, you cant let them be published. (Later, after 58,152 American dead were just names on a wall, declassified US Navy logs revealed there had been no torpedo attack!). It is always distressing to find American citizens who benefit from the protection and assistance of this government lending their voice in any way to governments such as the Democratic Republic of Vietnam distressing indeed, said State Department spokesman Charles W. Bray, according to a July 1972 Reuters story. Im not you know, they all went to jail. I went to a session at the 2003 Peace History Society Conference in Mt. She called our president, according to this report, "a new type of Hitler," pilots "war criminals.". And heres Cat Ballou, the beautiful daughter of Young Abe Lincoln, of Mister Roberts, beaming down from a machine designed to kill them. Fonda wasnt deterred. Even she had to apologize years later for that gun picture, but not for the rest of it. MacArthur was denied his request to attack enemy forces massing across the Yalu border in preparation for attack. Was Jane Fonda's sitting on a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun that was used to shoot at and kill Americans, and launching an anti-American PR campaign with the North Vietnamese giving aid and comfort? CHRIS WALLACE: So when you say it was a terrible mistake. We're going to take them out. The war was being fought by the air during during the Nixon administration. CHRIS WALLACE: When you got that nickname Hanoi Jane, how did you feel at the time? I spent many years its when I made coming home talking to American soldiers, who had been in Vietnam and the things they told me were heartbreaking. She apologized for being on a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun site. It is possible that the Vietnamese had it all planned. MacArthur soon realized he was expected to win battles but lose the war. Rudi Bakhtiar jumped from CNN to Fox News in 2006. There was a real Colonel Carrigan, and he was a POW in Vietnam. I'm not going to tell you anything of the sort. She went to Hanoi that year to tour villages, cities and infrastructure. A series of photos of her sitting at an NVA anti-aircraft battery earned her the nickname Hanoi Jane and the undying spite of Vietnam veterans everywhere. There were also rumors she turned over secret messages from POWs to their captors. Some lawmakers calledher actions treason. NORTH: Well, all I did was present the facts. They hadnt been able to vote on the virtues of the conflict, and they found themselves in mortal peril in the midst of an ugly, painful ordeal that a lot of vocal people back home thought was a criminal enterprise. quote: Fonda was a political activist in the counterculture era during the Vietnam War. Four die; one, Col. Larry Carrigan, survivesjust barely, but it is he who tells about the incident. That is not my place. The story surfaced on the Internet in 1999, and my guess is that it will live there a long time. It's not just handing out, you know, blankets. Did our government lie to us during Vietnam? The other stories allege a far more direct participation in war crimes on the part of Fonda. The POWs who were there have denied that this ever occurred. But literally working hand-in-hand with the enemy to promote their cause to a worldwide audience was not protected by the First Amendment then just as it is not protected now. I mean Alan, this woman was totally caught up in the age of the '60s, the rhetoric of the '60s, and quite frankly I feel sorry for her, because she's not out of it. They hadnt been able to vote on the virtues of the conflict, and they found themselves in mortal peril in the midst of an ugly, painful ordeal that a lot of vocal people back home thought was a criminal enterprise. The Veterans of Foreign Wars passed a resolution calling for her to be prosecuted as a traitor. And I didnt even think and they sang me a song and Im made me laugh. In her book, she says she's a Christian. COLMES: Many of us forgive many of us forgive George W. Bush (search) for being young and irresponsible, and maybe we can also forgive Jane Fonda. It was my mistake and I have paid and continue to pay a heavy price for it.. However, the allegation that she abused American POWs is not true. It evidently didnt. If it wasn't I must be missing something. The Bushes have a long-standing relationship with Red China, one that has hardmed our national security, yet few attack them as vociferously as Fonda was attacked. These men were bombing and strafing and napalming the country, she said, according to an Associated Press report in April 1973, which quoted an interview she gave to KNBC-TV in Los Angeles. Please support this 72-year tradition of trusted historical writing and the volunteers that sustain it with a donation to American Heritage. And you were photographed sitting on an anti aircraft gun. "VIET NAM: A repeat scenario was played 10 years later under another banker-picked Democratic administration. So I feel that well If I did was good, except that I shouldnt have set gone out to a military place. NORTH: Irrefutable for the three things she did, and I defined for you the rule, the actual constitutional language defining treason. I stand by the article as it was written. One of the times it did, Im happy to say, was with Keith Nolan, the author of several books on the war, most recently Ripcord , a superb account of the 101st Airborne in the conflicts last great battle. Her attackers renewed an old strike against the image of an actress who grew up as the daughter of the All-American Henry Fonda, yet became synonymous with the various rebellions of the Sixties. And I refused to have them scare me away from being actively against the Vietnam War. The buck stops here. JANE FONDA: Well, I didnt like it. Yeah, said my stepdaughter, Jill, when I told her about this. These horrendous claims went around the nation on the Internet, resulting in a great deal of anger and consternation among veterans. Hardly misdirected anger, Jane Fonda really was merely a silly and shallow child of privilege who allowed herself to be used for propaganda. Heres a transcript of her remarks so you can judge for yourself. Dr. Rockefeller certainly did not defend Communism as a "Jewish" system, since it is the Hebrew Bible that was the basis of our Common Law, and hence much of our Constitutional Order. We have no right to attack that country. . It was my mistake, and I have paid and continue to pay a heavy price for it. And I refused to have them scare me away from being actively against the Vietnam War. Read more >>, The magazine was forced to suspend print publication in 2013, but a group of volunteers saved the archives and relaunched it in digital form in 2017. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Jane Fonda and the Vietnam War. No license is granted to the user of this material except for the user's personal or internal use and, in such case, only one copy may be printed, nor shall user use any material for commercial purposes or in any fashion that may infringe upon Fox News Network, L.L.C. I have had my say. In July of 1972, she made two trips to Hanoi which earned her the nickname Hanoi Jane. She has to be a murderess too. It all has nothing to do with where I am sitting. www.DanandGEnterprises.com This weekend's special I mean, this is very moving. Her suit was later settled for a reported $20 million. Others were hoping to catch a glimpse of a famous Hollywood actress. She visited Russia in the early Sixties, and was personally impressed by the deference she received. And I was I was like a limp noodle what I had experienced and what I had seen, I just I wasnt able to resist, they said were gonna take you out here today. CHRIS WALLACE: Who the people in the Nixon administration? For the next severalyears, Fonda would continue as one of the most prominent public faces in the antiwar movement. SEAN HANNITY, CO-HOST: Jane Fonda says she is sorry for some of her actions during the Vietnam War. Fonda hasapologized for the liars and hypocrites statement, which she said she made out of anger that the Nixon Administration was lying about the extent of the POW torture for propaganda purposes. http://www.truthminers.com/truth/hanoi_jane.htm; Biden Should Remove Cuba from List of State Sponsors of Terrorism, Descendants of Slaveholder Donor Denounce Law School Name Change, How Social Media and Community Schools Could Fill in Gaps Teaching Black History, American Girl Dolls Declare the 1990s Ancient History, Review: DeSantis's Book is a Campaign Tome Written by ChatGPT, Reconsidering Phillis Wheatley's Place in the Revolutionary Era, Philosopher Lewis Gordon's Impact on Black Jewish History, Quintard Taylor's Black Past Project Fights Erasure of History, Review: The Unfinished Business of "Double V", One Reason to Confirm National Archivist Fast? To begin with, the title is deliberately misleading: his real point has nothing to do with Jane Fonda. It never happened. She went to tour the countrys dike system, which was rumored to have been intentionally bombed by American forces something the U.S. government to this day forcefully denies. And you know, maybe I was set up but I was an adult, its Im gonna take responsibility for it. She said: I have very few regrets. Thats all the ground troops were going home. Someone (I dont remember who) leads me toward the gun, and I sit down, still laughing, still applauding.