Subsequently communist China was awarded a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council, its most powerful chair. Due to actions and images some people consider unpatriotic or treasonous, she earned I mean again, I'm not trying to be pedantic about it, but an apology is, "I'm sorry for what I said. But it wasnt untilshe traveled to Hanoi in July 1972 that she really enraged criticsand fundamentally altered how the world viewed her for decades to come. They realized that the war was wrong, that we werent wanted there. The Washington Post spent that day with Fonda, following her and a dozen or so students to Fort Meade in Maryland, where they planned to hand out antiwar leaflets to soldiers. Fondas wide-ranging response went from apologetic to defiant and everywhere in between: CHRIS WALLACE: Your most famous protest was 50 years ago when you went to North Vietnam at the height of the war there. officer gets an idea. When Rockefeller said what he said about the Cultural Revolution (in an Op Ed that I read long ago, attesting to its existence), he was addressing the Communist system as a Fascist system with potential for realizing corporate/banker control much more than as a "Marxist" system. She said in a 1973 interview elaborating on the hypocrites and liars statement that it would be understandable for the North Vietnamese to torture POWs who tried to escape. I did not know then. Listen closely. He hadnt liked the story but at least was willing to discuss it. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. He was Americas most famous pediatrician. Its more than being a traitor; millions of Americans felt treasonous during that war. WebDaughter of legendary Henry Fonda, actress, and activist was one of the most outspoken people against the Vietnam War at the age of 34. I hardly even think about where I am sitting. Yet, despite treason in high places American troops - outnumbered ten-to-one - were winning the war. I think you'll find that those are things on a more personal level than stupdities and worse committed by LBJ, Congress, and Nixon. [1] According to a recent email that circulated to various Vietnam veterans, Fonda reportedly beat one POW, and betrayed the confidence of another, resulting in his death. Almost all the messages said we had no business writing about Fonda because she was a traitor. We once published an admiring profile of Benedict Arnoldwhose actions did the nation real damage in a way Fondas fulminations never couldand nobody made a peep. Youre gonna come through it, okay. Thus, the U.S.A. deliberately betrayed its former ally Chiang Kai-Shek and gave mainland China to communism. He was denied his request to gather intelligence by aerial reconnaissance over China. or redistributed. 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. Fonda said that whileshe may have been tricked into taking the picture, The buck stops here. HANNITY: That's quite often in my case, by the way. The great General Douglas MacArthur drove the North Koreans, led by Red Chinese I think that there is a lot of selectivity going on. It all has nothing to do with where I am sitting. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. I went to a session at the 2003 Peace History Society Conference in Mt. A young photographer took this harrowing image of the Vietnam War. In 2005, she apologized again on 60 Maybe. re: Jane Fonda visiting BR this weekend Posted on 3/3/23 at 9:43 am to Chipand2Putts. I never asked pilots to desert. So did Joan Baez and William Sloane Coffin, Noam Chomsky and Pete Seeger, Rennie Davis and Judy Collins. Do any right-wingers ever decry the fact that Bush and the conservatives overthrew Aristide because he was a socialists----then invited the Chinese Communists in to our hemisphere? But now, very quickly, treason is the only crime defined in our Constitution. Market data provided by Factset. _taboola.push({ But when you know why you did something, and youre willing to admit the mistakes that you made, but stand up for the things that you did that that mattered? But look, you have more to talk to us about something you're going to show us. I mean, he realized that . JANE FONDA: it was a mistake to go, I never wanted to go to any military installations. By July 1972, when Fonda accepted an invitation to visit North Vietnam, America had been at war overseas and with itself for years. And its about a woman who had a capacity for reinvention that, like Jay Gatsbys, was the more effective for her whole-souled belief in what she devised. She called our POWs hypocrites and liars and referred to their torture as understandable. JANE FONDA: it was a mistake to go, I never wanted to go to any military installations. If I was used, I allowed it to happen. Especially considering that the Republican Party has obviously now been captured by the same forces (the 'Illuminati', hehehe). Even so, I'm going to keep an eye open to purchase one of the urinal mats with her photograph depicted upon it. Hanoi Jane told 60 Minutes that photos snapped while she sat on an enemy aircraft gun was a betrayal and the largest lapse of judgment I can imagine. Though she did say, meeting the locals, other artists, and intellectuals were well worth it. 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I am trying to show up now.. The cover called her Ms. }); We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. To license content, please contact licenses [at] americanheritage.com. The day anti-Vietnam War protesters tried to levitate the Pentagon. The cover called her Ms. . 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. Respected online resources such as Snopes, Truth Miners, and Urban Legends have all cited key persons in the infamous email as having refuted its claims. Her rebellion against the foreign policies of the United States suggested to many outraged Americans that treason might have an All-American face, a familiar accent, and be closer to home than the Other that had previously been assumed to embody the enemy. I stand by the article as it was written. However, when my credibility is challenged, I will respond. SEAN HANNITY, CO-HOST: Jane Fonda says she is sorry for some of her actions during the Vietnam War. Now, aid and comfort can be measured a lot of ways. In 1972, the Academy Award-winning actress and activist traveled to North Vietnam and was photographed laughing and clapping along with Vietnamese soldiers. MacArthur was denied his request to attack enemy forces massing across the Yalu border in preparation for attack. 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. officers, toward the Chinese border amid cries of protest from Wall Street which feared war with "our trading partner" Red China. Mr. Nolan wrote something that helped me better understand the fury of this sort of reaction. Article 3, section three of the Constitution defines treason as "levying war against the United States or adhering to their enemies or giving them aid and comfort.". There's nothing like a historian 'cherry-picking' his citations or only presenting a partial 'truth' from his source. . . JANE FONDA: It was a terrible mistake. Liberals in America's streets "protested" our victories and exulted in our defeats - thus, in patriots' eyes, giving the war a raison d'etre. We have no right to bomb military targets in Vietnam. And it was a terrible mistake because of the image that it showed, which was not at all what the reality was. I dug in my heels. She claimed she was sexually harassed by correspondent Brian Wilson and later spoke out against Fox News' culture after the Ailes scandal broke. However, it was a bit too long, and Dr. Shenkman needed it shortened in the interest of time. She has to be a murderess too. If it wasn't I must be missing something. How did we get into this war? MacArthur complained that his conduct of the war was compromised by spies within the U.S. government: "The enemy receives my (Pentagon) directives before I do". She was dubbed "Hanoi Jane" after traveling to the Communist capital. I appealed to them to please consider what you are doing. Perhaps most dramatically, in March 1973, the Maryland state legislature held a hearing to have Fonda and her films barred from the state. Copyright 1949-2022 American Heritage Publishing Co. All Rights Reserved. Johnson then ordered 165,000 U.S. forces under General Westmoreland to support a handful of American "advisors" previously ordered there by former President John F. Kennedy, Democrat. CHRIS WALLACE: When you got that nickname Hanoi Jane, how did you feel at the time? NORTH (voice-over): Thirty-five hundred Marines came ashore. SEAN HANNITY, CO-HOST: Jane Fonda says she is sorry for some of her actions during the Vietnam War. Forget? I mean, the reality is, there were 24,000 American troops on the ground in South Vietnam. The other stories allege a far more direct participation in war crimes on the part of Fonda. Daughter of legendary Henry Fonda, actress, and activist was one of the most outspoken people against the Vietnam War at the age of 34. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. If I was Vietnamese, I probably would have tried to do the same thing, you know, but I should not have gone. I dont know what else to do. Truman refused. So setting aside the issue of whether plastic surgery has anything to do with Vietnam, is Kelly right about Fondas record? I remember one retired lieutenant colonel describing a conversation he had with an angry trooper about the treasonous behavior of Jane Fonda in the midst of the 1968 Tet Offensive. For the next severalyears, Fonda would continue as one of the most prominent public faces in the antiwar movement. Joe? Putnams Sons. We're trained. Please, you cant let them be published. You have "War Stories" coming up. America. The Ms. , we thought, would signal a bit of ironic distance from the broad, ingenu- ous affection contained in Miss America., It evidently didnt. All were hired by Roger Ailes, the former network boss who exited in August 2016 amid a sexual harassment scandal. President Lyndon Johnson, Democrat, in a special address to the American public, reported an attack upon a U.S. naval vessel in the Tonkin Gulf by a North Vietnamese torpedo boat. She said: I have very few regrets. It is possible that the Vietnamese had it all planned. If a prisoner tried to escape, it is quite understandable that he would probably be beaten and tortured., Also Read: How Jane Fonda Explains 'Hanoi Jane': 'Regret to My Dying Day', Even she had to apologize years later for that gun picture True. Here it is. MacArthur asked Truman to permit Chiang Kai-Shek's troops to fight with Americans against the Red Chinese. She so symbolized the divided nation, hawks arrayed against her and doves siding with her, that she became a personal target, most recently with allegations about personal involvement in the mistreatment of POWs. From Urban Legends: If a prisoner tried to escape, it is quite understandable that he would probably be beaten and tortured.. My question is, when will people like Fonda and Kerry (unlike Joan Baez) take responsibility for what they have wrought -- the totalitarian system that gave us re-education camps and the boat people? Radio broadcasts, which attempted to shame American troops: Fonda did record messages that the North Vietnamese played for Americans to weaken their resolve. If I was Vietnamese, I probably would have tried to do the same thing, you know, but I should not have gone. She went to tour the countrys Jane Fonda remains unforgiven. In July of 1972, she made two trips to WebIn July of 1972 Jane Fonda went to Hanoi, North Vietnam, for a two-week tour of the country. And the question I have is 50 years later, how do you look back on that particular chapter? Id been getting pretty sour about the incensed patriots who would curse me and my family and confidently speak on behalf of all veterans living and dead, and the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress, to declare I was a disgrace to America for running that storythen conclude by smugly assuring me they would never read it. Again and again against incredible odds, and at great cost in American casualties, U.S. forces stopped the enemy; but were prevented by President Truman from administering the coup de grace. As I tell my students when we discuss the proper use of testimony, we probably ought not to listen to Jane Fonda on things dealing with foreign affairs but if our goal is to rid our aging bodies from the ravages of cellulite then Fonda can be considered an authority! Mr. Nolan wrote something that helped me better understand the fury of this sort of reaction. Halyburton told him that the POW's had tried to debunk them even though they regarded Fonda as an unsympathetic figure. Nevertheless, there are Vietnam veterans out there who served in the war zone before 1969 who are convinced that Jane Fonda was in cahoots with the Commies during their own tours. Deprived of American assistance, his army bereft of supplies, Chiang Kai-Shek retreated to the island sanctuary of Formosa and dug in. The financial elite then move into the vacuum, establish central banks, and issue debt-credit to the devastated populations. America. The Ms. , we thought, would signal a bit of ironic distance from the broad, ingenu- ous affection contained in Miss America. How Jane Fondas 1972 trip to North Vietnam earned her the nickname Hanoi Jane, The 27 best things to do in D.C. this weekend and next week, Tom Wilson gives Capitals a boost on an otherwise painful night in Anaheim, Corey Dickerson aims to lead and have a bounce-back year with Nats. After all, she is an American; surely shell carry the message home to the families that their husband or son is alive. CHRIS WALLACE: So when you say it was a terrible mistake. All of the facts, in retrospect, lead to the conclusion that the U.S. government's purpose in dragging America into Korea was not to defeat communism but to kill as many Americans as possible in an ignoble defeat, get rid of the hero MacArthur as a possible presidential nominee, and lure a disillusioned America into acceptance of one world government. wars the intention of which is not to win but to bleed) is quite plausible. 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. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. I know what its supposed to be now.