Watch above via HBO Max and CNNs Whos Talking to Chris Wallace. I think that there is a lot of selectivity going on. During an interview with Barbara Walters 35 years ago, Oscar-winning actress Jane Fonda apologized for being used as propaganda for North Vietnam when we were still fighting North Vietnam. 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. I mean, the reality is, there were 24,000 American troops on the ground in South Vietnam. Maybe John Nolte of Breitbart had the best of intentions, but his essay We Should Accept Jane Fondas Apology About Vietnam is an ethics mess. . He hadnt liked the story but at least was willing to discuss it. The financial elite then move into the vacuum, establish central banks, and issue debt-credit to the devastated populations. MacArthur was denied his request to attack enemy forces massing across the Yalu border in preparation for attack. CHRIS WALLACE: Who the people in the Nixon administration? CHRIS WALLACE: So when you say it was a terrible mistake. Many Americans traveled to Vietnam on peace delegations to end the war, yet it was Jane Fonda who was captured as a timeless image when she was photographed looking through a Viet Cong anti-aircraft gun. For example, she went on Radio Hanoi a number of times, while our troops, your friends, were being shot at by an enemy in Vietnam, saying our POWs were in good health. Shewas active in the Black Panthers and marched for the rights of American Indians, soldiers and working mothers. For a great many people, its not enough that Jane Fonda went to North Vietnam, offered encouragement to an army that was daily killing her countrymen, climbed up on that anti-aircraft gun, insisted that all American prisoners were well treated, and so on. Dave Why has no one been hanged for high treason? Its more than being a traitor; millions of Americans felt treasonous during that war. Heres her explanation, from 2011: I had decided to do the broadcasts because I was so horrified by the bombing of civilian targets and I wanted to speak to U.S. pilots as I had done on so many occasions during my visits to U.S. military bases and at G.I. And that we probably couldnt win it not because they werent a fabulous soldiers. However, you may note that the Left still presumes to lecture the rest of us often concerning foreign policy on a regular basis. Fonda has refused to tell her side of the story to historians investigating her role, purportedly because she was saving her story for her own memoirs, which are expected to be published soon. On a hot, stickyMay afternoon in 1970,a crowd of several thousand students and protesterstook over the University of Maryland mall. And you know, maybe I was set up but I was an adult, its Im gonna take responsibility for it. Especially considering that the Republican Party has obviously now been captured by the same forces (the 'Illuminati', hehehe). If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. Support with a donation>>. The war was being fought by the air during during the Nixon administration. 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. Liberals in America's streets "protested" our victories and exulted in our defeats - thus, in patriots' eyes, giving the war a raison d'etre. But because of the nature of Vietnam, McNamara said to me, if wed known what we know now it would have we should not have gone out. SIGN UP FOR OUR FREE DAILY NEWSLETTER, FIRST TAKE, Megyn Kelly Trashed by Rosie O'Donnell as 'Spineless Wanna Be Barbie' for Jane Fonda Spat, 'Jane Fonda in Five Acts' Film Review: Doc Explores the Many Lives of the Actress-Activist, How Jane Fonda Explains 'Hanoi Jane': 'Regret to My Dying Day', said she was among those at Fox News sexually harassed by Ailes. That is not my place. 's and eMediaMillWorks, Inc.'s copyrights or other proprietary rights or interests in the material. If a prisoner tried to escape, it is quite understandable that he would probably be beaten and tortured.. Outspoken host Elisabeth Hasselbeck left "The View" to join "Fox & Friends" in 2013, which she exited at the end of 2015. Whereupon Truman dismissed MacArthur for insubordination. HANNITY: Is Jane Fonda really sorry or just trying to sell her brand new book? The people who are speaking out against the war are the patriots. She said the radio addresses were the only way to get access to American soldiers, because she was barred from meeting them at their bases in South Vietnam. Sadly, the Founders also mixed a great deal of Greco-Roman Humanism with this heritage, allowing room for much of what you decry. We have no right to attack that country. I was not the kind of mother that I wished I had been to my children. I'm not going to tell you anything of the sort. You know, we can we can scare her, and boy did they try? We're going to take them out. She said It is possible it was a setup, I will never know. 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. (Later, after 58,152 American dead were just names on a wall, declassified US Navy logs revealed there had been no torpedo attack!). I plead with him, You have to be sure those photographs are not published. The day anti-Vietnam War protesters tried to levitate the Pentagon. I get up, and as I start to walk back to the car with the translator, the implication of what has just happened hits me. The one story that was true never touched the question of whether or not she directly participated in war crimes. I sang a song. Those words were written by Michael Benge, a civilian advisor captured by the Viet Cong in 1968 and held as a POW for 5 years. Fonda traveled to Hanoi, Vietnam, to protest the Vietnam War, but she did not do most of the things the post claims. AND quote: It never happened. Finally the brainwashed, confused, exhausted American public forced our government to surrender. Thats all the ground troops were going home. Market data provided by Factset. Perhaps most dramatically, in March 1973, the Maryland state legislature held a hearing to have Fonda and her films barred from the state. There's no denying that she defamed POWs by whitewashing the Viet Cong's treatment of them and later calling them liars when they spoke out." It was the last day of my two week time there. 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. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How are you, G.I. As in Korea, communist spies within the U.S. government released vital information to the enemy. 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. Why are people more angry at Jane Fonda that they are against, say, Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon, the people really responsible? War materiel, shipped via the The Veterans of Foreign Wars passed a resolution calling for her to be prosecuted as a traitor. After we published Peter Braunsteins article on Jane Fonda in our July/August issue, perhaps 60 people sent me this story. In 1972, actress Jane Fonda traveled to North Vietnam on an anti-war mission. Please try again later. In July 1972, during the waning days of U.S. military involvement in Vietnam, actress Jane Fonda incurred the enmity of untold thousands of Vietnam veterans and their families (as well as service members for generations to come) when she arrived in Hanoi, North Vietnam, and began a two-week tour of the country. 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. I dug in my heels. 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. 1990) Pages 121-123. In July of 1972, she made two trips to Hanoi which earned her the nickname Hanoi Jane. 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. In her book, she says she's a Christian. They held signs that read Forgive? 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. Its something very like the worst sort of lovers betrayal, the deep wound that time itself often is powerless to heal. 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". By July 1972, when Fonda accepted an invitation to visit North Vietnam, America had been at war overseas and with itself for years. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Mr. Nolan wrote something that helped me better understand the fury of this sort of reaction. . container: 'taboola-right-rail-thumbnails', This weekend's special I mean, this is very moving. What most Viet-Nam veterans think about Jane Fonda is expressed in a number of products sold by D & G Enterprises, Of course, she was a Vietnamese. 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. As Pioneer Rap Trio Suffers Tragic Loss, Long-Awaited Back Catalog is Finally Released, Bret Baiers Interview With FBI Director Shows What A Joke It Is to Pose Him As Foxs Real Journalism Successor to Chris Wallace, Jimmy Kimmel Calls Tucker Carlson Putins Favorite Little Nesting Doll After He Accused Kimmel of Using Foreign Gov. Which is precisely why U.S. liberals so vehemently protested U.S. involvement - and that is the only reason - we were destroying their comrades the communists. Nobody remembers, nobody cares. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, The buck stops here. Thats what made me laugh. mode: 'thumbnails-b', Fonda moves down the line, greeting each man with encouragements like Arent you ashamed you killed babies? as she shakes his hand. Fonda addresses the media in December 1972 to protest U.S. military involvement in the Vietnam War. No, after the Left's "victory" in the United State's withdrawal from Southeast Asia, the matter of consequences was conveniently dropped from the discussion. Bates. Greta Van Susteren -- who had been one of Ailes' most stalwart defenders -- left in early September 2016 after saying that Fox had "not felt like a home" for years. But he never met Jane Fonda, and he has no idea how the maddening tale attached itself to him. So I feel that well If I did was good, except that I shouldnt have set gone out to a military place. 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. And I didnt even think and they sang me a song and Im made me laugh. "KOREA: Shortly thereafter Truman, with Congress averting its eyes, committed U.S. troops to Korea. Trusted Writing on History, Travel, and American Culture Since 1949. Even Trotsky, whose philosophy I do not advocate, could see this relationship between the capitalists and the communists clearly (hypocritically denouncing it, since he went along with it). If I was Vietnamese, I probably would have tried to do the same thing, you know, but I should not have gone. I got the main point across. Its going to look like I was trying to shoot down U.S. planes! "VIET NAM: A repeat scenario was played 10 years later under another banker-picked Democratic administration. Kelly attacked Fondas Vietnam War history to defend questions about plastic surgery. _taboola.push({ And definitely not fonda Fonda. I went to a session at the 2003 Peace History Society Conference in Mt. It evidently didnt. Jane Fondas first impression of Americas involvement in Vietnam was that it was a just cause. Hows this for a story? CHRIS WALLACE: Your most famous protest was 50 years ago when you went to North Vietnam at the height of the war there. The chance to remake oneself is a universally acknowledged strength of this Republic, and the Republic itself has done it often enough. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. She still does not know what she did wrong. Listen closely. In it, she apologizes once again for insulting the men and women who fought in Vietnam. It has simply been repeated over and over again, without proof, and duplicated on a number of websites. In another she was looking into the By July 1972, when Fonda accepted an invitation to visit North Vietnam, America had been at war overseas and with itself for years. So setting aside the issue of whether plastic surgery has anything to do with Vietnam, is Kelly right about Fondas record? window._taboola = window._taboola || []; If it wasn't I must be missing something. Megyn Kelly lit into Jane Fonda on Monday, highlighting the behavior that earned the actress the nickname Hanoi Jane while defending the time last fall when she questioned Fonda about plastic surgery. In replying, I discovered that the Good Book notwithstanding, a soft answer turneth away wrath no more than zo percent of the time. Watch "Hannity & Colmes" weeknights at 9 p.m. Thus, Europe, Russia, China, Korea, Viet Nam, Cambodia, Thailand, Japan, the Middle East were turned into killing grounds, and their existing governments destroyed. I will never know. Rumors spread and still persist that she betrayed them by accepting secret notes and then turning them over to the North Vietnamese. She sided with the Viet Cong as revolutionary liberators. And she travelled to Hanoi at a time when North Vietnamese soldiers were killing Americans. And the question I have is 50 years later, how do you look back on that particular chapter? 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? On campus, she was pushing her movement to turn U.S. soldiers into pacifists. And you were photographed sitting on an anti aircraft gun. Jane Fonda is a star of stage and screen whose career began in 1960. It wasnt firing at the time, and Fonda said in 2011 she hardly even thought about where I was sitting and that itis possible that it was a set up, that the Vietnamese had it all planned.. Yet, despite treason in high places American troops - outnumbered ten-to-one - were winning the war. Ramsey Clark went to Hanoi during the 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. 1991) Pages 225-229. Whether Fonda wanted to shame troops is subjective. She continued openly to question the accounts of the U.S. government and American POWs, who told devastating stories of the torture they endured at the hands of the North Vietnamese. And it was a terrible mistake because of the image that it showed, which was not at all what the reality was. I'm sorry I hurt you, Alan, and I hope you can forgive me." Or to keep it anonymous, click here. She also spoke about her infamous protests. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. [3] She praised the USSR for their support of the Viet Cong. Hardly misdirected anger, Jane Fonda really was merely a silly and shallow child of privilege who allowed herself to be used for propaganda. Truman warned Chiang to integrate communists into China's nationalist government or American aid would be withdrawn. Have a tip or story idea? In Hanoi, Fonda also met with seven American POWs and later said they asked her to tell their friends and family to support presidential candidate George McGovern; they feared theyd never be freed during a Richard Nixon administration. Though Fonda has been an activist throughout her life, the only other time she has spent the night in jail was in 1970, when she was 32, on a speaking tour protesting the Vietnam War. [5]http://www.snopes.com/military/fonda.asp; http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/weekly/aa110399b.htm; http://www.truthminers.com/truth/hanoi_jane.htm; cited on November 24, 2004. Now, I leave it NORTH: Well, yes, as a matter of fact I think she is. Enjoy the rest of the conversation. Its more than being a traitor; millions of Americans felt treasonous during that war. There was a real Colonel Carrigan, and he was a POW in Vietnam. Considering the admonition about Caesar's wife, perhaps HNN should remove you as an intern. Fonda was lambasted for her trip to North Vietnam in 1972 during the Vietnam War. The Roger Ailes and Bill OReilly scandals have cast even some old departures in a new light. JANE FONDA: I know what Im doing. Lee said she still loves being a journalist and thatshehas"some really big ideas on how to better serve you in that particular arena" without Fox News. She has to be a murderess too. I mean, the fact is, there's no statute on treason, by the way. She now works at Reuters. Oh, my God. I don't want people putting words into my mouth, saying "you're going to tell us all these bankers and financiers are Jewish", for instance. http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/weekly/aa110399b.htm. He collects a group of American POWs from their septic dungeons, cleans them up, and has them mustered on parade to show his guest how well his embattled nation treats its prisoners. But she maintains she was not a traitor by speaking out against the war or trying to turn soldiers against it, because she still believesthe U.S. government was lying to them. COLMES: She didn't say the words she wanted her to say. Her book just may not make the bestseller WebNevertheless, 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 Putnams Sons. Subsequently communist China was awarded a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council, its most powerful chair. North Vietnamese press reported and Fonda later confirmed that she made several radio announcements over the Voice of Vietnam radio to implore U.S. pilots to stop the bombings. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. And therein lies the difference. I agree with TheWrap's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy and provide my consent to receive marketing communications from them. Radio broadcasts, which attempted to shame American troops: Fonda did record messages that the North Vietnamese played for Americans to weaken their resolve. That's an apology. A young photographer took this harrowing image of the Vietnam War. Just before that experience, she said the words that continued to play through her head were: All men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. T. Jefferson. The POWs who were there have denied that this ever occurred. Even so, I'm going to keep an eye open to purchase one of the urinal mats with her photograph depicted upon it. It was my mistake and I have paid and continue to pay a heavy price for it.. She did not merely criticize the authoritarian government of South Vietnam, or the dubious motives of powerful corporations that make up the American military-industrial complex. NORTH (voice-over): Thirty-five hundred Marines came ashore. 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 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. 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! If they did, can I really blame them? 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. 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. Legal Statement. Now, I can't judge her heart but it's a different manifestation of Christianity than John Paul II (search). But the action that still enrages veterans most was that photograph of her with North Vietnamese troops onan antiaircraft gunthat would have been used to shoot down American planes. And, as she does, each POW palms her a scrap of paper with his Social Security number written on it. Fox News has enhanced the careers of numerous women who have served as hosts. SEAN HANNITY, CO-HOST: Jane Fonda says she is sorry for some of her actions during the Vietnam War. But the reality of it is, Alan, this is a woman,who I quite frankly feel sorry for. The chance to remake oneself is a universally acknowledged strength of this Republic, and the Republic itself has done it often enough. And the more they tried, the more I. JANE FONDA: I know what Im doing. Andrea Tantaros, former co-host of "The Five," filed a lawsuit saying that Fox News operated like a "sex-fueled, Playboy-Mansion-like cult.". 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. Imagine its the Battle of the Bulge and Betty Grable is up on top of a German tank saying the Yanks are fighting an evil war. Its not a preposterous analogynot as far as the soldiers involved are concerned. Fonda said that whileshe may have been tricked into taking the picture, The buck stops here. Manywere there to protest the Vietnam War. HANNITY: All right. You will not be surprised to hear that I have bowdlerised the above considerably, removing racial designators and course expressions of various sorts. Jane didnt make her infamous and idiotic trip to Hanoi until 1972. Fonda shakes the last hand, then turns to the officer and gives him the fistful of messages. But also admits to consulting with psychics. 1972: 'Hanoi' Jane--Text from CNN.com, "Vietnam: Echoes of War, Cultural Timeline" Jane Fonda -- actress, political activist and partner of anti-war Heres how we saw the article we ran: It is a survey of the singular career of a woman who both drove and was driven by many of the largest social concerns of her era, and who came to embody some of them. Denying a final victory over a dedicated and skilled marxist enemy was a recipe for the murder of our men. And that we probably couldnt win it not because they werent a fabulous soldiers. officer gets an idea. WebDaughter of legendary Henry Fonda, actress, and activist was one of the most outspoken people against the Vietnam War at the age of 34. Richard Morgan, Four die; one, Col. Larry Carrigan, survivesjust barely, but it is he who tells about the incident. William Burkhead, a Democrat from Anne Arundel, said, I wouldnt want to kill her, but I wouldnt mind if you cut her tongue off, according to a Post story. Transcription Copyright 2005 eMediaMillWorks, Inc. (f/k/a Federal Document Clearing House, Inc.), which takes sole responsibility for the accuracy of the transcription. I should have been clearer that my anger back then was at the Nixon Administration. No article of ours gets hundreds of letters, but this one did, very few of them friendly. 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. Have a tip we should know? CHRIS WALLACE: When you got that nickname Hanoi Jane, how did you feel at the time? But No one with half a brain took Jane Fonda seriously then, or for that matter, now. The other stories allege a far more direct participation in war crimes on the part of Fonda. officer gets an idea. Email us. The reality of it is an apology is saying, "I am sorry, I really do apologize for what I did over there, and I'm asking for your forgiveness." The alleged mission was to prevent communism from spreading to South Korea, a peninsula pointed at now disarmed Japan. And I refused to have them scare me away from being actively against the Vietnam War. SEAN HANNITY, CO-HOST: Jane Fonda says she is sorry for some of her actions during the Vietnam War. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. At the time, Hanoi Jane was serenaded with a Communist folk song and was led to a weapon that had shot down many American aircraft, and photos were immediately taken. [2] While criticizing America, she made laudatory comments about the Soviet Union. Outside of herself, she was manipulated by the experts in the Communist government who are masters in the art of propaganda. Otherwise, she wouldn't touch a weapon if she was genuinely anti-war. The reason Jane Fonda went to Vietnam was not wrong as Mr. Sollinger put it but the way she behaved while in Vietnam was unappropriate. Heres the picture that was used to shut shut down American plants, critics, and there were millions of them, called you a Hanoi Jane and said you were a traitor. Fonda was accused of engaging in war crimes on behalf of the North Vietnamese. JANE FONDA: It was a terrible mistake. Also Read: 'Jane Fonda in Five Acts' Film Review: Doc Explores the Many Lives of the Actress-Activist, She posed on an antiaircraft gun used to shoot down our American pilots. True, by Fondas admission. To begin with, the title is deliberately misleading: his real point has nothing to do with Jane Fonda. America. The Ms. , we thought, would signal a bit of ironic distance from the broad, ingenu- ous affection contained in Miss America. Her suit was later settled for a reported $20 million. 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. And by the way, did our government lie to us during Vietnam? Fonda shakes the last hand, then turns to the officer and gives him the fistful of messages. She claimed she was sexually harassed by correspondent Brian Wilson and later spoke out against Fox News' culture after the Ailes scandal broke. Megyn Kelly ended her 12-year run with Fox News in early 2017 in exchange for a weekday show at NBC. officers, toward the Chinese border amid cries of protest from Wall Street which feared war with "our trading partner" Red China. 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. He was denied his request to gather intelligence by aerial reconnaissance over China. She called our president, according to this report, "a new type of Hitler," pilots "war criminals.". "There's no disputing that Jane Fonda toured North Vietnam, propagandized on behalf of the communists, and participated in an orchestrated "press conference" with American POWs in 1972. If even one of them were true, it would change the entire focus of my article. Fonda may have regrets about those photos in particular, but shes never regretted her political activism. In fact, when the Tet Offensive broke, Jane Fonda was the featured pinup girl in that months issue of Leatherneck , the official publication of the Marines.. She went to tour the countrys It was the last day of my two week time there. You have "War Stories" coming up. Aristide was an ENEMY of Communism, hence his downfall. However, the fact that she advocated Communism does not give anyone license to make up stories or slander. It may be an old story, but being that she never stood trial for her actions still make her case an open book. However, it was a bit too long, and Dr. Shenkman needed it shortened in the interest of time.