All were hired by Roger Ailes, the former network boss who exited in August 2016 amid a sexual harassment scandal. Daughter of legendary Henry Fonda, actress, and activist was one of the most outspoken people against the Vietnam War at the age of 34. So did Joan Baez and William Sloane Coffin, Noam Chomsky and Pete Seeger, Rennie Davis and Judy Collins. Fonda told the audience that their protests saddened her. ET! I have great, great children, talented, smart, and I just didnt know how to do it. 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. 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. Bates (private citizen), What do all you old sober sides make of this thesis? She was photographed sitting on a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun on a 1972 visit to Hanoi, during which she gained the nickname "Hanoi Jane". Watch above via HBO Max and CNNs Whos Talking to Chris Wallace. Status: TRUE" Del. NORTH: Irrefutable for the three things she did, and I defined for you the rule, the actual constitutional language defining treason. When Jane Fonda Rocked the U.S. Army A newly exhumed documentary delves into the actresss anti-Vietnam vaudeville tour of American military bases in 1972. I am assured it will be taken care of. Jane Fonda was always an outspoken opponent of the Vietnam War. However, the allegation that she abused American POWs is not true. Quite the contrary. NORTH: Well, all I did was present the facts. As the war raged, the one-time blonde bombshell cut her naturally brown hair short, trading sex appeal for liberal activism and rebranding herself as a political crusader against the war. One of the definitions of treason is giving aid and comfort to the enemy. 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.". In July of 1972, she made two trips to And that we probably couldnt win it not because they werent a fabulous soldiers. In her 2005 memoir, My Life So Far, Fonda wrote of the infamous photo this way: Still,for some veterans, no apology from Fonda will ever change their views of her as an adversaryof America and the troops during wartime. She and actor Donald Sutherland started an anti-USO troupe to counter Bob Hopes famous shows for the troops. Copyright 1949-2022 American Heritage Publishing Co. All Rights Reserved. No one with half a brain took Jane Fonda seriously then, or for that matter, now. If I was Vietnamese, I probably would have tried to do the same thing, you know, but I should not have gone. By denying their mistreatment or not investigating their treatment,in an effort to sway public opinion to her own perceived vision of the national interest, she did harm to her countrymen in captivity. Only the bankers know. Credit: Bettmann Archive/Getty Images "It was a very tumultuous and polarized time," she said in the HBO documentary. Many Americans traveled to Or to keep it anonymous, click here. You know, we can we can scare her, and boy did they try? And four months later, the bombing stopped of the dikes. 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.. The 85-year-old Fonda has had a lengthy career as a Hollywood icon that includes her current turn in the film 80 For Brady, an equally long stint as an outspoken liberal, a fitness craze that began in the infancy of home video, and much more. Among the products sold expressing veterans' disdain for Fonda are a variety of bumper stickers, envelope stickers, sew-on patches, but evidently D&G no longer carries my favorite Fonda item, a urinal pad depicting Jane Fonda's photograph. She was reportedly also an aspirant for a role on "Fox & Friends," the network's morning show. Manywere there to protest the Vietnam War. I mean, it depends on what you want to know. Of course, she was a Vietnamese. The other stories allege a far more direct participation in war crimes on the part of Fonda. 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. Whereupon Truman dismissed MacArthur for insubordination. I believe Jane Fonda has talked to at least two historians. Fonda moves down the line, greeting each man with encouragements like Arent you ashamed you killed babies? as she shakes his hand. 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. 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. As anyone who knew or worked with me in those years knows my heart has always been with the soldiers. Joe? And that we probably couldnt win it not because they werent a fabulous soldiers. Free subscription>>, Please consider a donation to help us keep this American treasure alive. She said that she regretted it. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. If it wasn't I must be missing something. In 2005, she apologized again on 60 I make it a habit not to intervene as an intern. They held signs that read Forgive? target_type: 'mix' window._taboola = window._taboola || []; A young photographer took this harrowing image of the Vietnam War. She has reportedly been shopping a tell-all book this year. He was denied his request to gather intelligence by aerial reconnaissance over China. Its more than being a traitor; millions of Americans felt treasonous during that war. I was not the kind of mother that I wished I had been to my children. 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. 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. After we published Peter Braunsteins article on Jane Fonda in our July/August issue, perhaps 60 people sent me this story. If I was used, I allowed it to happen. The war was being fought by the air during during the Nixon administration. She now works at Reuters. CHRIS WALLACE: So when you say it was a terrible mistake. Have a tip or story idea? And heres Cat Ballou, the beautiful daughter of Young Abe Lincoln, of Mister Roberts, beaming down from a machine designed to kill them. Finally the brainwashed, confused, exhausted American public forced our government to surrender. Rudi Bakhtiar jumped from CNN to Fox News in 2006. It has simply been repeated over and over again, without proof, and duplicated on a number of websites. Legal Statement. Support with a donation>>. I think you'll find that those are things on a more personal level than stupdities and worse committed by LBJ, Congress, and Nixon. 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. If they did, can I really blame them? Some lawmakers calledher actions treason. Laurie Dhue was a familiar presence on Fox in the early 2000s but left the network in 2008. On the basis of those meetings alone, she proclaimed that American POW's weren't being mistreated, and that any who said they were mistreated werte either liars, or were simply experiencing punishment for their racist treatment and attitude towards their Vietnamese captors. However, when my credibility is challenged, I will respond. Jane Fonda sparked outrage among war veterans when she was pictured sitting on an anti-aircraft gun in 1972 during the Vietnam War, earning her the nickname Hanoi Jane. It is possible that the Vietnamese had it all planned. 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. Hows this for a story? This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, Coffee houses. but not for the rest of it. False. [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. 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? 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. This is and now she's apologizing on a book tour. There's no statute of limitations on it. I dug in my heels. Listen closely. Her visit actually took place in 1972. You know, I have an organization in Georgia that deals with adolescents, and Ive studied parenting. Hows this for a story? Meanwhile the mass media suddenly reversed its pro-war policy: denying our beleaguered troops moral support from home. Thus, Europe, Russia, China, Korea, Viet Nam, Cambodia, Thailand, Japan, the Middle East were turned into killing grounds, and their existing governments destroyed. Over the years, as Fonda reinvented herself as a fitness maven and again a movie star, she apologized many times for the antiaircraft gunphoto. re: Jane Fonda visiting BR this weekend Posted on 3/3/23 at 9:43 am to Chipand2Putts. JANE FONDA: It was a terrible mistake. Kellysaid she was among those at Fox News sexually harassed by Ailes. It was the last day of my two week time there. 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. Megyn Kelly ended her 12-year run with Fox News in early 2017 in exchange for a weekday show at NBC. This weekend's special I mean, this is very moving. The "advisors" assisted inept South Vietnamese in their ongoing war against the North Vietnamese, who also happened to be communists. Whether Fonda wanted to shame troops is subjective. It wasnt firing at the time, and Fonda said in 2011 she hardly even thought about where I was sitting and that it is possible that it was a set up, that the Vietnamese Even she had to apologize years later for that gun picture, but not for the rest of it. I wanted to tell them what I was seeing as an American on the ground there. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. She called our POWs hypocrites and liars and referred to their torture as understandable. CNN anchorChris Wallace grilled Hollywood legend and activist Jane Fonda over her controversial visit to North Vietnam that caused millions to dub her Hanoi Jane, and got a full spectrum response on the subject. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 1991) Pages 225-229. Fonda was lambasted for her trip to North Vietnam in 1972 during the Vietnam War. Johnson solemnly announced that "Communist aggression must be stopped as a threat to American security!" HANNITY: All right. ET!. We're trained. 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. Sending Out Veterans' Benefits, The Executive Branchs Response to the Flood of 1927, The Case For Calling the Language "American", America Fought Its Own Battle Over Books Before it Fought the Nazis. quote: Fonda was a political activist in the counterculture era during the Vietnam War. But Jane Fonda: Cancel my subscription!, In replying, I discovered that the Good Book notwithstanding, a soft answer turneth away wrath no more than zo percent of the time. She claimed she was sexually harassed by correspondent Brian Wilson and later spoke out against Fox News' culture after the Ailes scandal broke. 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. Jane Fonda came clean in an interview with Chris Wallace about her Hanoi Jane days and her failure as a mother. Fonda shakes the last hand, then turns to the officer and gives him the fistful of messages. CHRIS WALLACE: When you got that nickname Hanoi Jane, how did you feel at the time? War materiel, shipped via the Its something very like the worst sort of lovers betrayal, the deep wound that time itself often is powerless to heal. MacArthur asked Truman to permit Chiang Kai-Shek's troops to fight with Americans against the Red Chinese. 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. CHRIS WALLACE: Who the people in the Nixon administration? 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. Maybe. The cameras flash. No article of ours gets hundreds of letters, but this one did, very few of them friendly. SEAN HANNITY, CO-HOST: Jane Fonda says she is sorry for some of her actions during the Vietnam War. 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. Im not you know, they all went to jail. The Roger Ailes and Bill OReilly scandals have cast even some old departures in a new light. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. I said that the POWs claiming torture were liars, hypocrites, and pawns. Just another old women of no consequence, don't give her any credit for ending the war, people like John Kerry and Max Cleland don't even think it's over yet. It never happened. 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." wars the intention of which is not to win but to bleed) is quite plausible. Mr. Nolan wrote something that helped me better understand the fury of this sort of reaction. But newly discovered tapes tell a very, very different story. They knew we were coming. You know, we can we can scare her, and boy did they try? I mean, the reality is, there were 24,000 American troops on the ground in South Vietnam. True. There's nothing like a historian 'cherry-picking' his citations or only presenting a partial 'truth' from his source. Forget? Her book just may not make the bestseller And, you know, I think they thought, Oh, shes this white privilege rich, famous daughter of all of that stuff. I hardly even think about where I am sitting. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. 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. Email us. (Later, after 58,152 American dead were just names on a wall, declassified US Navy logs revealed there had been no torpedo attack!). That begs the question, responsible for what? A new HBO documentary on Fondas life, Jane Fonda in Five Acts, explores the fallout for the actress, who is now 80. In 1972, actress Jane Fonda traveled to North Vietnam on an anti-war mission. If I was used, I allowed it to happen. We now see a pattern of sedition/treason. . container: 'taboola-right-rail-thumbnails', JANE FONDA: it was a mistake to go, I never wanted to go to any military installations. 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? Ms. Fonda's actions, however, directly affected helpless individual captives and their families. Thats all the ground troops were Its going to look like I was trying to shoot down U.S. planes! In it, she apologizes once again for insulting the men and women who fought in Vietnam. On a hot, stickyMay afternoon in 1970,a crowd of several thousand students and protesterstook over the University of Maryland mall. The story surfaced on the Internet in 1999, and my guess is that it will live there a long time. Chris Appy, a historian who has written about Vietnam, told HNN he once asked POW Porter Halyburton about the claims made against Fonda. For the next severalyears, Fonda would continue as one of the most prominent public faces in the antiwar movement. She has said that she regrets doing this. Alisyn Camerota hosted a number of Fox News programs during a 16-year run that ended in 2014. In no sense am I a Fonda apologist. Thats all the ground troops were going home. And, you know, I think they thought, Oh, shes this white privilege rich, famous daughter of all of that stuff. Bates. Jane didnt make her infamous and idiotic trip to Hanoi until 1972. And you were photographed sitting on an anti aircraft gun. 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. 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. Please support this 72-year tradition of trusted historical writing and the volunteers that sustain it with a donation to American Heritage. Good question here Richard: "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?" The POWs who were there have denied that this ever occurred. I am going to let the extract stand as it is, containing just enough truth to be uncomfortable, I think. 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. The story surfaced on the Internet in 1999, and my guess is that it will live there a long time. He didnt live to see it published. HANNITY: That's quite often in my case, by the way. Libertarian commentator Jedediah Bila appeared on Fox's "Outnumbered" and later turned up on ABC's "The View.". 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. quote: Fonda was a political activist in the counterculture era during the Enjoy the rest of the conversation. Have a tip we should know? Watch "Hannity & Colmes" weeknights at 9 p.m. According to the email she visited Hanoi in 1968. I mean, the reality of it is that's not an apology. Chiang refused to be extorted, citing his revulsion of the international banking cartel. And I don't NORTH: Well, that's not going to happen. 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. JANE FONDA: It was a terrible mistake. 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 the question I have is 50 years later, how do you look back on that particular chapter? To license content, please contact licenses [at] americanheritage.com. And I didnt even think and they sang me a song and Im made me laugh. She still does not know what she did wrong. Talking Points, WATCH: Greg Gutfeld and Bill Maher Riff About Incest Porn Because They Are Hilarious Comedians And Hell Exists, Cocaine Bear, Hold My Beer: Production Company Behind Sharknado Releasing Meth Gator Movie This Summer. 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. 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.