Jane Fonda is to be pitied

AUGUSTA FREE PRESS ^ | APRIL 5, 2005 | BRUCE KESLER

[CHARLITE]

The only anti-Vietnam War protester that can tick off a Vietnam veteran more than John Kerry is Jane Fonda. In her interview by Leslie Stahl on CBS' "60 Minutes" Sunday, April 3, Jane Fonda characterized such reactions to her as "ill-placed anger." In one respect, she may be correct.

It may be "ill-placed anger" neither because her anti-Vietnam War activities deserve praise nor because she makes an exceedingly partial recantation now. It may be "ill-placed anger" simply because of her current irrelevance and because of our moral compunction to attend to more important matters, including bettering our own decencies.

There is no doubt that Jane Fonda's anti-Vietnam war activities were treacherous, if not treasonous. There is no repentance in her continued prideful defense of her anti-Vietnam War activities. In 1972, having accused the U.S. of committing "genocide" by fighting communist takeover of South Vietnam, she volunteered for 10 vehement propaganda broadcasts for Radio Hanoi that called President Nixon a "new-type Hitler" and encouraged South Vietnamese soldiers to desert being "cannon fodder for U.S. imperialism," asserted U.S. pilots' bombing "makes one a war criminal," and she gleefully appeared around the world filmed in the firing seat of a North Vietnamese anti-air gun.

This piece of film she now admits was a "betrayal of the country that gave me privilege."

The hypocrisy and shallowness of this admission was quickly exposed when Jane Fonda defiantly added "I won't apologize" for her propaganda appearance with U.S. POWs, showing no remorse for some tortured for refusing to appear with her, by explaining in her morally blind view "both sides were using POWs for propaganda."

This Fonda effrontery mirrors her 1990 comment to Barbara Walters that she was simply "popping off" when in 1973 she called the returning POWs "hypocrites and liars." In 1975, she applauded the success of the North Vietnamese invasion of South Vietnam with the armaments and tanks supplied to North Vietnam by the Soviet Union (compared to the cut-off of promised arms and support from the U.S.), by going to Moscow to thank them "for sending assistance which the Soviet people are sending to Vietnam."

Even in 1979, when the world was aware of the millions of Vietnamese and Cambodians murdered and starved to death by their communist victors, when even Joan Baez protested the Khmer Rouge slaughter, Jane Fonda refused to join in. As she then told the National Press Club, she was unable to confirm the accuracy of the charges.

Like today, in trying to promote her autobiography with a faint and partial apology for "betrayal" only for her anti-air gun appearance, in 1988 Jane Fonda similarly tried to promote her film career. Vietnam veteran protestors disrupted filming of her latest movie in New England. She said she was "sorry that I hurt them" because "there were times I was thoughtless and careless," fairly vacuous without any recantation of her actions and without any reflection on the evils committed by her communist heroes.

Now, having reviewed Jane Fonda's past and current treachery, moral blindness, and self-serving commercial promotion, and much more could be added to the litany of her sins, why would I say that I tend to agree those who oppose her may display "ill-placed anger"?

I agree, not because anger, even pity for her life of insipid self-delusion, is unjustified. I agree because it is "ill-placed." Her movie career is about over. Only Hollywood gossip reporters, fervent for anything to fill columns with news of her ilk, feign interest in her views of anything. It is "ill-placed" because she is irrelevant, and has earned that irrelevancy and disregard.

She considers herself heroic: "I'm a brave woman. I can go to Vietnam. I can challenge my government." An escorted, choreographed, anti-U.S. propaganda tour by the North Vietnamese during wartime is hardly heroic. It is pathetic, even moreso 33 years later to take pride in it when any idiot should know better.

One may reasonably argue that ignoring her is to forgive her transgressions. It is not. She has not repented, necessary by scruples, before forgiveness is granted. Religious scruples, and common sense, however, call upon us to not poison our own soul with bitterness that has little effect, as she is oblivious to the depth of her sins, and that distract from matters of greater importance. Anger is "ill-placed" just because she is not worth it, and we are. Let's just forget her. She deserves to be forgotten and ignored. Nothing else could so deflate her self-image of being of any worth, and punish her.

Bruce Kesler ChFC REBC RHU CLU

Comments: letters@augustafreepress.com.

[doug from upland]

Mock her in song --- IN MY ROOM.

[doug from upland]

EVISCERATE HER IN SONG.

[doug from upland]

[Anti-Communist MOM]

Hanoi Jane is washed up finally...THANK GOD...I just wish the communist agenda would die with her career:(

[RobbyS]

He has it.

[Interesting Times]

Typically thoughtful analysis from Bruce Kesler, the man who founded the group Vietnam Veterans for a Just Peace as a counter to John Kerry's Vietnam Veterans Against the War in 1971, and who put John O'Neill on the Dick Cavett Show to debate against Kerry...

[Frank_2001]

I agree with you. Excellent article!

[Smartass]

There's only one place for a bitch like "Hanoi Jane," and it isn't in heaven!!!

[Nachum]

She deserves to be forgotten and ignored. Nothing else could so deflate her self-image of being of any worth, and punish her.

She deserves to be convicted of treason by a military court and spend the rest of her miserable days in solitary. Her exercise would consist of being drilled by the mp's running up and down stairs double-time.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[potlatch]

I saw her on the Sunday night interview, she was still defensive after admiting she was wrong. Sounds like the men in her life have given her plenty of punishment.

[B4Ranch]

She deserves to be SCORNED

[The Shrew]

Kesler nails this one like a Marine rifleman in prone position at the 300 yard line - 10X all the way through.

Reportedly, even with spicing up her self-delusional yarn with three-some sex and sordid Ted Turner affairs this book will fail miserably at the stores. IMHO, by giving the MSM the titilating details of the affairs and sexcapades she is taking a page from Clinton's handbook - Disguise treason with sex and you'll get away with the treason.

Regards,

TS

[Just mythoughts]

So is Jane broke??? Too old to exercise??? Amazing that she still does not get it.

[Enterprise]

Clown Without Pity

(Thanks to Gene Pitney - "Town Without Pity)

When you're young and really dumb as me
And bewildered by the world I see
Why do people hate me so
Only Viet Vets would know
What a clown without pity can do

If we stop to shoot up at a plane
People talk about Hanoi Jane
Mine was not an easy age
I was a princess in a a cage
What a clown without pity can do

I had some problems Many problems
I had a commie sympathy heart
Why didn't they help me, try to help me
Before my stupid assed career fell apart

Take these eager thighs and hold me fast
My menopause just came too fast
How can I keep love alive
How can my marriage survive
When Ted is getting nooners at two
What a clown without pity can do

[devolve]

[El Gato]

Jane Fonda is to be pitied

Not by me. I thought she was really hot in Klute, interesting if wierd in Barbarella, but those are the only two things of her's I've seen and both came out before she went to North Vietnam. I shouldn't have seen Klute, but I was ignorant in those days and I didn't know of her anti US activities prior to that time.

My daughter appologized to me for buying one of her workout tapes. I blew my top, but fairly quietly.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

BUMP!!!!!!!!!!

[zot]

Thanks for the ping. I'm glad I didn't miss this excellent summary by Bruce Kesler.

Jane Fonda and John Kerry should have been arrested and tried for treason. I have not forgiven them.

I don't believe my anger is ill-placed, but it is ill-advised because it hurts me and not them.

Likewise, I don't pity them. They knew (and still know) exactly what they were (and are) doing.

I am watching them warily as they fade away, as I would watch poisonous snakes grow old, but the evil they fostered continues to be relevant and dangerous.

[Californiajones]

Jane simply does not understand that ins and outs of war.

Like most liberals.

War is using a famous American actresses anti American rants to break the will of American POWs against their abusers.

Jane needs to spend a few hours in Hanoi Hilton or read Gerald Coffee's bio or WHEN HELL WAS IN SESSION to "get it." She still doesn't get it. Sad, a spoiled privileged "teenager" in a 65 year old body. Hope Almighty God can get through to her and show her that she shouldn't be hanging out with Eve Unsler but the holy spirit of God.

[ALWAYSWELDING]

My father is a Silver Medal of Honor winner from Nam and you can't mention this woman's name without him getting real quiet and then making some comment about her that's not very nice.

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks for the ping.

I can never forgive her for what she did to our warriors, our military, our intel people and our country.

[zot]

My father is a Silver Medal of Honor winner from Nam and you can't mention this woman's name without him getting real quiet and then making some comment about her that's not very nice.

My best regards to your father. I react to the name of Hanoi Jane Fonda very much as he does.

[lainde]

Good article...BTTT

[This Just In]

My sincere gratitude to your father, and those like him who made a tremendous sacrifice for the cause of freedom.

My father, brother, and other family fought as well. Her name is never mentioned, unless someone wishes to fire things up.

She is a dog returning to it's vomit. Who wants to waste a second of their life thinking about her?

[Greenpees]

Jane...you ignorant sl*t!

[RobbyS]

I saw clips of her trip to N. Vietnam on "60 Minutes." Lord, she looked weird, like someone caught up in a cult, grinning as if she had an evil spirit. The contrast with the sober Vietnamese soldiers around her is striking.

[Solar Wind]

"Jane needs to spend a few hours in Hanoi Hilton or read Gerald Coffee's bio or WHEN HELL WAS IN SESSION to "get it"."

Agreed. I read WHEN HELL WAS IN SESSION and it really brought home to me just how intense being a POW was. IMHO It needs to be required reading in school just so each generation can understand just what was really going on in Vietnam. Do you know if it is still published?

Mr Sol.

[wafflehouse]

She deserves to be forgotten and ignored

IGNORED, YES.

Forgotten, HELL NO!!!

[Californiajones]

Mr. Sol:

For the life of me I can't recall the name of the officer who wrote WHEN HELL WAS IN SESSION. Oh yeah, Ed Denton! He held public office, was honored by President Reagan and eulogized by Tom Clancy. He still has a website, and I think that you can still get his book there or Amazon or eBay -- mine was from a second hand store; paperback. GREAT read. Also amazing to note that John McCain was suffering in there with those guys.

What was most amazing to me was that Denton and company were shot down in the early or mid sixties, before the Summer of Love took power.

Denton wrote that when he finally got out of Nam and back to the States in 72 or 73, he simply could NOT believe his eyes -- that the country had become, literally, filthy -- porn shops and long hair and crime.

It always kills me to recall that these brutalized POWs were in there, actually PRAYING for the United States in between beatings and torture, while old Jane was out there aiding and abetting their torturers.

Denton was the one who blinked "TORTURE" in Morse code during his propaganda film that was sent back to the States, too, I believe.

I would not be at all surprised to find out that Denton is a Freeper.

[Californiajones]

Hey, you are right about the evil spirit grin on her face. Weird.

[ChadGore]

Re: My father is a Silver Medal of Honor winner from Nam and you can't mention this woman's name without him getting real quiet and then making some comment about her that's not very nice.

Tell your Father he's right, and a grateful nation stands with him in honor.

[E.G.C.]

BTTT!!!!!!

[R. Scott]

Sorry, another half hearted apology will not make me pity the lying, traitorous piece of … trash enough to make me buy her book.

[RightOnline]

"My father is a Silver Medal of Honor winner from Nam..."

Not to quibble.......but there is no such thing as a "silver Medal of Honor". There is the Silver Star, and there is the (Congressional) Medal of Honor. Which did he earn?

Either way, huge thanks to your dad for his exceptional service......for neither of the two decorations are handed out like candy.

[Critter]

It's ok, as long as you dispose of it properly:

[Quix]

Pity may well be right.

And I prefer her forgiven and right with God--if such is real, for her, could be real for her.

But a big part of me thinks she'd look better in tar and feathers than in pity.

[Syncro]

Typically thoughtful analysis from Bruce Kesler, the man who founded the group Vietnam Veterans for a Just Peace as a counter to John Kerry's Vietnam Veterans Against the War in 1971, and who put John O'Neill on the Dick Cavett Show to debate against Kerry...

Wow, nice to see Mr. Kesler is still in the game. Thanks for the heads up, I.T.

Interesting how the two most traitorous Americans re Viet Nam were rewarded with Billionaire spouses by their father Satan.

I'll never forget the story of the POW's giving Fonda slips of paper with their SS numbers on them so she could prove they were there and perhaps help them.

She turned them over to the Communists and the men were tortured more severely then before her visit, and at least one of them died because of HER.

She would have to get down on her knees and apologize with tears of blood to atone for her dastardly deeds. She never will. Cold Blooded traitor.

[Chieftain]

Thanks for sharing this piece, IT. This guy sure makes a lot of sense. Forget Hanoi Jane, she isn't worth the effort and doesn't deserve the attention.

[Critter]

Forgot to mention:

Image rendered viewable with the round of choice of her comrads, 7.62X39, and a little .223 mixed in, I think.

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

"Adult Children of Dysfunctional Parents" tend to have a lot of "issues."

That explains not only Jane Fonda but much of the postmodern wasteland spread across the vast rolling fields of the Republic.

[cajungirl]

Great article but no matter how much I try, her name still makes my blood boil.

[Jimmy Valentine]

You got that right. I never will understand why my generation (Boomers) has such a hard time playing the cards that life has dealt them.

you cannot blame your parents for all of your screwups, all of your life.

Jane can't seem to get there.

Regards,

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

A cold, stoic, unfeeling, self-absorbed Hollywood actor father and a mother that commits suicide when the children are young enough to be traumatized for life. You can see Peter Fonda (using method acting techniques) crying and cursing his dead mother during a real LSD trip near the end of the film Easy Rider, the sequence with the prostitutes in the cemetery in New Orleans.

[gakrak]

"There is no doubt that Jane Fonda's anti-Vietnam war activities were treacherous, if not treasonous"
She should have been convicted of treason and doing this stupid interview from prison. Every time I see this creature I get sick to my stomach. Amen.

[ops33]

Could you please tell me what a Silver Medal of Honor is? Could you perhaps mean the Silver Star?

[MeekOneGOP]

Hanoi Jane: Yesterday's Fiery Communist Revolutionary
She's today's very rich capitalist
(See also: http://www.usvetdsp.com/story8.htm)

Using her wealth and influence, she managed to garner support from American college campuses, advocating communism and encouraging rebellion and anarchy against the U.S. government. In a speech to Duke University students in 1970, Fonda told the gathering, "If you understood what Communism was, you would hope and pray on your knees that we would someday become Communist."

Kerry Heckled at Memorial Day Event

Excerpt:

Sen. John Kerry's record as an anti-war protester came back to haunt him on Memorial Day when he was confronted by a heckler as he tried to pay his respects to a soldier killed in the Vietnam War.

"How much money are you getting to betray our POWs?" an unidentified middle-aged woman shouted as Kerry visited the Vietnam Veterans memorial on the Washington Mall.

"Are you paying tribute to all the people you spat on, Senator Kerry?" she added.

< snip >

The heckling episode served to underscore the resentment many veterans still feel towards Kerry from his days as a leader with the Vietnam Veterans Against the War, when he teamed up with anti-American actress Jane Fonda.

---

My thanks to BulletBobCo for the concept of this
pic and to Conspiracy Guy for the captions!

[tiamat]

The ONLY reason we are hearing about Hanoi Jane so much now is because she has a new movie out.

(I can't recall the name of it, but *I* won't be seeing it! )

Here's hoping it flops!