Posted on 11/22/2012 3:51:23 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
It only took 40 years. But finally, actress-turned-workout-specialist Jane Fonda has apologized for sitting on a Viet Cong anti-aircraft gun during her 1972 visit to North Vietnam. Fonda, who used her fame to push her radical leftism during her heyday, traveled to Hanoi in 1972 in solidarity with the Viet Cong. While there, she proceeded to blame the US for supposedly bombing a dike system, and did a series of radio broadcasts stating that US leaders were “war criminals.” Those broadcasts were replayed for American POWs being tortured by the Viet Cong. Later, when POWs spoke about their experiences of torture, Fonda would call them “hypocrites and liars,” stating, “These were not men who had been tortured. These were not men who had been starved. These were not men who had been brainwashed.” She explained that these POWs were “careerists and professional killers.”
Now, four decades removed, sitting in the lap of luxury, Fonda has decided that the pictures on the anti-aircraft gun were a mistake. Not the actual visit – she stands by that. “I did not, have not, and will not say that going to North Vietnam was a mistake,” she said. “I have apologized only for some of the things that I did there, but I am proud that I went.”
But when it comes to those gun photos, then she wishes she’d done something different: “Sitting on that gun in North Vietnam. I’ll go to my grave with that one.” Of course, as John Nolte of Big Hollywood points out, that’s “a step up from what we learned in Patricia Bosworth’s biography, ‘Jane Fonda,’ where the star reportedly said: ‘My biggest regret is I never got to f*** Che Guevara.”
She’s a deep human being, you see.
Back in July 2011, she spelled out why she regretted the anti-aircraft gun photo:
It happened on my last day in Hanoi. I was exhausted and an emotional wreck after the 2-week visit. It was not unusual for Americans who visited North Vietnam to be taken to see Vietnamese military installations and when they did, they were always required to wear a helmet like the kind I was told to wear during the numerous air raids I had experienced. When we arrived at the site of the anti-aircraft installation (somewhere on the outskirts of Hanoi), there was a group of about a dozen young soldiers in uniform who greeted me. There were also many photographers (and perhaps journalists) gathered about, many more than I had seen all in one place in Hanoi. This should have been a red flag ….
Here is my best, honest recollection of what happened: someone (I don’t remember who) led me towards the gun, and I sat down, still laughing, still applauding. It all had nothing to do with where I was sitting. I hardly even thought about where I was sitting. The cameras flashed. I got up, and as I started to walk back to the car with the translator, the implication of what had just happened hit me. “Oh my God. It’s going to look like I was trying to shoot down U.S. planes.”
Of course, it never occurs to Fonda that the pain she caused with that photo was a mere sliver of the pain she caused by acting as a propagandist for one of the worst regimes in human history. But that’s because in Hollywood, being such a propagandist merely endears you to elites, as Sean Penn can tell you. Tom Lehrer once mocked NASA for working with former Nazi scientist Wernher Von Braun; “‘Once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down,’” Lehrer sang, “‘That’s not my department,’ says Wernher von Braun.” But in Hollywood, it’s worse than that: you’re feted for siding with the world’s most evil people.
That’s why Hollywood continues to treat the blacklist as one of the worst blots on American history. The truth is somewhat different: the Soviet Union was working with the American Communist Party infiltrate Hollywood in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, and succeeded in infiltrating the Hollywood unions to a large extent. The Communist Party was interested in the overthrow of the American way of government. Not all of those blacklisted were card-carrying communists; that was the tragedy of McCarthyism. But to sympathize for those who treated Stalin as a hero rather than shunning them as moral reprobates is a move only Hollywood could make. Dalton Trumbo, perhaps the most celebrated member of the Hollywood Ten, bragged to his bosses in the Soviet Union that the Communist Party in Hollywood had helped quash anti-Soviet films like an adaptation of Arthur Koestler’s masterwork Darkness at Noon. Some of the Communist Party’s favorite Hollywood movies included Mission to Moscow (1943), in which Hollywood gave a clean bill of health to the Stalinist show trials. Meanwhile, when it comes to today’s Hollywood blacklist of American conservatives, Hollywood honchos brag that it’s a positive development.
Jane Fonda should rightly have been written off by America’s most powerful institutions four decades ago. Instead, she still kicking – and next, she’s playing Nancy Reagan, whom she brags she’ll prevent from looking “too mean.”
“I just welled up a bit miss him beyond measure.”
The staff around him looks happy too...It trickles down from the top....It works both ways, and we see it with the current fraud and the communists he surrounds himself with.....Almost feels like a death in the family to see those pictures.....
I’m sure that she feels our enemies love her for being a traitor to her country...she’s wrong.
They look at her and people like her with disdain because she is disloyal, weak and traitorous to her country but they no problem using her idiocy.
Her apology is self serving and not accepted.
She should have been shot as a traitor. Same thing for Bill Clinton, who went to Moscow and marched in the streets protesting the war. That is treason. Penalty is death if you want to look it up.
Bitch is "sorry" she allowed them to be taken. A picture is worth a thousand words, and these prove her to be deserving of execution.
Sitting on that gun in North Vietnam. I’ll go to my grave with that one.
No, you'll go to hell with that one.
Secret location ?
You are the one discredited by your incorrect statement. Where were you between 1963 and 1969? I was in the Air Force and later in the Department of Defense. I saw some of what happened. I lost friends in North Vietnam.
But I saw Jane and I saw John Kerry fling his medals over the WH fence.And I saw the marchers here in Washington. Most were draft dodgers and fellow-travelers. Do you associate your name with them?
People like Jane have tried to rehabilitate their movie and entertainment careers by semi-apologies, but it will not work. She almost deserved prison for her treason: aid and comfort to the enemy in time of war. Parents of servicemen and prisoners wanted her indicted. You cannot wipe away what she did by calling it a myth. You should be ashamed to post your biography as a "conservative". But, have a nice Thanksgiving, anyway.
Picking Hanoi Jane to play Nancy Reagan is one of the most stupid moves Hollywood has ever made.
Didn’t anyone consider that the potential audience for the Reagan movie are the very same people who hate Fonda’s guts?
Or did they expect liberals to come running to see it?
As much as I would like to see a well done movie about the Reagans I would not spend one penny to attend because of Fonda’s role in it.
I hope the movie is a giant, costly flop.
self ping
She’s just sorry she got caught.
Jane fonda! Jane Fonda! Commie, traitor, bitch!
And John Kerry will do the same, shortly. /s
Thank you for your service.
I’m not defending Jane Fonda. She’s a pig. But giving notes to the North Vietnamese jailers appears to be an urban myth.
She is just an old woman trying to get into heaven.
Jane Fonda is still alive???
Will John Kerry (who also served in Vietnam) portray Reagan???? Wouldn’t that be a hoot?
You stupid, selfish twit. How do you suppose our men being held in holes for six years felt? May the new year give you only grief.
I feel no sense of obligation to forgive Jane Fonda.
Neither has she been contrite nor has she promised not to do it again.
Forgiveness involves an overt act of contrition and a promise not to do it anymore.
I don’t believe Jane Fonda will ever do either! I don’t believe her ego will permit her being contrite nor acknowledging the error of her ways, and, promising not to do it anymore.
I believe Jane Fonda is only sorry for being called out and dogged by the really stupid acts of an impetuous, ill-informed publicity hound.
This Vietnam Vet says .... “FU” Hanoi Jane ... I will NEVER forgive you for your traitorous actions.
This Vietnam Vet says .... “FU” Hanoi Jane ... I will NEVER forgive you for your traitorous actions.
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