Vietnam vets protest Jane Fonda's Broadway show. Should Vietnam vets forgive Jane Fonda? (McCain, interview)

[ProudCapMarine]

Should Vietnam vets forgive Jane Fonda?

Vietnam vets protest Jane Fonda's Broadway showing
Vietnam vets protest Jane Fonda's Broadway showing (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090221/ap_en_ce/people_jane_fonda_1 - broken link)

NEW YORK – It's been decades, but Jane Fonda still can't shake her "Hanoi Jane" image from the Vietnam War.

About a dozen Vietnam veterans and other protesters on Saturday picketed the theater where the 71-year-old actress is starring in the Broadway play "33 Variations," telling passers-by that she had once visited their Viet Cong enemy in Hanoi.

[plannine]

Originally Posted by ProudCapMarine

Should Vietnam vets forgive Jane Fonda?

Vietnam vets protest Jane Fonda's Broadway showing
Vietnam vets protest Jane Fonda's Broadway showing (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090221/ap_en_ce/people_jane_fonda_1 - broken link)

NEW YORK – It's been decades, but Jane Fonda still can't shake her "Hanoi Jane" image from the Vietnam War.

About a dozen Vietnam veterans and other protesters on Saturday picketed the theater where the 71-year-old actress is starring in the Broadway play "33 Variations," telling passers-by that she had once visited their Viet Cong enemy in Hanoi.

Most American's couldn't find Hanoi on a map......

[lamexican]

They fight for our rights. I believe ignorance is a right.

[ProudCapMarine]

Originally Posted by plannine

Most American's couldn't find Hanoi on a map......

Most Americans do not know what a map is.

[djacques]

There's nothing to apologize for. The men in Vietnam were aggressors and invaders and war criminals. They deserve no special consideration.

[lamexican]

Originally Posted by djacques

There's nothing to apologize for. The men in Vietnam were aggressors and invaders and war criminals. They deserve no special consideration.

I'm sorry but I have to disagree. No matter how you feel about the conflict the soldiers mad a pledge and should be honored for putting personal feelings aside and serving our country.

[sailordave]

To protest the Vietnam war while in the streets of America is one thing. To provide aid and comfort to the enemy on the field of battle should have resulted in her receiving a bullet in the brain. It was more than her sitting and posing on the communist anti-aircraft guns. Jane Fonda A.K.A. Hanoi Jane

[SIZE=3]On November 21, 1970 she told a University of Michigan audience of some two thousand students, "If you understood what communism was, you would hope, you would pray on your knees that we would some day become communist." At Duke University in North Carolina she repeated what she had said in Michigan, adding "I, a socialist, think that we should strive toward a socialist society, all the way to communism.[/SIZE] [SIZE=2]" [/SIZE][SIZE=2]Washington Times July 7, 2000 [/SIZE]
[SIZE=2][/SIZE]

[sailordave]

[LEFT]Jane Fonda began her participation in anti-war activities around 1967, allegedly after meeting with Communists while in France and with American citizens who were revolutionaries. Her activities included active participation in demonstrations, rallies, radio broadcasts and plays.
Jane Fonda also helped in the organization of a production group called the F.T.A. (F*** The Army). This group helped to set up coffee houses near military bases where they would perform anti-war derogatory-type sketches for the visiting soldiers. The coffee-house sketches were intended to counterpoint the U.S.O. shows, such as Bob Hope and other U.S.O. sponsored performers whose performances increased morale and gave positive support to American soldiers. Some of the F.T.A. coffee house employees would mingle with the soldiers to help them to "relax and unwind", while encouraging the soldiers to desert. Some soldiers alleged that they were promised jobs and money by the F.T.A. if they deserted.
In 1972 Jane Fonda, Tom Hayden and others traveled to North Vietnam to give their support to the North Vietnamese's Government. When she returned to the United States, she advised the news media that all of the American Prisoners of War were being well treated and were not being tortured.
As the American POWs returned home in 1973, they spoke out about the inhumane treatment and torture they had suffered as prisoners of war. Their stories directly contradicted Jane Fonda's earlier statements of 1972. Some of the American POWs such as Senator John McCain, a former Presidential candidate, stated that he was tortured by his guards for refusing to meet with groups such as Jane Fonda's. Jane Fonda, in her response to these new allegations, referred to the returning POWs as being "hypocrites and liars."
The Wall Street Journal (August 3, 1995) published an interview with Bui Tin who served on the General Staff of the North Vietnam Army and received the unconditional surrender of South Vietnam on April 30, 1975. During the interview Mr. Tin was asked if the American antiwar movement was important to Hanoi's victory. Mr. Tin responded "It was essential to our strategy" referring to the war being fought on two fronts, the Vietnam battlefield and back home in America through the antiwar movement on college campuses and in the city streets. He further stated the North Vietnamese leadership listened to the American evening news broadcasts "to follow the growth of the American antiwar movement." [/LEFT]

[sailordave]

[LEFT]Visits to Hanoi made by persons such as Jane Fonda, former Attorney General Ramsey Clark and various church ministers "gave us confidence that we should hold on in the face of battlefield reverses." Mr. Tin surmised that "America lost because of its democracy; through dissent and protest it lost the ability to mobilize a will to win." Mr. Tin further advised that General Vo Nguyen Giap (Commanding General of the North Vietnam Army) said the 1968 Tet Offensive was a defeat.
The military defeat of North Vietnam after the Tet Offensive of 1968 became a political victory for North Vietnam because of anti-war demonstrations and the sensationalism of the news media. The North Vietnamese interpreted the U.S. reaction to these events as the weakening of America's resolve to win the war. The North Vietnamese believed that victory could be theirs, if they stayed their course.
In 1975, after the fall of the South Vietnam Government, Jane Fonda returned to Hanoi with her newborn son Troy for a celebration in her honor for the work she had done for North Vietnam. During the celebration, her son was christened after a Viet Cong hero, Nguyen Van Troi. Troi had attempted to assassinate Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara while on his visit to South Vietnam in 1963. The South Vietnam Government executed Troi for this attempted assassination.
I have heard and read that some people believe that Jane Fonda was simply young and impressionable. Jane Fonda was born on December 21, 1937. She was 34 years old when she made her infamous trip to North Vietnam and was in her 30's when she participated in anti-war demonstrations and rallies. During this same time period a large number of young American soldiers, who had not yet reached their 21st birthday, were fighting the war in Vietnam and were held accountable for all of their actions. [/LEFT]

[sailordave]

snopes.com: Jane Fonda and POWs
They give examples of her radio broadcast to troops in combat while she was with the communist