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.
The translator told me that the soldiers wanted to sing me a song. He translated as they sung. It was a song about the day Uncle Ho declared their countrys independence in Hanois Ba Dinh Square. I heard these words: All men are created equal; they are given certain rights; among these are life, Liberty and Happiness. These are the words Ho pronounced at the historic ceremony. I began to cry and clap. These young men should not be our enemy. They celebrate the same words Americans do.
The soldiers asked me to sing for them in return. As it turned out I was prepared for just such a moment: before leaving the United States, I memorized a song called Day Ma Di, written by anti-war South Vietnamese students. I knew I was slaughtering it, but everyone seemed delighted that I was making the attempt. I finished. Everyone was laughing and clapping, including me, overcome on this, my last day, with all that I had experienced during my 2 week visit. What happened next was something I have turned over and over in my mind countless times. Here is my best, honest recollection of what happened: someone (I dont 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. Its going to look like I was trying to shoot down U.S. planes. I pleaded with him, You have to be sure those photographs are not published. Please, you cant let them be published. I was assured it would be taken care of. I didnt know what else to do. (I didnt know yet that among the photographers there were some Japanese.)
It is possible that it was a set up, that the Vietnamese had it all planned. I will never know. But if they did I cant blame them. The buck stops here. If I was used, I allowed it to happen. It was my mistake and I have paid and continue to pay a heavy price for it. Had I brought a politically more experienced traveling companion with me they would have kept me from taking that terrible seat. I would have known two minutes before sitting down what I didnt realize until two minutes afterwards; a two-minute lapse of sanity that will haunt me forever. The gun was inactive, there were no planes overhead, I simply wasnt thinking about what I was doing, only about what I was feeling, innocent of what the photo implies. But the photo exists, delivering its message regardless of what I was doing or feeling. I carry this heavy in my heart. I have apologized numerous times for any pain I may have caused servicemen and their families because of this photograph. It was never my intention to cause harm. It is certainly painful for me that I, who had spent so much time talking to soldiers, trying to help soldiers and veterans, helping the anti-war movement to not blame the soldiers, now would be seen as being against our soldiers!
FUJF
You dug your hole.
YOU lay in it.
This is her attempt to rewrite history, although I have heard the handing the slips of papers to the guards was untrue
Jane, you ignorant slut!
The scumbag must be dying because why wait for more than 40 years?
Uh, Six, this uh Two, Bravo Sierra, over...
So Jane thinks it’s OK to be a traitor because she didn’t actually shoot at any American planes? WTF?
Sorry, I in my vague memory, can still recall you spitting on our troops. You say this is not true, but how is it that this is so very clear to me? Maybe because I was THERE and cognizant of what YOU were doing??? Could it be?
So Jane thinks it’s OK to be a traitor because she didn’t actually shoot at any American planes? WTF?
So Jane thinks it’s OK to be a traitor because she didn’t actually shoot at any American planes? WTF?
Too late the traitor...
FUJF
Next time, Jane, don't make common cause with the enemy.
It’s funny how getting booted from QVC made her, after forty long years, uh, “clarify” her personal history.
It’s funny how getting booted from QVC made her, after forty long years, uh, “clarify” her personal history.
Sure Jane. /sarc
STFU Hanoi Jane!
You Lie!
The Truth is not in you!
You don't know the meaning of the word Truth!
You're an Anti American Slut! You always have been! You always will be!
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