Posted on 04/04/2005 9:14:42 PM PDT by 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.
Thanks for the ping.
I can never forgive her for what she did to our warriors, our military, our intel people and our country.
My best regards to your father. I react to the name of Hanoi Jane Fonda very much as he does.
Good article...BTTT
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?
Jane...you ignorant sl*t!
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.
Hey, you are right about the evil spirit grin on her face. Weird.
Tell your Father he's right, and a grateful nation stands with him in honor.
BTTT!!!!!!
Sorry, another half hearted apology will not make me pity the lying, traitorous piece of … trash enough to make me buy her book.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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