Jane Fonda Decries Hanoi Jane ‘Myth’ ‘Created by Right-Wingers,’ Palin Popularity ‘Worries Me’

NewsBusters ^ | April 6, 2010 | Brad Wilmouth

[Zakeet]

On Monday’s Larry King Live on CNN, guest Jane Fonda portrayed herself as a victim of a "myth" that was "created" by "right-wingers" about her infamous "Hanoi Jane" visit to Vietnam to protest the Vietnam War. Without specifying what aspect of the "Hanoi Jane" story she considered to be a fallacy, though the "Product Description" at Amazon.com seems to shed some light on what she was referring to, she claimed that author Jerry Lembcke’s new book, "Hanoi Jane: War, Sex, and Fantasies of Betrayal," is "about the myth," and asserted that it is "sad" that some conservatives are "still stuck in the past":

JANE FONDA: No, it's about the myth, you know, why it is that 300 people went to North Vietnam, people, many people before me, why me, why have they created this myth? You know, when I came back from North Vietnam, there was maybe a quarter of an inch of media about it in the New York Times. Nobody made any big deal out of it. It was created, and some people are stuck-

LARRY KING: By critics?

FONDA: By right wingers. There are some people who are like stuck there, you know, they're still stuck in the past. I always want to say, "Get a life," or, you know, "Read what really happened," you know. The myths are now true.

Referring to people who sometimes protest against her, she continued: "But it makes me sad for these people who are stuck because they've not taken the time – if they're going to waste their energy on hatred, they should take the time in finding out what was really true."

The "Product Description" of the book at Amazon.com contends:

Hanoi Jane, the book, deconstructs Hanoi Jane, the myth, to locate its origins in the need of Americans to explain defeat in Vietnam through fantasies of home-front betrayal and the emasculation of the national will-to-war. Lembcke shows th t the expression Hanoi Jane did not reach the eyes and ears of most Americans until five or six years after the end of the war in Vietnam. By then, anxieties about America s declining global status and deteriorating economy were fueling a populist reaction that pointed to the loss of the war as the taproot of those problems. Blaming the antiwar movement for undermining the military s resolve, many found in the imaginary Hanoi Jane the personification of their stab-in-the back theories.

Ground zero of the myth was the city of Hanoi itself, which Jane Fonda had visited as a peace activist in July 1972. Rumors surrounding Fonda s visits with U.S. POWs and radio broadcasts to troops combined to conjure allegations of treason that had cost American lives. That such tales were more imagined than real did not prevent them from insinuating themselves into public memory, where they have continued to infect American politics and culture.

Hanoi Jane is a book about the making of Hanoi Jane by those who saw a formidable threat in the Jane Fonda who supported soldiers and veterans opposed to the war they fought, in the postcolonial struggle of the Vietnamese people to make their own future, and in the movements of women everywhere for gender equality.

When asked by host King what she thought of Sarah Palin, after asserting that "she should not be a politician, in my opinion," and that it is "sad when someone says I'm going to run for office and they can't answer basic questions, you know, about the world, about what they read, about history," the left-wing actress concluded that Palin’s popularity "worries me, frankly."

Below is a transcript of the relevant portion of the Monday, April 5, Larry King Live on CNN:

[VRWCmember]

So let me get this straight: Hanoi Jane, confirmed by contemporary photographic evidence, is a myth; but the “Bush was AWOL” fake memo was accurate?

[Mr Rogers]

What is even sadder is that she was no worse than JFKerry - US Senator and 2004 Democrat nominee for President of the US!

[Dudoight]

I agree they THINK they would be ‘elite’, but I believe the ‘movie stars’ would actually become government chattel. With the ‘profit’ going into the gov’t treasury.

[maddog55]

You’re being to kind to this bitch..

[Jack Hydrazine]

Don’t forget to bring your dog so he can do his duty, too!

[ETL]

What is even sadder is that she was no worse than JFKerry - US Senator and 2004 Democrat nominee for President of the US!

John Kerry and the VVAW--Hanoi's American Puppets?
"Two recently discovered documents captured from the Vietnamese communists during the Vietnam War strongly support the contention that a close link existed between the Hanoi regime and the Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) while John Kerry served as the group's leading national spokesman."
http://www.wintersoldier.com/staticpages/index.php?page=puppets
___________________________________________________________

Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) Complete FBI files:
http://www.wintersoldier.com/index.php?topic=VVAWFBI

[ETL]

What is even sadder is that she was no worse than JFKerry - US Senator and 2004 Democrat nominee for President of the US!

"...if the United States were to set a date for withdrawal the prisoners of war would be returned."-J.F. Kerry

"Under questioning from the Committee, Kerry referred to the democratically elected government of South Vietnam -- our allies -- as a "dictatorial regime, the Thieu-Ky-Khiem regime," while respectfully calling the North Vietnamese communist regime we were fighting by its oxymoronic official name, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, and the murderous Viet Cong's political arm by their preferred "Provisional Revolutionary Government.":
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/chavez042804.asp
_________________________________________________

November 22, 1970 -- During a fund-raising tour for GI deserters, Vietnam Veterans Against the War and the Black Panthers, Jane Fonda is quoted in the Detroit Free Press as telling a University of Michigan audience:

"I would think that if you understood what communism was, you would hope, you would pray on your knees that we would someday become communist," and "The peace proposal of the Viet Cong is the only honorable, just, possible way to achieve peace in Vietnam."
http://www.wintersoldier.com/index.php?topic=Timeline

[Texas Fossil]

Now that is a thought. I am sure there are many who would participate in that act. There would be a perpetual odor at the site.

She will probably choose cremation, anticipating that action.

[hocndoc]

I was an adolescent, who knew that what this woman and her comrades were saying about soldiers was not true. I knew soldiers. So, I first became a “right winger.” (It would have happened sooner or later, since I’m a believer.)

I remember the news shows, the magazines, the times. My memory must be better than Hanoi Jane’s.

[ETL]

[texmexis best]

Actually Jane the distaste for you is not only generated by your trip to Hanoi and your betrayal of our POWs, but your subsequent positions and actions.

Unlike your movies, your actions in Hanoir and will not be forgotten. That is your legacy.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Too bad our late, much loved Golden Retriever, Prior Lake Jake, is not around. He would be just the dog to do it.

[Outlaw Woman]

They will lose it eventually. The system is going to collapse worldwide and even they will be in the same boat. There will be the ‘ruling elite’ as you said but Hollywood communists will soon find out just how expendable they are when they are without money. They have no skills they have nothing but a carefully constructed, alternative reality to offer. Pampered, and totally out-of-touch, they are in for a rude awakening. Right now, they are all useful idiots to the overlords but that will change.

[Outlaw Woman]

excellent post

[DeaconRed]

JANE.
Burn in Hell and I too hope I get to piss on your grave. I was in the Army from 1964-1968.
I will NEVER forget you NEVER. . . . . . . .
Even the low life Ted Turner saw you for the USA hating whore you are. . . . . .

[reaganrevolutionin2010]

Jane, that photo of you sitting gleefully on the Viet Cong anti-aircraft gun is famous. Hanoi Jane is an apt moniker. Live with it, hon.

And you know what? If you have the right to express your views and pull your publicity stunts, then so does anyone else, even if she or he isn't on your side of the political spectrum. That's what free speech is all about, you titanium-jointed old be-yotch

[Interesting Times]

Here are the transcripts of Fonda's 1972 broadcasts on Radio Hanoi.

She told lies on behalf of America's wartime enemies. It's no great surprise that she's still lying today...

[DejaJude]

I wonder how many copies of the book she will buy.

[AngelesCrestHighway]

Hey Ho Jane!.....If the shot fits you gotta wear it! I will never ever forget the picture of your pathetic ass planted in that gun turret! Way to go traitor!

[AngelesCrestHighway]

I’ll drop a duece on her grave.....