Considered treasonous by some, her behavior during these years earned Fonda the nickname "Hanoi Jane" among veterans and POWs of the Vietnam War, many of whom hate her to this day.
Image revamped
Since the 1970s, Fonda has revamped her public image several times over, rededicating herself to acting, becoming a fitness guru and businesswoman, marrying and divorcing billionaire media mogul Ted Turner. In 1988 she delivered a televised apology to Vietnam veterans and their families, a gesture that failed to mollify everyone but served to establish some distance between the new Fonda and the old, whose actions, she now admitted, had been "thoughtless and careless."
Old wounds reopened
As the '90s wore on Fonda's radical past showed signs of fading from public memory — until, that is, Barbara Walters decided to honor her in a 1999 TV special called "A Celebration: 100 Years of Great Women." The announcement of the program, which aired in April of that year, prompted a renewed outcry from veterans, ex-POWs, and their families, many of whom took to the Internet to vent their indignation. Angry recriminations were posted in newsgroups, newsletters, and on website, and circulated via forwarded email. Bits and pieces of those texts, along with some shameless fabrications, were cobbled together by person(s) unknown to create the "Hanoi Jane" email reproduced above. Much of it is false.
There's no disputing the fact that Jane Fonda toured North Vietnam in 1972, that she engaged in what amounted to a propaganda campaign on behalf of the Communists, and that she participated in an orchestrated "press conference" distorting the truth about the treatment of American POWs. There's no denying that she defamed the POWs by calling them liars when they later spoke out about their plight.
New allegations in forwarded email
As to the specific allegations in the "Hanoi Jane" email, let's examine their veracity point by point, beginning with the most egregious:
- Claim: Fonda betrayed POWs by turning over slips of paper they gave her to their captors. POWs were beaten and died as a result.
Status: FALSE.
"It's a figment of somebody's imagination," said Ret. Col. Larry Carrigan, whom I reached by phone at his home in Arizona. Carrigan, who was shot down over North Vietnam in 1967, says he has no idea why this story was attributed to him. "I never met Jane Fonda," he told me. It goes without saying he never handed her a secret message.
He said he did see Jane Fonda once while he was a POW — on film. The occasion was a night when Carrigan and the other 80 or so men he was interned with were called out into the prison courtyard — "the first time we'd been outside under the stars in 5 or 6 years." As the men stood there wondering what was in store for them, a movie projector began whirring behind them. Their captors were showing them footage of Fonda's 1972 visit to Hanoi.
