Barbara Walters, host of the mid-day ABC program, "The
View,"
eight years ago honored
Jane Fonda as one of the
top "100 women of the last Century." Many
Vietnam vets are still angry about it.
Former Air Force Pilot Jerry Driscoll was a prisoner in
North Vietnam when Fonda was hosted the North Vietnamese.
He doesn't see how the actress/activist could make any list
of "outstanding people" because of, " her
irresponsible antics."
He's been leading a protest against Walters and ABC for the
past six years.
Fonda was given "royal treatment" during her trip
to North Vietnam, according to Snopes.com. She posed for
pictures peering into the sights of an anti-aircraft artillery
launcher, and made 10 radio broadcasts denouncing our military
and political leaders as "war criminals."
She met with eight American Prisoners of War at a carefully
arranged "press conference."
The POW's said they were not in support of the war, as
ordered by their captors.
Snopes said Fonda either didn't notice or didn't care that
"the POW's were delivering lines under duress." They
were obviously in very bad physical condition.
She was not allowed to visit the prisoner-of-war camp known
as the Hanoi Hilton.
Fonda later denied American prisoners appeared to be badly
treated and insisted it was the Americans who were torturing
prisoners.
She also told the country what the prisoners said after
they came home was, "laughable, and Americans should not
hail them as 'heroes' because they were hypocrites and
liars."
Fonda did not give the North Vietnamese tangible military
assistance according to Snopes, and did not divulge any
military secrets, nor did she give them money or material.
But she clearly gave "aid and comfort to the
enemy."
The Web site points out that Ikuku Toguri, known as
"Tokyo Rose" did much the same thing: she provided
propaganda and support during WW II and was given a jail
sentence."
The President of NAM-POW's, Mike McGrath, agreed Fonda's
visit did not bring on more torture for American prisoners,
but scolded the actress's actions.
"Fonda did enough bad things to assure her a correct
place in the garbage dumps of history. We don't want to be
party to false stories which could be used as an excuse that
her real actions didn't really happen either!"
(A story that hit the Internet alleging Fonda denounced the
prisoners and refused to take their social security numbers so
their families would know they were still alive is not true.)
Former prisoner, Michael Benge, who was a Senior
Agro-forestry officer for the U.S. Agency for International
Development in South Vietnam, was held captive for five years.
He was offered an opportunity to meet Fonda, and said he
would.
In a 1999 letter released before Fonda made Walters' list,
"The Celebration of 100 years of great women," Benge
said he wanted to " tell her about the real treatment we
POW's received and how different it was from the treatment
purported by the North Vietnamese."
He has confirmed he spent three days kneeling on a rocky
floor with a steel bar on his outstretched hands. Whenever his
arms dipped he was struck with a bamboo cane.
His letter was published by the Advocacy and Intelligence
network for POW's and MIA's, and titled, "Shame on
Jane!"
His account of his treatment has been confirmed by
intelligence officials who said his description was,
"consistent with Vietnamese policy and conduct about
people that did not cooperate."
Fonda's actions during the Vietnam War has brought her
contempt because she was as "a 34-year-old adult and
should bear full responsibility for her actions," Snopes
said, " her inclusion in ABC's 'A celebration: 100 years
of great women,' only fanned the flames of anger."
Fonda went to North Vietnam, "to show support for the
North Vietnamese cause,"
Snopes continued, "she lauded the North Vietnamese
military, she denounced American soldiers as 'war criminals'
and urged them to\stop fighting.
She lobbied to cut off all American economic aid to the
South Vietnamese government (even after the Paris Peace
Accords had ended U.S. military involvement in Vietnam), she
publicly thanked the Soviets for providing assistance to the
North Vietnamese, and she branded tortured American POW's as
liars possessed of overactive imaginations."
Fonda accused prisoners of "killing babies" and
claimed the North Vietnamese were, "liberators her
behavior engendered widespread contempt among servicemen and
their families," the web site concluded.
The actress' placement on a list of "100 Years of
Great Women" has fanned the flames of anger within many
who felt she has never properly atoned for her behavior.
"Fonda went there as an active show of support for the
North Vietnamese cause. The similarities between Fonda and
Tokyo Rose are astounding," Snopes concluded Twenty years
later Fonda did meet with Vietnam Veterans to apologize for
her actions, saying they were "thoughtless and
careless."
"She made the statement because the vets were
disrupting a film she was making in New England," Snopes
reported. "Most of the vets didn't believe her saying she
did so for her own self interest."
"I will go to my grave regretting the photograph of me
on an anti-aircraft gun, which looks like I was trying to
shoot at American planes. It hurt so many soldiers.It
galvanized such hostility. It was the most horrible thing I
could have done. It was just thoughtless," she has
proclaimed a number of times since the start of this century.
One Vietnam Vet who will not accept her apology is Michael
Smith. The 54-year-old former soldier went to a book store
where Fonda was signing autographs on a book about her life
with a mouth full of chewing tobacco. He left a sizeable chunk
of it on her dress.
Most Vietnam vets would like to see Walter's list revised
without Fonda's name. So far, Walters has not publicly
discussed the issue.