For those who may not be familiar with this bit of history, Jane Fonda is a star of stage and screen whose illustrious career began in 1960. She’s also the daughter of the legendary actor and World War II naval officer Henry Fonda.
Oh yeah, and she’s also been long regarded as Public Enemy No. 1 among Vietnam veterans (because Ho Chi Minh is dead, and even if he weren’t, it would be a close vote).
Related: This is how Vietnam almost became a protectorate of the US
Fonda was a prominent antiwar protester in the 1970s, focused on the rights of troops serving in the military and of Americans who wanted to resist being drafted. Which would have been fine if that’s where it ended.
Primarily associated with Vietnam Veterans Against the War, to which she gave a lot of time and money, Fonda was no more or less a lightning rod for criticism than any other celebrity who spoke against the war during that time. Or anyone who’s anti-war while their country is at war.
But for Jane Fonda, that all changed in 1972.
That was the year she traveled to Hanoi, the capital of communist North Vietnam (read: America’s enemy), to tour villages, cities, and infrastructure. It was also the year a series of photos of her sitting at a North Vietnamese Army anti-aircraft battery (one that had undoubtedly been used to shoot at American airmen) earned her the nickname “Hanoi Jane,” along with the undying spite of Vietnam veterans everywhere. Probably forever.
There were also rumors that she turned over secret messages from POWs to their captors. This is not true, but still, her father was probably more than a little disappointed in her.
It’s likely that young Jane Fonda, who was just 34 years old in 1972, was tricked into the propaganda photo-op, but Vietnam veterans will remind you that she shouldn’t have been in Hanoi in the first place. At first, the perception of her was that she was unapologetic, but the actress has since gone on record to address the photos.
“There is one thing that happened while in North Vietnam that I will regret to my dying day. I allowed myself to be photographed on a Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun,” she wrote in 2011.
“It happened on my last day in Hanoi. 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.”
But that’s just not enough for the veterans of the Vietnam War. And for the veterans of wars that came after. And for veterans of the military who didn’t serve in a war. To this day, Fonda feels the scorn of pretty much the entire military-veteran community. If you want to get a feel for how much scorn the community feels, just Google “Jane Fonda Vietnam.”
I’ll wait.
In 2005, nearly 40 years after the (in)famous photo, a Navy veteran spat tobacco at her during a book signing. To this day, there are Facebook groups like “Jane Fonda-we spit on your grave.” Veterans invite Fonda to go to Syria and take photos with ISIS. American Legion and VFW posts have urinal cakes with her image on them. Even the war-zombie comic “68” has a Fonda-like character.
The hatred persists, even among non-Vietnam veterans and people who weren’t even born in 1972. Despite her attempts at apology, and given the level of vitriol levied at her even 50-plus years later, the anger and hatred are unlikely to end any time soon. It’s unlikely to end when the actress passes. Some beef just cannot be squashed.
Still, she tries to make amends.
“Whenever possible, I try to sit down with vets and talk with them, because I understand and it makes me sad,” she told the audience, according to the Frederick News-Post, a newspaper in Maryland. “It hurts me, and it will go to my grave that I made a huge, huge mistake that made a lot of people think I was against the soldiers.”
