Bray, according to a July 1972 Reuters story. 'It is always distressing to find American citizens who benefit from the protection and assistance of this government lending their voice in any way to governments such as the Democratic Republic of Vietnam - distressing indeed,' said State Department spokesman Charles W. This, probably more than anything, earned her the nickname 'Hanoi Jane'.Īfter Fonda returned from her trip, the State Department spoke out against her. The POWs who were there have denied that this ever occurred.īut the action that still enrages veterans most was that photo of her with the Viet Cong on an anti-aircraft gun that would have been used to shoot down American planes. Rumours spread and still persist that she betrayed them by accepting secret notes and then turning them over to the North Vietnamese. In Hanoi, Fonda also met with seven American POWs and later said they asked her to tell their friends and family to support presidential candidate George McGovern they feared they'd never be freed during a Richard Nixon administration. She said the radio addresses were the only way to get access to American soldiers. North Vietnamese press reported - and Fonda confirmed - that she made several radio announcements over the Voice of Vietnam radio to implore US pilots to stop the bombings. During her two-week stay, Fonda concluded that America was unjustly bombing farmland and areas far flung from military targets. She went to tour the country's dyke system, rumoured to have been intentionally bombed by American forces - something the US government to this day denies. But it wasn't until she travelled to Hanoi in July 1972 that she really enraged critics and fundamentally altered how the world viewed her for decades to come.īy July 1972, when Fonda accepted an invitation to visit North Vietnam, America had been at war overseas and with itself for years. Fonda told the Post she'd made talking to GIs her full-time job.įor the next several years, Fonda would continue as one of the most prominent public faces in the antiwar movement. She was arrested before she got the chance, just as she had been at Fort Lewis, Washington, Fort Hood, Texas, and Fort Bragg, North Carolina. The Washington Post spent that day with Fonda, following her and other students to Fort Meade in Maryland, where they planned to hand out antiwar leaflets to soldiers. 'The army builds a tolerance for violence,' she shouted at the crowd. On campus, she was pushing her movement to turn US soldiers into pacifists. Her name was Jane Fonda.Īs the war raged, the one-time blonde bombshell cut her naturally brown hair short, trading sex appeal for liberal activism and rebranding herself as a political crusader against the war. Others were hoping to catch a glimpse of a Hollywood actress. Many were there to protest the Vietnam War. On a hot, sticky May afternoon in 1970, a crowd of several thousand students and protesters took over the University of Maryland mall. This is at least the second time that Fonda has apologized for her actions.Hollywood actress Jane Fonda accepted an invitation to visit North Vietnam in 1972. However, she was “proud” she went to Vietnam. “Sometimes I think, ‘Oh I wish I could do it over’ because there are things I would say differently now.” The message that sends to the guys that were there and their families, it’s horrible for me to think about that,” she said in the magazine interview. “I am just so sorry that I was thoughtless enough to sit down on that gun at that time. On Thursday, Vanity Fair published an article in which actress Jane Fonda again apologized for some of the things she did while in Vietnam. North Vietnamese press reported - and Fonda later confirmed - that she made several radio announcements over the Voice of Vietnam radio to implore U.S.

government to this day forcefully denies. She went to tour the country’s dike system, which was rumored to have been intentionally bombed by American forces - something the U.S. By July 1972, when Fonda accepted an invitation to visit North Vietnam, America had been at war overseas and with itself for years.

Jane fonda vietnam photo gun