Here are some photos of Jane Fonda appearing on the Italian TV show Che Tempo Che Fa over the weekend. I think she looks good for her age (she’s 77) but she might want to rethink the size of her wig, you know? The color is fine, it’s just the SIZE. It’s very big. Anyway, Fonda has been out and about promoting her new TV show, and it seems that wherever she goes in America, she greeted by protesters. Vietnam veterans are still angry about the Hanoi Jane stuff, for which Fonda has apologized many, many times over the decades. But her current press tour is turning into yet another apology tour.
This isn’t the first time Jane Fonda has apologized for the infamous 1972 photos that earned her the nickname “Hanoi Jane.” But it seems her apologies have fallen on deaf ears. Her latest mea culpa, in which she calls the photo “a huge, huge mistake,” comes in response to an incident in Maryland on Friday where 50 veterans, protesting her appearance at the Weinberg Center for the Arts, carried signs that read “Forgive? Maybe. Forget? Never.”
That’s right, 43 years later, protests still follow Fonda wherever she goes. There are, in fact, several Facebook groups dedicated to targeting Fonda at every public event. This past Friday, Fonda said she understood the anger and has tried several times to make amends:
“Whenever possible I try to sit down with vets and talk with them, because I understand and it makes me sad. It hurts me and it will to my grave that I made a huge, huge mistake that made a lot of people think I was against the soldiers. I’m a lightning rod. This famous person goes and does something that looks like I’m against the troops, which wasn’t true, but it looked that way, and I’m a convenient target.”
Back in 2012, during an episode of Oprah’s Master Class, Fonda tried to explain the context of the photos which depicted her laughing, smiling, and sitting on an anti-aircraft battery:
“I was an emotional wreck by [then]. I don’t know if I was set up or not. I was an adult. I take responsibility for my actions. . .These soldiers sang a song; I sang a song in feeble Vietnamese. Everyone was laughing. I was led to a gun site and I sat down. And I was laughing and clapping, and there were pictures taken. . .I understand the anger about that.”
And on Saturday, the day after Fonda made her most recent apology, the actress appeared on the Italian chat show Che tempo che fa and gleefully demonstrated how her grandson was born with his fist in the air.
[From Vanity Fair and The Guardian]
This happens pretty much every time Jane promotes anything. Her press tour gets hijacked by veterans and she has to issue another apology or explanation. But you know what bugs me? It feels like Jane is constantly trying to tell her side, her version of events, and it’s just making things worse at this point. It’s like she’s still trying to offer some defense, when the best PR (all these years later) would probably be to simply fall on one’s sword completely. Say you’re sorry. Apologize profusely. Don’t try to explain how you were really anti-war and never anti-soldier. Don’t try to explain what actually happened.
Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.
You know what rankles me as much as she’s made a mistake people have said and done racist and sexist and vile things as fully grown adults and been taken back into the fold with less apologies.
She made a naive and dumb mistake 40 years ago people need to let it go.
Yup.
I agree
Completely agree. Raking her over the coals at this point is ridiculous.
She will always be Hanoi Jane. Read the accounts of POWs who were in that prison camp when she made her appearance and try to understand that the naive and dumb mistake only worsened the situation of these POWs.
Thank you Dot! I hope she is never allowed to forget the consequences of her “mistake”!
What rankles me is that this worthless hag has had a career for the past 40 years after the obscene ‘mistake’ she did. Janet Jackson lost her career for a boob slip, Hanoi J poses for photos in a downed US plane, takes a bracelet made out of it’s metal, turned in a POW who tried to slip her a note, and said that US POWs were being treated well. Then, she is allowped on talk shows where no one spits on her, and rakes in millions while Vietnam vets go homeless and untreated for conditions gotten from the war.
I would have been opposed to the Vietnam War if I had lived then, but there is a difference between opposing a war and choosing sides. She chose sides, for something as stupid as attention. She chose to be the VC’s little propaganda girl…and anyone who actually despises sensless slaughter would have been repelled by them, as well. What happened in Hue was no secrect, not even to attention-whoring little trollops like her.
What she did was no mistake. It was a series of calculated, preplanned moves. If she can’t even own it, she should just crawl into a hole somewhere. Especially since she seems most upset that her ‘mistake’ impairs her from promoting herself more than anything.
I think the Vietnam vets have a lot of unresolved anger about how horribly they were treated, and that’s understandable. They risked their lives for their country to be spit on when they came home. I imagine seeing all of the support going towards soldiers now is hard for them, in a way. She represents everything bad that happened to them. But I think it would be better for them and more healing for them to find a way to forgive and let it go. I know that’s easy for me to say, but it’s sort of sad that they are still showing up at her events and protesting. It would be like me showing up at every party my ex husband went to with a big sign that said “cheater.” Moving on and forgiving is the only way to really heal.
I think we need to keep making distinctions about what the motivations are for soldiers as opposed to what they are for government. The politicians like to morph the two together to get support for their agendas. Why someone serves can be entirely different than the reason why war is initiated. But in the case of the Vietnam war, soldiers were drafted, so the equation of motivation of soldier was removed entirely. Not all soldiers wished to serve, other soldiers might have considered that they were protecting freedoms, but in reality, they were fighting more for US Sovereignty and might of dominance.
I definitely agree with what you said about the war. Probably most of the soldiers DIDN’T want to go. And there were unfair deferments and other types of discrimination. My point is only that to the soldiers, it was hurtful to be spit on and treated as if they started the war or thought it was a just one after they had made a huge sacrifice. Most of them really didn’t have a choice, but they were called murderers and worse. I’m just trying to understand how that would feel. Even if you agree that it was a horrible, pointless war, and I do, I still think I would be hurt and shocked to come home to blame and hate for something I didn’t create and participated in only because my other choices were to leave the country or go to jail.
Can’t disagree with your points there GNAT. Just wanted to make a distinction.
Yes, and it was a good one.
Jane needs to understand that her actions stirred up a lot of hate for the soldiers at the time. She may never be forgiven by many of these men. It is sad, but it is true. She was foolish in her youth, and I am certain she is very sorry for what she did. But that pain for them will never go away. To them, she is the enemy at home. She is the face of all of those who taunted and berated them when they finally returned from war.
I come from a military family. My father is a Vietnam veteran and I can tell you, many veterans to this day are still furious with Fonda. I don’t think she’ll ever get the true forgiveness she wants.
I pointed this out to my dad and got a heated reply. A lot of that is coming from his PTSD. That being said, Fonda is old enough and has lived enough life to know that the distinction doesn’t matter. She screwed up at a time that was a hotbed of conflict. Sure she was young. But she isn’t now. She could let go of her pride and simply say “I messed up. I had no idea the consequences of what I did and I am sorry.” But I don’t think to this day she truly understands why people are so upset. Would she get complete forgiveness? Probably not. But she would get some and it would be a great opportunity to show it is never to late to take responsibility for your actions and the hurt they caused, whether you intended that hurt or not.
Yes, as I said, it’s easy for me to say let it go when it didn’t happen to me. I thought she did apologize, but I guess you’re right – she sort of makes an excuse at the same time. Maybe an unqualified apology would help.
I agree with you completely Lucinda.
sorry, duplicate post
“She could let go of her pride and simply say “I messed up. I had no idea the consequences of what I did and I am sorry.” ”
From my perspective, that is what she has been saying.
I think she absolutely understands the hurt it caused but she isn’t going to be forced to apologize for something she didn’t do. She DID naively let those photos happen, but she DIDNT maliciously spread an anti-troop anti-vet message and she shouldn’t have to apologize as if she did.
My father was a POW in Vietnam. He never spoke about it, My Mom told me right before he passed away..I never knew.The unspeakable things they did to my dad. Hope you are happy Hanoi Jane.
If you can find her episode of “Master Class” with Oprah from a few years ago, it was one of the best, most inspirational interviews I’ve ever seen. Took me by surprise.
Hmmn, I have never heard of this controversy before! I’ll have to look up what Hanoi Jane even means.
Careful. You’re showing your age. 😉
You must be very young…like in your 20’s or less.
No, I’m 30. I know who Jane Fonda is of course – my mom used her workout videos all the time – but this is the 1st I’ve heard the term “Hanoi Jane” or heard about this scandal! Never heard about these protests! It’s all new to me and super interesting. I read Jane’s Wiki about it. Crazy how one photo pissed people off for half a century!
Telling America that the POW camps were nice and torture free is something the American military will never forgive her for. To this day my dad will not watch anything she is in.
I’m sorry. But I will never tell him to “let it go.” That whole generation will never fully heal.
That said, I don’t feel the same. I didn’t live it.
Oh yeah. I had forgotten about that part. She makes it sound like it was just a picture but it really was so much more.
Exactly. It wasn’t just a picture. My father escaped being drafted by some miracle, but he seethes with anger any time he sees her. His father was a POW in WWII and I know that also fuels his anger. He lost a lot of friends in Vietnam and he can repeat verbatim the things Jane and her husband said at the time. The picture was obviously propaganda, but her words cut to the core of Vets souls.
I agree that she should apologize without making excuses. It is a generation that can’t seem to heal as Dancinancy says above. I work next door to a Vet center. Some of them come in from time to time for the services we offer. One Vietnam Vet literally broke down in tears when I thanked him for his service. I gave him the biggest hug. He actually came back a week later, just to thank me for the hug and for a moment of kindness. I’ll never forget the sadness in his eyes.
I know some will want to attack, but forgiveness is one thing while stupidity is completely a whole different thing.
What I did not see mentioned is how the Vietnam POW (our soldiers) had made several attempts during her visit to pass messages and even a note for help, but Jane ignored them and even reported it to her “host”. This was told in several stories of those who managed to survive the shear magnitude of torture and pain these men endured. I know a few through family and vets from other wars who all still feel for the Vietnam Vets and the way they were treated when they returned. My grandfather a former Korean vet said how much it pained him (and still does) seeing how our country turned their backs on our soldiers when they returned home.
I cannot know what possessed her to make the choices she did, but I have forgiven her. As for the vets/POW imo they are entitled to not forgive her and she should realized that they have every right to do so.
This is what really bugs me about her. Our soldiers tried to reach out through her, pass her messages with their social security numbers in hopes that she could let their families know they were alive and instead gave those messages to their captors. I’m sorry, but I don’t believe she was stupid enough to believe those soldiers were being kept in great conditions. Because of her those soldiers were brutally tortured and killed, even more brutally than the norm that was going on. That is just disgusting. I hate that we went to war with Iraq and strongly disagreed with our going over there, but never in a million years would I have done what she did to our soldiers. I honestly don’t blame them for not forgiving her. I wouldn’t either.
omg i did not know all that! that’s horrible
I was a very young child when she betrayed her fellow Americans and her country and I remember it and I will never forget it!
Same here. I have relatives who served in Vietnam who absolutely cannot stand Jane Fonda. Since I was born long after Vietnam it doesn’t make sense to me, but then again I was never in their shoes. After doing research on this issue, there’s no question she was wrong and I really can’t blame the soldiers for staying mad at her. Our country treated the Vietnam vets horribly once they returned home.
I thought her mistake was more along the line of refusing to deliver notes imprisoned soldiers handed her for their families and instead snitching on the soldiers to the prison guards.
Yes. Funny how wikipedia left that out
What!!! I’ve never heard of that, in all my years of hearing about this (I wasn’t alivr in the 70s). That is just completely dispicable!!! THAT is far worse than smiling or being anti-war. THAT needs to be the protest!!
Uh, you need to go back and re-read the wiki article. It definitely mentions the email rumors … but then cites interviews by the two of the alleged “victims” who say they never even MET Fonda.
If you follow the link to the snopes page, the “victims” actually seem pretty pissed at whoever used their names in the hoax email. Justifiably so: imagine having reporters constantly ringing you to ask about something that never happened.
Makes you wonder really: who wrote the hoax email in the first place, how/why did they choose those names and what was their motivation? I can understand people believing the rumour and then spreading it as fact – but what jerk sat down to write a hoax and used the names of real POWs? How despicable is that? The more I think about it, the more it makes me furious.
That’s what I heard she did too. Instead of handing the notes to the family or the US military she gave the notes to the Vietnam.
It doesn’t matter how you feel about a war you DO NOT do that.
We can agree that she was as young dumb and as inappropriate as MANY in how to disapprove the Vietnam War. However, no one has EVER Proved this note passing rumor.
That isn’t true. She didn’t snitch on soldiers. It’s been written she met John McCain in prison camp and he gave her a message she turned over to the guards . He has said that didn’t happen.
And this is how rumors and legends happen. I have always heard that it did happen.
yup and then getting said soldiers killed. She’s guilty of murder and that’s something you can’t apologize away.
it didn’t happen. that story has been denied by all the american servicemen that met her. repeatedly. for decades.
Not true. Look it up on Snopes.
morc- my apologies I just said that in a post before I saw yours.
Yes, the way history can be white-washed is amazing. Yet, somehow the truth will endure.
Lucrezia-
My aunt’s husband was in the Vietnam war- drafted at the ripe age of 18 years old. He said the stories circulated in the camps. He died four years ago so I cannot ask him more specific things. I remember what his experiences were and he was not one to lie or fabricate stories. RIP G.
I dislike Jane Fonda but the passing notes to the Vietnamese isn’t true and has been debunked many times. There are a lot of her actions during that time period that deserve criticism but people making up stuff doesn’t help anyone. The people who allegedly passed notes to her all claim it never happened.
http://www.snopes.com/military/fonda.asp
I just looked it up. I’m a bit confused about the extent of the wrath. Many people were trying to stop an un-winnable war in that same time-frame.
She gets used by a certain political segment who use what she did to whip up emotions so people will vote their way, even when she has nothing whatsoever to do with what is going on now. The likes of Rush Limbaugh throw her name out there constantly.
Yeah, As I mentioned yesterday, wars for the benefits of the few elite, has morphed into, “it’s all about the soldiers”. It has become sacrilegious to complain about said wars, because it is now marketed and enforced as a supposed assault on the integrity/motivation of soldiers. Those two things are not necessarily aligned. And if they are aligned in motivation, and you disagree with the aggressive acts, then it is a citizen’s obligation to voice or demonstrate freedom of speech and expression.
And again, the government supports soldiers only to the extent where they are active killing machines, but not so much upon their return as civilians. The hypocrisy is astounding.
Political segment? This isn’t about Democrats or Republicans, so don’t make it something it isn’t. How can you expect people to heal, yet be so divisive?
Elle Kaye, I think both parties do this.
You can disagree with the war without shitting on the soldiers, which is what we as a nation effectively did to Vietnam vets.
I just located this. Take it for what it is worth. There would not be this much hate for someone 40 years later if all she did was protest a war. There has to be more to it.
http://www.26thmarines.org/janefonda.html
I think the issue deserves far more than a quick online perusal for one to actually have a modicum of understanding of the issue. As the daughter of a fully disabled Vietnam vet (drafted), I can tell you that this is an issue that will never go away for some of these (mostly) men. There are layers of complexity here.
And for those saying this should simply “go away” because of the passage of time, please remember that many of these vets are still suffering from PTSD a (for which the VA only really began treating after the first Gulf War). It will never go away for them, just as their other permanent injuries will never go away.
I appreciate her apology, and believe it is heartfelt, but I think people must remember that their words and actions will follow them forever.
I’m not sure her apology is as complete as it could be but you are right that there are layers to this including the PTSD, her status as an actress at the time (she was big), and things she said that completely dismissed the soldier experience of war. It was pretty hurtful and careless. I think she is kind of that way though.
This has gone on way too long, people need to let it go.
I lived those years, everybody hated the war. EVERYBODY.
Unless you fought in the war. Then you are likely still living that war every day. PTSD Is a terrible thing. I have watched it destroy my dad. They are never going to be able to just let it go.
I lived those years as well. My brother fought in that war. You don’t just get over it. Those men who fought still cry about it. You should sit in a room and listen to them talk about how they were treated when they came home. They were drafted. They didn’t choose to fight, yet they were forced to kill, and then called murderers when they came home. There was no support. Only hatred. Get over it? They fought for us. They were boys. 18 years old.
Everyone may have hated it, but it takes a certain type of someone to attack boys when they come home from war and spit on them. You may have hated the war, but you don’t sit on an North Vietnamese anti-aircraft plane, used to shoot down US planes, and have your photo taken. She used her money and power to influence public perception. Of course they don’t like or trust her. She made it sound as if these boys were targeting poor villagers and their children. Again, this was not their choice, but they suffered the brunt of the hatred.
My uncle – to this day – will still not talk about Vietnam and what he did in the war. It is a very sore topic for him.
She has become a symbol, which is unfortunate. There are other places where the anger could be directed that would bring more of a result – like those still alive who were in the administration that promised to end it within six months of being elected but didn’t and have never expressed regret for it – (looking at you , Dick Cheney) or the administrations that cut back on VA funding to those vets but that has never happened, so, instead ire is directed at her as a symbol for doing something stupid that she clearly regrets.
Vietnam was on Kennedy/Johnson/Nixon. You can throw in McNamara, Bundy and Rostow. But Cheney? What about other administrations that have not upheld their promises? Like, every single administration that has ever taken office? There is more funding now for our men and women in the military than there ever was for those pre-dating the Vietnam War. Yet, we should still do more for those who see action.
She had clout. What she said, what she did, turned the tides on public opinion. It changed how people viewed these young men when they came home. How they were supported. They could not get jobs. They were scum in the eyes of society. Baby-killers, even if they never fired one shot. I don’t think you grasp the magnitude. Yes, she is sorry, but her actions were far-reaching. Those are scars that run deep.
You’re right. Dick Cheney is horrible, but he wasn’t responsible for Vietnam. The man received four deferments, then went on to be Secretary of Defense under Reagan. The guy who refused to serve his country sent other men to die in military missions. What a prince. I really think every Secretary of Defense should be gleaned from the military.
She turned the tide? I guess you forgot the years of hatred about the war, which had been going on for years and years, and that hate for the war unfortunately made the soldiers as time went on bear the brunt of that hatred too. And —
Did you forget this that happened in ’68? When this came to light, the American Public was outraged. There was a trial.
Wiki; The Mass killing of between 347 and 504 unarmed civilians in South Vietnam on March 16, 1968. It was committed by U.S. Army soldiers from the Company C of the 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, 11th Brigade of the 23rd Infantry Division. Victims included men, women, children, and infants. Some of the women were gang-raped and their bodies mutilated.
Wiki: 1970 Kent State massacre occurred at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, and involved the shooting of unarmed college students by the Ohio National Guard on Monday, May 4, 1970. The guardsmen fired 67 rounds over a period of 13 seconds, killing four students and wounding nine others, one of whom suffered permanent paralysis. Some of the students who were shot had been protesting the Cambodian Campaign, which President Richard Nixon announced during a television address on April 30. Other students who were shot had been walking nearby or observing the protest from a distance. There was a significant national response to the shootings: hundreds of universities, colleges, and high schools closed throughout the United States due to a student strike of four million students,[9] and the event further affected public opinion—at an already socially contentious time—over the role of the United States in the Vietnam War.
Here we go again, after 43 years!!
Let it go folks. 43 years?! Honestly. Can’t imagine holding on to anger and hostility like that for so long. Give the woman a break. She is almost 80 for cripes sake.
Your comment shows your lack of understanding of the magnitude of the situation.
If her actions were left just to some photos, it’d be one thing and I could support her statements that she was anti-war not anti-soldier. But she did far more than that. She wasn’t there for a brief visit. It wasn’t in/out and one day. She was in Vietnam for two weeks and while there participated in multiple propaganda broadcasts and many other propaganda activities.
When US/US-allied POWs were finally released and returning and telling their stories of life in the POW camps, Fonda ran to the press and called all of the POWs liars and hypocrites and they were wrong about what they were saying. She said the POWs she met were just fine and didn’t display any signs of torture or mistreatment and the camps she saw didn’t display any signs of torture and the POWs were treated kindly and respectfully and there was absolutely no torture or brainwashing used and it wasn’t a practice of the Vietnamese government. So of course they were liars and hypocrites for betraying the Vietnamese.
At the very least, she’s a colossal and callous idiot for not realizing that there was a distinct possibility that the POW camps she was presented with by the Vietnamese government were going to differ greatly from the reality for the actual soldiers in POW camps. And that what she saw and what the POWs experienced were both correct because the Vietnamese government showed her only what they wanted her to see.
I honestly, truly am shocked that people on this thread are saying, “let it go, it’s been so many years”. Obviously those saying that are either very young or don’t know or have known any Vietnam Veterans.
I hate what she did. HATE IT. But she’s an old lady and she’s sorry. The only person she hurt in the end was herself, so I’ll watch her plastic face in movies and get on with my life. It’s ok, Jane.
My husband is only 36 and a veteran of Afghanistan and he hates this woman. As far as veterans are concerned, she didn’t just make a mistake, she committed treason.
Absolutely. At the time it wasn’t declared a war but rather a military action. Her actions were treasonous, but because it wasn’t a “war” she was spared trial and execution. They were also very demoralizing to the soldiers. I’m of an age where I grew up with Vietnam vets. Those that are on this thread saying “get over it already” have absolutely no idea what these men endured. Jane will never be forgiven by the vets, never. She did palm notes POWs gave her and gave them to their captors earning them brutal beatings.
I believe she truly regrets what she did. She understands that going over there was stupid. She can apologize until she’s blue in the face and she’ll still be seen by many people as a traitor. She’s apologized over and over and expressed remorse ,people can take it or leave it.
I am European, of course I am aware of this controversy and I understand the veterans’ position, but I see them from a long distance.
Don’t get me wrong but my opinion is that this can happen when a famous person take position on an important and sensitive issue. She was wrong, but at least she had the courage to put at risk her career for something she deemed important at the time.
I have to say that I miss this kind of courage in the show -business today, and I take her over most of the a-list actors of these days. I am so tired to read their idiotic interviews and vapid comments on hair, clothes and beauty tips. And I am shocked about the way most actors dodged the most controversial recent topics (only to make a couple of examples Kate Winslet and Cate Blanchett on Polanski and Allen scandals).
Even the most talented and respected ones prefer not to take any sort of risk and while I enjoy watching them in their movies I don’t appreciate them as human beings.
I agree. When celebrities do assert personal thoughts and opinions they risk such scrutiny as per today’s post on Kevin Hart. In a world in which individuals are considered a ‘brand’, it seems as though they are denied their own uniqueness as human beings, especially if they hold views not aligned with the status quo.
As much as I have enjoyed Jimmy Fallon over the years, his are the most vapid of interviews and all those ‘games’ played on his show have grown irritating. For in depth interviews, the most substantive ones today are by Howard Stern. I certainly don’t always like Stern, but do I have to in order to appreciate his talent for asking probing, imaginative questions of his guests that allow a person to show their humanity? His style elicits more than the meaningless canned responses rehearsed or written by P.R. teams that will be heard over and again as celebrities make the promotional circuits.
None of us are simply one dimensional or perfect. Society’s acceptance of the person-as-brand, slick and overwrought marketing ploys have brought about public judgment and nonconstructive criticism of others, and even worse, we turn that scrutiny towards ourselves. We are never pretty enough, rich enough, doing enough, or being as inoffensive or politically correct enough. Don’t damage the brand. These standards are untenable and are not reality.
In a way I understand their prudent positions. People like Vanessa Redgrave or Susan Sarandon were regarded as dangerous leftists. Redgrave even stated she was threatened at a time.
I wonder if some of them aren’t simply scared to take position on controversial issues, and I mean not only for their career but for their safety. 15 years ago Reese Witherspoon was a speaker at the Million Mom March and the venom spitted at her and her newborn baby by some on the pro gun movement was terrifying (“will she be so anti gun when someone comes and shoots her child?”).
Not everyone has the stomach or spine to be a torchbearer. I almost understand why they err on the side of caution.Better do an ice bucket challenge, run against any cancer.No one is offended.
Being for gun control is not anti gun. I get tired of that spin.
I understand what you are saying, but I disagree. I hate it when Hollywood actors take public stands on issues and political points of view that they don’t know one thing about. Trying to sway public opinion when they are clueless. I’d much rather hear about their beauty tips.
Every citizen has the right to state their view/understanding, also publicly, whatever their profession. Do you really believe journalists and politicians are the ‘experts’ here? THEIR view is actually mostly influenced by their very own (political) goals, and rarely objective, but rather manipulative.
don´t forget, people in the past had no benefits of the internet…. today, you can have so many different sources of information, not only from official posts but from other people from over the world, so it is much harder to take a stand, because you simply have too much conflicting information….. you may have a private opinion, but to take a stand publicly (if it´s not your job?)
I’m pretty sure the same people who crucify her expect to be forgiven for the sins they deeply regret.
I criticized her and I have never done anything as despicable as Hanoi Jane did!
Being completely shallow and putting that decades old controversy aside, I think she looks fabulous now. Her face was too tight a couple years ago but her work has settled quite nicely, better than I thought it would at the time. And maybe it’s just me, but I like her hair/wig. Nothing wrong with a bit of fluff!
She has looked fantastic her entire life.
She is just a very beautiful woman.
Inside and out.
We should all be so lucky to see age 77, let alone look like her!
agree. She did something quite mindless , like we all have at one point. She looks AMAZING at 77, so she has the last laugh anyway!
Maybe the vets would forgive if she didn’t make herself into the victim by proclaiming that she is targeted. A simple heart felt apology would go farther.
There was a massive anti-war movement as the war continued. The soldiers were treated horribly when they came home. I think she’s saying there is a lot of anger that maybe she is a target for all of the anger that many veterans have held inside from that war and she is kind of a symbol and easy to direct that anger onto her.
and imagine the families of the boys, who didn´t come home…. that their boys died for nothing and for the politicans, in a dirty little war….
Enough already with this desire to get a pound of flesh out of this woman. Fonda is responsible only for her own statements and actions. If others spat at or on returning soldiers, that was their decision to make, their action to take, and Fonda is not to be held responsible. “Influence” goes just so far. And, frankly, she wasn’t that big a name. Extreme fame would come later with her Oscar and her workout tapes. Her voice was only one of many. It was a cacophony back then. Nobody changed their opinion of the war due to Fonda’s statements.
She’s been apologizing for decades. And, no, I don’t think it’s half-hearted. The veterans who remain injured would do well to focus on their recovery and leave Fonda in the rear view mirror. Enough is enough.
She was famous at the time. A household name in fact. And she called soldiers baby killers. She most definitely fueled the fires for the disdain of the soldiers. Yes people hated that war. But her actions helped turn hate for the conflict into hatred for the men serving. And I do believe that people changed their minds when they heard the term baby killer thrown about. I know firsthand that forgiveness frees your soul, but far be it for me to dare insist that these Vets should get over it.
She was right about the war right? it never should have happened or gone on as long as it did? What did it accomplish? Same thing still going on.
Actions Speak Louder than Words……
Instead of apologizing over and over which to many veterans may not
seem sincere or genuine Jane could show her support and commitment
to them by contributing to their healing. She could start foundations, contribute
to charities regarding people in the military. She could go to veteran centers
and listen to these men talk about their experiences. It might start out difficult
and some may still not forgive her but i believe most would see that she truly
regrets her choices and see her visibly support them.
And I enjoy listening to the differing political opinions of actors. When did actors become second-class citizens who are clueless? It shows me who’s got brains in their heads and who’s witless. So long as they’re American citizens in good standing, I want to hear from them.
Even if Rush Limbaugh doesn’t.
Can you imagine if carried even further, music cannot be about social and political issues? The ’60s created some of the most important protest songs whether about civil rights, war, and were songs about the headlines of the day concerning important issues, and was the soundtrack to that generation’s lives and has carried on to following generations, true classics. I guess musicians now should just write about partying, sex and love and support your government blindly or else you aren’t patriotic songs. No wonder music seems so bland compared to other eras (Although still some class albums in the past decade).. But so much of it is homogeneous as far as topics of songs. No Bob Dylans, that’s for sure.
I think many actors or actresses are very intelligent, very informed on the issue they are speaking of and make interesting points and make for good guests in a show where they are debating or in an interview, and that’s from both sides, or independents. There are many who are clueless and I roll my eyes and turn them off and know they are just trying to sound intelligent. But where do you draw the line on saying who can speak? It’s subjective. So many of our politicians speak out of both sides of their mouth or come across beyond ignorant to me at times. But they are allowed to talk about issues, I guess.
An apology isn’t really an apology is she is still trying to justify it and explain. This would have died a long time ago if she would just apologize and leave it at that.
But apologizing and then complaining she’s a convenient target negates the apology. My dad was in Viet Nam and he hates her and openly states that her apologies were never sincere.
How is she to justify and explain it? That she was young, like thousands of others who had the same view as she had, and naive? That’s the only way it can be explained and that type of explanation will never be acceptable for a veteran and I can appreciate that. It’s 100% understandable. A part of me doesn’t accept her apology, while another part of me thinks, ‘jeez it’s been this long already, get over it people,’ but living with a war vet myself, I know that for them, the events they experienced are not bound by time and yes, you’re correct to say that her complaint negates her apology.
What gets me are her comments, her saying that things were made for her to ‘look like that’, but she is the one who called American soldiers baby killers.
Even if she was sincere, I doubt that any veterans would accept her apology and a part of me doesn’t blame them. She isn’t like today’s armchair or Gen Y keyboard brigade that are now coming out of the woodwork to justify terrorists, she physically went over to Vietnam, into the enemy camp and posed for pictures. Sure enough, she can’t be compared to a Jihadist fighter that ups sticks and goes to Iraq or Syria, but her actions will never evaporate or go away. It’s just something she has to live with, despite her complaint about being a target.
What many adults don’t understand, in the era of touchy feely new age thought & political correctness, is that some decisions will mar a person’s reputation and credibility for life.
I don’t know what more she can do. She has apologised, she has said that she is aware she made a mistake. How many young people today make similar mistakes? There are so many people who have become apologists for some of the terorrists today, and we’re talking about terrorists, not an ‘approved’ [legally] war and its personnel, who will be in the same position as Fonda, if not worse, decades from now.
Ultimately, Fonda has to accept that her decision as a young adult will always haunt her, and move on.
No matter how much she explains there will always be different conspiracy theorists claiming different things (like the proven false slips of paper thing). No matter what, she’s going to have to keep explaining this away. Which is really sad because yes she made a dumb mistake and how many hippie americans at that time would have done the same thing. cmmmoonnn