Rant #1,361: Hanoi Jane

In 1972, actress Jane Fonda committed a heinous act that she is more well known for than for some of her movies.

Fonda was part of an entourage that traveled to Hanoi in North Vietnam during the height of the Vietnam War. She posed for a slew of now-notorious photos, sitting on an anti-aircraft battery and wearing a helmet.

She spoke out against the attacks that U.S. soldiers made along the Red River, and many service members took her comments to heart, and have never forgiven her for her stance.

During the past more than 40 years, Fonda has had to defend herself against constant protests by Vietnam vets about her stance at the time, and once again, all these years later, she is defending herself not so much about being against the war, but for the perception that she was acting against the best interests of the soldiers who fought in the war.

She appeared in Maryland over the weekend to give a speech, and as has been the norm for decades now, protestors were there to show their own stance against Fonda. Most of the protestors, again as has been the norm, were Vietnam veterans who say they might forgive her for her transgression, but they won't forget what she did to reduce morale among the troops even further down than it already was.

Responding to a question posed to her by an audience member about the infamous photographs, she replied, "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."

Whether sincere or not, she has also said time and time again over the years that her trip to Vietnam back then was a success, so just what is Fonda saying? Does she simply regret the photographs, and what they stood for, and nothing else?

It appears that the answer is "nothing else."

Times were different back then. Without Internet, newspapers, TV and radio were still our main sources of news, and when those photographs was seen by millions around the world, it really served to demoralize the troops even further down, if that was even possible.

Many looked at the troops as peons of the Nixon government, completely out of touch with their contemporaries back home, but just as culpable for the mess the war had caused.

Yes, it was an incorrect stance, but those photos really encapsulated what was happening in our country at the time, based on this very unpopular conflict. The enemy used her visit as a big propaganda tool, making the troops feel even more worthless than they had been meant to feel by fighting a war that was both unpopular and could not be won.

Fonda was one of the young stars in Hollywood at the time, and for her not to give her thumb's up to at least the troops was unforgivable; this was no Bob Hope road show she was on, and she was flashing the peace sign instead.

Now, at 77, the actress continues to live down what she did, but at least she is somewhat remorseful.

This is a real lesson to younger people today, who have the Internet to use and can post just about anything they want on it for everyone to see.

Learn from Fonda. Yes, Fonda was a star, a celebrity, but even she was not immune to the "whatever gets printed stays with you forever" syndrome, which, of course, has been updated to the current "whatever is on the Internet is available from the moment you put it up, and it could haunt you forever."

Heck, it even happens to stars today. Those dummy actresses who put up nude photos of themselves on the cloud, only to find that the cloud was hacked and their photos were made public, is the perfect current example of this.

But back to those photos from the Vietnam Ware era ... I guess it haunts Fonda at least a little bit, but whether she is sincere about those photos, and what she was trying to say and do during her trip,  is really anyone's guess.

But it hurts many Vietnam vets, and they will never let her forget that whether she intended to or not, she let them down, and let them down real hard.