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Jane Fonda: Political activism
Fonda became involved in political activism during the time of the Vietnam War, Civil Rights Reforms and significant rebellion against the "Establishment." Her activism and philanthropy in opposition to the Vietnam War, made her infamous among pro-war and pro-military Americans.
Alcatraz Island Occupation - Early in the morning on November 20, 1969, 79 American Indians, including students, married couples and six children, sailed to Alcatraz and began the 19-month occupation of the island. Despite the Coast Guard's attempted blockade, the group disembarked successfully. The government gave them 24 hours to leave, but the occupiers didn't budge. The group's leader Richard Oakes phoned in a message to the San Francisco Department of the Interior office:
:"We invite the United States to acknowledge the justice of our claim. The choice now lies with the leaders of the American government - to use violence upon us as before to remove us from our Great Spirit's land, or to institute a real change in its dealing with the American Indian. We do not fear your threat to charge us with crimes on our land. We and all other oppressed peoples would welcome spectacle of proof before the world of your title by genocide. Nevertheless, we seek peace."
The occupiers had strong support from the entertainment industry. Sports legend Jim Thorpe's (Sac and Fox) daughter Grace, who occupied the island for several months, acted as a liaison to celebrities like Jane Fonda, Marlon Brando, Jonathan Winters and Dick Gregory, who visited to show their solidarity with the Indian occupation. (January, 1970)
Huey Newton and Black Panthers -- A quote from Jane Fonda in 1970: "Revolution is an act of love; we are the children of revolution, born to be rebels. It runs in our blood." She called the Black Panthers "our revolutionary vanguard. We must support them with love, money, propaganda and risk."
In April 1970, Fred Gardner, Fonda and
Donald Sutherland formed *FTA* ("Free The Army," a play on the troop expression "Fuck The Army"), an antiwar road show designed as an answer to
Bob Hope's USO tour. The tour, referred to as "political vaudeville" by Fonda, visited military towns along the West Coast, with the goal of establishing a dialog with soldiers to get their thoughts on their upcoming deployments (which were later made into a movie).
Also in 1970, Fonda spoke out against the war at a rally organized by Vietnam Veterans Against the War, in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. She offered to help raise funds for VVAW, and was bestowed the title of Honorary National Coordinator for her efforts. Beginning November 3, she toured college campuses and raised funds for the organization. As noted by the
New York Times, Fonda was a "major patron" of the VVAW.
In March 1971, Fonda traveled to Paris (some claim alone, some claim with an unnamed VVAW representative) to meet with NLF foreign minister Madam Nguyen Thi Binh. According to a transcript in which she was translated to Vietnamese and back to English, she told Binh at one point "Many of us have seen evidence proving the Nixon administration has escalated the war causing death and destruction perhaps as serious as the, bombing of Hiroshima." Afterwards, she travelled to London. A speech that she gave in London was criticized for her discussion of the US use of torture in Vietnam. Her financial support to VVAW at this time was apparently not significant, as within a month VVAW was broke and one of its prominent leaders, John Kerry, raised the needed funds.
Sixteen months later, Fonda went on her well-known trip to Hanoi.
Although the war was largely protested at home by this time, and many Americans were against the war, her actions in 1972 were widely perceived as over the top. The anti-war movement of the time was not characterized by a single motivation: some, such as Quakers and other traditionally pacifist groups were opposed to war in any circumstances; some felt that the war was not an American responsibility or concern, arguing especially that it was a civil war in which the US was choosing sides; some, such as young men of draft age, their parents and friends, didn't want their lives risked in an unpopular war; but some expressed a partisanship for the opposing side in the war, including Jane Fonda - and this made her a polarizing figure.
She became the target of hatred from many Americans because of her visit to Hanoi, where she advocated opposition to the war. Her detractors labeled her
Hanoi Jane, comparing her to war propagandists Tokyo Rose and Hanoi Hannah. She has often been associated with contributing to a perceived anti-soldier sentiment among Vietnam War protesters, such as spitting on soldiers. Because of her actions, John Wayne cut off all contact with her, even though he was a close friend of her father's.
When Jane Fonda was honored by Barbara Walters in 1999 as one of the 100 great women of the century, sentiments regarding Fonda's actions in Vietnam were rekindled. Rumors that Fonda handed over information about U.S. soldiers to National Liberation Front (NLF) insurgents (better known in the U.S. as the "Viet Cong") are provably untrue, as are reports that a pilot spat at Fonda and was beaten for it and that one POW was beaten to death for refusing to meet with her. The latter story, though, may be an exaggeration of the true account of Michael Benge, a civilian advisor captured by the NLF in 1968 and held as a POW for 5 years. He wrote "When Jane Fonda was in Hanoi, I was asked by the camp communist political officer if I would be willing to meet with her. I said yes, for I would like to tell her about the real treatment we POWs were receiving, which was far different from the treatment purported by the North Vietnamese, and parroted by Jane Fonda, as 'humane and lenient.' Because of this, I spent three days on a rocky floor on my knees with outstretched arms with a piece of steel re-bar placed on my hands, and beaten with a bamboo cane every time my arms dipped."
http://www.snopes.com/military/fonda.htm http://www.pownetwork.org/fonda/fonda_benge_letter.htm
Jane Fondain Hanoi, 1971Fonda posed for a picture at an anti-aircraft battery and participated in several radio broadcasts. She also visited American prisoners of war who assured her that they had neither been tortured nor brainwashed. Fonda believed these claims and relayed them to the American public. When cases of torture began to emerge among POWs returning to the United States, Fonda called them liars. She also added, concerning the POWs she met, "These were not men who had been tortured. These were not men who had been starved. These were not men who had been brainwashed." Concerning torture in general, Fonda told the New York Times in 1973, "I'm quite sure that there were incidents of torture...but the pilots who were saying it was the policy of the Vietnamese and that it was systematic, I believe that's a lie.". Her stance has some backing, as former vice presidential candidate and POW James Stockdale wrote that no more than 10% of US pilots in captivity received more than 90% of the torture, usually for acts of resistance. Additionally, John Hubbel's research into the conflict indicates that the majority (but certainly not all) of the torture occurred before 1969 (Fonda's visit was in 1973).
Fonda delivered home letters from many American POWs in Vietnam. She also is often credited with publicly exposing the strategy of bombing the dikes in Vietnam, for which she was at the time called a liar by then-UN ambassador George H. W. Bush. In 1988, Fonda apologized for her actions to the American POWs and their families. She has also stated:
"I will go to my grave regretting the photograph of me in 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 possibly have done. It was just thoughtless."
In 2004, her name was used as a disparaging epithet against Kerry, the former VVAW leader, who was then the Democratic Party presidential candidate. Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie called Kerry a "Jane Fonda Democrat". In addition, Kerry's opponents circulated a photograph showing Fonda and Kerry in the same large crowd at a 1970 anti-war rally, although they were sitting several rows apart.
http://www.snopes.com/photos/politics/kerry.asp Some also circulated a faked composite photograph to give the false impression that the two had shared a speaker's platform.
http://www.snopes.com/photos/politics/kerry2.asp
Fonda funded and organized the Indochina Peace Campaign. It continued to mobilize antiwar activists across the nation after the 1973 Paris Peace Agreement when most other antiwar organizations closed down.
Fonda led a march through Ciudad Juárez, urging Mexico to provide sufficient resources to newly appointed officials helping investigate the slayings of hundreds of women in the rough border city. (February 16, 2004)
V-Day, a movement to stop violence against women, sparked by the off-Broadway hit The Vagina Monologues, held its first summit Friday, bringing together Fonda, Afghan women and a Kenyan campaigning to save girls from genital mutilation. (September 21, 2002)
Fonda continues to participate in peace activism, in particular regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Fonda has been attacked by right wing Israelis during a trip to Jerusalem to promote world peace -- the actress and activist was heckled, as she arrived for a meeting with leading Israeli feminists, for her controversial stance during the Vietnam War; Fonda was dubbed Hanoi Jane for her peace protests during the Vietnam War in the late 1960s and early 1970s. (December 21, 2002)
Fonda fears the military campaign in Iraq will turn people all over the world against America ? She is also concerned that a global hatred of America will result in more terrorist attacks in the aftermath of the war. (April 11, 2003)
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