My mom and I had this conversation tonight and I wanted to get your take on it. My dad was flipping through channels while I was eating dinner and he stopped on a movie staring none other than Jane Fonda. He watched it for a long time, only shutting it off when he went to bed (ok, mom shut it off in disgust). Mom's opinion is that he should be ashamed of himself for watching any movie "the b**ch" is in since he is a Vietnam Vet. Heck, I wasn't alive during that period of time and even I won't watch any movies she's in.
So my question is this: do you watch any movies Jane Fonda is in? What is your opinion on the whole thing in general, really.
I'm really just sort of curious.
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I don't know if she should have been hung, shot would have been ok too. She was a traitor and got several pow's killed by informing on them. There is no bigger disgrace in this country than her.
Vet, but not from Viet Era (although when I was new guy worked with many).
My opinion is that Mom's right. Treason has a very narrow definition which is spelled out in our Constitution. We throw this around alot for actions we don't like of people, but most of the time it's incorrect. If you look at ms. fonda's actions during the Vietnam War, you'll find she did, indeed, commit treason. She's unlikely to be prosecuted (and lawyering it you could try to claim war wasn't declared). Her actions were unforgivable, and quite overtly she did give aid and comfort to our enemies and resulted in Americans being hurt.
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I agree. I will not support her at all. Never did. Never will. I just think my mom and I were a little taken aback that it doesn't seem to bother him even though he, too, is a Vet. And just to cure my own curiosity, I was wondering if he was unusual or not. I figure he is, but I'm curious anyway. My mom gets very angry just hearing her name and will go off like crazy because of such. Yet he doesn't seem to care. Or he gets a kick out of making her crazy. One or the other.
__________________ "Ruin a liberal's day; recite historical fact." - found on a bumper sticker
It was wrong for Jane Fonda to be in North Vietnam grinning it up on an anti-aircraft gun.
I have done some reading on her life and must say given the disasterous,
dysfunctional family life in which she was raised due in large part to her father's (Henry Fonda's) problems I feel a sort of sadness for a truly lost
and love deprived young woman trying to find her way.
So, she did a wrong thing but perhaps it was not with a total sense of clarity and malice many have attributed to her.
I can, though, understand why many of the Vietnam generation will never forget or forgive when it comes to Jane Fonda.
I don't know if she should have been hung, shot would have been ok too. She was a traitor and got several pow's killed by informing on them. There is no bigger disgrace in this country than her.
That is pure BS; she did no such thing. Do your homework, instead of believing every lie that comes along about someone simply because you don't like them.
I'm a Vietnam vet, and I don't like her either; I think she acted like the spoiled little idiot she was. But that has nothing to do with whether I enjoy her movies or not. I'm watching entertainment, not looking for reinforcement of my political beliefs.
I don't check out someone's political beliefs before I listen to a symphony they wrote, either. And I think it was a crock to take Mohammad Ali's championship away from him for refusing to serve in the military. What did that have to do with whether he was the best boxer in the world?
When Bobby Fischer got stupid on the air after 9/11, some people in the American Chess Federation actually tried to have his national championships from years earlier expunged. Like his political beliefs in his fifties somehow canceled the fact that as a teenager he had kicked butt on the best players in the country...
I once asked my dad what he thought about Tokyo Rose. Instead of being all indignant, he remembered her fondly for brightening his life in the foxhole with music. When I asked about the propaganda she supposedly put out along with the music he answered, "well, I don't really remember much about that, son. I guess it isn't what I was paying attention to."
Troy, she DID commit acts of treason, no matter how you slice it. I'm not saying you can't watch her movies if you want, but she should be held accountable for this. We all do stupid things when young (and old) that we regret. Most of us don't do what she did.
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God gives us free will; the statist tries to take it away
Troy, she DID commit acts of treason, no matter how you slice it. I'm not saying you can't watch her movies if you want, but she should be held accountable for this. We all do stupid things when young (and old) that we regret. Most of us don't do what she did.
We can argue all day long about whether she was a traitor or not, TXplt. I'm just saying it's irrelevant to her acting ability, and to whether I should enjoy the movies she's in. They're fiction, for God's sake. If she were spouting her beliefs in a documentary-type propaganda piece, that would be a different matter; I wouldn't watch.
I don't give a damn what an actor's personal life is like or what their political beliefs are; I'm watching them as entertainers and performers. Rock Hudson was a closet gay; does that mean I'm not allowed to enjoy his performance as the leading man in a romantic comedy opposite Doris Day?
If you want to get down to it, the only thing that saved Hanoi Jane Fonda and her communist bastard husband Tom Hayden from being tried for treason was the fact we were not in a declared state of war during all of Vietnam. Remember, they started out by calling it a "police action" or an "insurgency" but never got around to issuing a declaration of war against North Vietnam. Officially, we were assisting an ally with an internal revolt or some such technicality.
That technicality noted, there is no doubt in my mind that what Fonda and Hayden did was to commit acts of treason against the United States of America. Had I been the President at the time, I would have considered issuing an executive order depriving them of their citizenship. I certainly would not have permitted them to reenter the United States. They did in fact break the law by traveling to North Vietnam at all, which at that time was on the no-travel-to list of the State Department. They could and should have been arrested for that.
Her act of treason has tainted her life since. Her father Henry Fonda, a U.S. Navy veteran, wouldn't speak to her for years after that. Years later, she starred in a movie that was filming on location in Danbury, CT. Vietnam veterans and the families of soldiers who had died in that war picketed the set. Many local merchants would not sell to the film company. The police were politely uncooperative in the matter of removing the picketers. "I'm Not Fonda Hanoi Jane" bumper stickers blossomed across Fairfield and Putnam Counties. Eventually the producer gave up, shut down production and moved his film company to a place where the locals weren't as passively aggressive toward Hanoi Jane.
Don't get me wrong. I'm 100% for freedom of speech. But there is a huge difference between exercising your First Amendment rights and committing treason against the nation that birthed you. And Jane Fonda went way across the line that separates the two. There are those who will remember Jane Fonda as an actress who won two competitive Oscars. There are others who will remember her as a pioneering exercise-video guru. There are some who will remember her as a political activist for women's causes. But for those who were alive and aware during the vietnam era, she will be remembered with the same kind of infamy that attaches to Benedict Arnold and Vidkun Quisling as the traitorous bitch Hanoi Jane who did freely and voluntarily give aid and comfort to the enemy while her countrymen were being tortured in enemy prisons and her contemporaries were dying in combat.
Troy, I don't like Hanoi Jane either, and WILL NOT watch her movies. Same as I won't watch Tom Cruise's movies, listen to the Dixie Chicks, or give any attention to other simpering HollyWeirdos and folks I just don't like. Why support their career if I don't like them? They can go pound sand.
The best thing to do with such 'entertainers' is to totally ignore them, let their careers die.
My brother and I are both vets from the Vietnam war. He hated war but had to go. Me, I was for the war and volunteered. After being there, his view never changed and neither did mine. He didn't think badly of Jane Fonda but I did. Now, all these years later, I look back and see things differently. I understand what she was trying to do and admire the guts it took. She was not the only American that went over there either. If your were alive back then, you will also remember the Veterans against the war who were protesting in this country. I don't feel any of these war protesters, then and now, are traitors. Patriots more likely. Just as much as those who support our troops wherever and whenever they are.
I still love a good war. And I remember the poster from the Vietnam era that said,"War is not healthy for children and other living things." A conundrum to say the least.
While I haven't been in any armed forces, I'm gonna have to agree with Troy and Rambo. Its debatable whether or not she was a "traitor". The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines treason as
1 : the betrayal of a trust :treachery 2 : the offense of attempting by overt acts to overthrow the government of the state to which the offender owes allegiance or to kill or personally injure the sovereign or the sovereign's family
While one could argue the first, the 2nd certainly isn't true. As for boycotting her movies, that doesn't make sense to me. She doesn't get any money from her old movies anymore. And even if she did, I would watch it if it was a good movie. I do the same with any form of entertainment. If I can enjoy a good movie with a good storyline, plot, and acting, I don't care who plays in it. Same with music. I don't care who sings it so long as I like the individual song.
While I haven't been in any armed forces, I'm gonna have to agree with Troy and Rambo. Its debatable whether or not she was a "traitor". The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines treason as
1 : the betrayal of a trust :treachery 2 : the offense of attempting by overt acts to overthrow the government of the state to which the offender owes allegiance or to kill or personally injure the sovereign or the sovereign's family
While one could argue the first, the 2nd certainly isn't true. As for boycotting her movies, that doesn't make sense to me. She doesn't get any money from her old movies anymore. And even if she did, I would watch it if it was a good movie. I do the same with any form of entertainment. If I can enjoy a good movie with a good storyline, plot, and acting, I don't care who plays in it. Same with music. I don't care who sings it so long as I like the individual song.
Honestly... the boycott of the movies might be attributed to the fact the Veterans do not want to be reminded of her... and remember the feelings they had when they felt they had been betrayed. Both uncles served in Vietnam, bot absolutely hate her. My neighbor is a Vietnam Veteran... and he can't stand her either. Can't say that I blame him.
Either way... she lost a lot of people when she decided to cohort with the enemy.
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Section 3. Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court.
As far as movies, that's of course up to you and completely your choice one way or another.
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God gives us free will; the statist tries to take it away
I really expected Hanoi Jane and her husband to be prosecuted or assassinated after they returned to the U.S. I'm glad they weren't killed but I do think they should have been prosecuted.
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My mom gets very angry just hearing her name and will go off like crazy because of such. Yet he doesn't seem to care. Or he gets a kick out of making her crazy. One or the other. 
