Pretty sorry excuse for a great woman

   / Pretty sorry excuse for a great woman #1  

cowboydoc

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Subj: KEEP THIS MOVING; ACROSS AMERICA HONORING A TRAITOR This is for all the kids born in the 70's that do not remember this, and didn't have to bear the burden, that our fathers, mothers, and older brothers and sisters had to bear.Jane Fonda is being honored as one of the "100 Women of the Century." Unfortunately, many have forgotten and still countless others have never known how Ms. Fonda betrayed not only the idea of our country but specific men who served and sacrificed during Vietnam.

The first part of this is from an F-4E pilot. The pilot's name is Jerry Driscoll, a River Rat. In 1978, the former Commandant of the USAF Survival School was a POW in Ho Lo Prison-the "Hanoi Hilton." Dragged from a stinking cesspit of a cell, cleaned, fed, and dressed in clean PJs, he was ordered to describe for a visiting American "Peace Activist" the "lenient and humane treatment" he'd received. He spat at Ms. Fonda, was clubbed, and dragged away.

During the subsequent beating, he fell forward upon the camp Commandant's feet, which sent that officer berserk. In '78, the AF Col. still suffered from double vision (which permanently ended his flying days) from the Vietnamese Col.'s frenzied application of a wooden baton.From 1963-65, Col. Larry Carrigan was in the 47FW/DO (F-4Es). He spent 6 -years in the "Hilton"- the first three of which he was "missing in action". His wife lived on faith that he was still alive. His group, too, got the cleaned, fed, clothed routine in preparation for a "peace delegation" visit.

They, however, had time and devised a plan to get word to the world that they still survived. Each man secreted a tiny piece of paper, with his SSN on it, in the palm of his hand. When paraded before Ms. Fonda and a cameraman, she walked the line, shaking each man's hand and asking little encouraging snippets like: "Aren't you sorry you bombed babies?" and "Are you grateful for the humane treatment from your benevolent captors?" Believing this HAD to be an act, they each palmed her their sliver of paper.

She took them all without missing a beat. At the end of the line and once the camera stopped rolling, to the shocked disbelief of the POWs, she turned to the officer in charge and handed him the little pile of papers. Three men died from the subsequent beatings. Col. Carrigan was almost number four but he survived, which is the only reason we know about her actions that day.

I was a civilian economic development advisor in Vietnam, and was captured by the North Vietnamese communists in South Vietnam in 1968, and held for over 5 years. I spent 27 months in solitary confinement, one year in a cage in Cambodia, and one year in a "black box" in Hanoi. My North Vietnamese captors deliberately poisoned and murdered a female missionary, a nurse in a leprosarium in Ban me Thuot, South Vietnam, whom I buried in the jungle near the Cambodian border.

At one time, I was weighing approximately 90 lbs. (My normal weight is 170 lbs.) We were Jane Fonda's "war criminals."

When Jane Fonda was in Hanoi, I was asked by the camp communist political officer if I would be willing to meet with Jane Fonda. I said yes, for I would like to tell her about the real treatment we POWs received 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 large amount of steel placed on my hands, and beaten with a bamboo cane till my arms dipped.

I had the opportunity to meet with Jane Fonda for a couple of hours after I was released. I asked her if she would be willing to debate me on TV. She did not answer me.

This does not exemplify someone who should be honored as part of "100 Years of Great Women." Lest we forget..."100 years of great women" should never include a traitor whose hands are covered with the blood of so many patriots. There are few things I have strong visceral reactions to, but Hanoi Jane's participation in blatant treason, is one of them.

Please take the time to forward to as many people as you possibly can. It will eventually end up on her computer and she needs to know that we will never forget.
 
   / Pretty sorry excuse for a great woman #2  
Richard, I for one would like to do anything to get this women off that list. There has got to be something else that can be done? I am going to look into this a little more and maybe we can flood the place who has given this to her with email. This is a disgrace to all Veterans and Civilians that was in that war/w3tcompact/icons/sad.gif
_________________________________________
Take care, Jim
 
   / Pretty sorry excuse for a great woman #3  
Richard,

I believe I've seen this before, but very much appreciate the post. I agree that those acts should not be forgotten. Veterans of that era were victims on many levels -- asked to fight a war, but prevented from fighting to win; many of us could go on and on.... Their sacrifices for their country should be honored, not disgraced by a tribute to a traitor. The right to protest, to disagree should always be protected in this great country -- what she did was something else again.

Bill
 
   / Pretty sorry excuse for a great woman #4  
Richard, After looking into it a little more this is what I found <A target="_blank" HREF=http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/weekly/aa110399.htm>Urban Legends</A> There is also a poll on this site an the results are 90 some% no she should not been voted in as one of the 100 Women of the Century.

I still think it is a disgrace to all the other women who have done more for this country, for Hanioi Jane to be Reconized with them.
______________________________________________
Take care, Jim
 
   / Pretty sorry excuse for a great woman #5  
See below....

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.snopes2.com/military/fonda.htm>http://www.snopes2.com/military/fonda.htm</A>
 
   / Pretty sorry excuse for a great woman #6  
RanchMan,
Good read, Nice site I saved that to my favorites. This is the one I got my info from <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.about.com/>About</A>
 
   / Pretty sorry excuse for a great woman #7  
Cowboydoc

I know vets that still spit at Hanoi Jane's name.

SHF
 
   / Pretty sorry excuse for a great woman #8  
Cowboydoc:

I have read this statement before and agree fully with your sentiments.

To me it seem's the Veitnam personnel were treated very shabbily. Almost as though they should all dissapear into the woodwork and never be seen again.

Egon
 
   / Pretty sorry excuse for a great woman #9  
If you\'re going to vilify her

... at least get the facts straight. You don't do yourself any favors by spreading false stories:


There's no disputing that Jane Fonda toured North Vietnam, propagandized on behalf of the communists, and participated in an orchestrated "press conference" with American POWs in 1972. There's no denying that she defamed POWs by whitewashing the Viet Cong's treatment of them and later calling them liars when they spoke out.

But how true are the further allegations in the current email rumors? Let's examine their veracity point by point, beginning with the most serious:


Claim: Fonda betrayed POWs by turning over slips of paper they gave her to their captors. POWs were beaten and died as a result.

Status: FALSE.

"It's a figment of somebody's imagination," says Ret. Col. Larry Carrigan, who was shot down over North Vietnam in 1967. He has no idea why the story was attributed to him. "I never met Jane Fonda," he told me. It goes without saying he never handed her a secret message.

He confessed that he did see Fonda once while he was a POW – on film.

He recalled a night when he and the rest of the 80 or so men he was interned with were called out into the prison courtyard, "the first time we'd been outside under the stars in 5 or 6 years." As they all stood there wondering what was in store for them, a projector started whirring in the background. Their captors proceeded to show them footage of Jane Fonda's visit to Hanoi.


Claim: A POW spit at Fonda, for which he was brutally beaten.

Status: FALSE.

This story is attributed in the email to former Air Force pilot Jerry Driscoll, who says it's false and did not originate from him. I wasn't able to speak with Driscoll directly, but Mike McGrath and Paul Galanti, fellow officers of the Nam-POWs organization to which Driscoll belongs, told me he unequivocally disavows the story.

[Update: after this commentary was written I received personal confirmation from Jerry Driscoll that the story is bogus – as he put it, "the product of a very vivid imagination."]

Mike McGrath, currently serving as the president of Nam-POWs, has been trying for more than a month to help Driscoll and Carrigan squelch the false rumors circulating under their names.

"They would like to get their names removed but the story seems to have a life of its own," he told me. "There are a lot of folks out there who would love to have a story like that to hang their hat and their hate on."


Claim: POWs were beaten for refusing to cooperate or meet with Fonda during her visit.

Status: TRUE.

The final anecdote in the "Hanoi Jane" message recounts the experience of a POW who agreed to meet with Fonda but announced to his captors that he planned on telling her how horrid conditions in North Vietnamese prison camps really were.

"Because of this," the narrative continues, "I spent three days on a rocky floor on my knees with outstretched arms with a piece of steel placed on my hands, and beaten with a bamboo cane every time my arms dipped."

Those words were written by Michael Benge, a civilian advisor captured by the Viet Cong in 1968 and held as a POW for 5 years. When I contacted him, he confirmed that the story was indeed his, and true.

Benge's original statement, entitled "Shame on Jane," was published in April by the Advocacy and Intelligence Network for POWs and MIAs. The nameless, faceless author of the "Hanoi Jane" message evidently picked it up from a Web page or a newsgroup and combined it with fabricated stories to create the forwarded text. Some versions now circulate with Benge's name appended, others quote his statement anonymously.

"None of us are members of the Jane Fonda Fan Club"

A good cause is never well-served by lies, and that's how all of the ex-POWs I spoke to or corresponded with about the falsehoods in this message felt. Paul Galanti said: "None of us are members of the Jane Fonda Fan Club, but these fabrications are something she just did not do."

No one had an answer to the question "Who made up these stories and why?" but both Carrigan and McGrath expressed doubt that it was a POW.

"She did enough to place her name in the trash bin of history," McGrath explained. "None of us need to make up stories on her."

Jane Fonda could not be reached for comment.
 
   / Pretty sorry excuse for a great woman #10  
You got to be kidding me.
Wonder what group honoring her.
 

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