Isn't it interesting that when the pro Lincoln crowd goes off topic into Jane Fonda (her connection to the Civil War is what exactly?), that's ok. Hmmmmm.
PINCKNEYUSMCRET, No actually it speaks to the BS UnionBlue pushes.
Jame Fonda has apologized repeatedly for her trip to Nam. It cost her a movie for heaven's sake. The film FTA was about her activities that drew tens of thousands of military personel against the war. Hundreds of underground military publications cropped up, thousands went to prison for saying they were against the war. Folks, do you see a thread here yet? Thousands of newspapermen sent to jail without a trial for protesting Lincoln's war, that's ok to Unionblue. Newspapers shut down? Peachy keen. Thousands of soldiers jailed for saying they were against the way the Nam war was being fought- hey don't look at that issue. Look over here at Jane Fonda!
In 1962 the Pentagon gave her an award for being instrumental in recruiting new soldiers. She met many soldiers then, visited hospitals that still housed WW 2 vets for heaven's sake. Could it be that once she realized we weren't fighting to win that she didn't want her friends to die?
She was even falsely accused and put in jail on trumped up charges. Which to those who support jailing critics of war "just like Lincoln" is great. Not to supporters of the Constitution, however.
Over 2 million served in Viet Nam over the course of the war, There were only 50,000 troops in Nam when she made her dumb mistake. Why? Because of Vietnamization.
In August of 1972 we had even de-activated the last infantry ground unit. She had no effect on the war's course.
As for stories spread by people who weren't there at the time- about torture used on soldiers after she came to Nam ( the Vietnamese stopped torturing U.S. troops in 1969 as a policy when secret negotitations were started) the worse anyone got was having to listen to her on the radio. This is a fact, like it or not.
There were no notes passed to her, or any of the other urban legends to cover up the fact that by not listening to Goldwater we fell into a quagmire. Goldwater said we were going to war, that if it wasn't resolved within one year we would leave. LBJ said Goldwater was crazy, there would be no war. Someone was lying.
It wasn't Goldwater. This is an interesting piece:
"Fonda’s celebrity status attracted large crowds when she spoke at rallies. She also provided generous financial support to antiwar groups such as Vietnam Veterans Against the War and the Winter Soldier Investigation. As a result Fonda was investigated by the FBI, the U.S. Army, the Secret Service, and the National Security Agency. These investigations included opening her mail and tapping her telephone, examining her finances, sending informants to her meetings, and providing reports to President Nixon and National Security Advisor Kissinger. According to one White House source Fonda got about the same investigative treatment as Soviet leader Brezhnev.
[17]
Although Fonda may be unique in how she is remembered for her antiwar activities, those activities were not particularly unique. Over 200 Americans visited Hanoi in the 1965-1972 period. At least 82 made broadcasts on Radio Hanoi. Meetings between American activists in Hanoi and POW pilots were common. These activists toured North Vietnam investigating bomb damage and met with American POWs. They were opposed by the federal government, who sought to prohibit travel to North Vietnam and harassed returning travelers.
[18] They have been largely forgotten, while Fonda is remembered as a traitor and enemy conspirator.
While in Vietnam Fonda visited an anti-aircraft gun emplacement. A cultural group sang songs and the crowd applauded. Her hosts offered her a seat on the gun, which she cheerfully accepted. The crowd applauded her, and she smiled and waved in return. The occasion was festive, not tactical. The area was not being bombed and the gun was not firing. The event was filmed. Several frames were distributed as single images. These photos are described as showing Jane pretending to shoot down American planes, or as evidence of her encouraging North Vietnamese to shoot down American planes.
[19] In a 2000 magazine interview Fonda said she would go to her grave regretting the antiaircraft photo.
[20] "
The Pentagon monitored Fonda’s Hanoi radio broadcasts and gave reporters details of her trip. Although many other activists had gone to Hanoi, made radio broadcasts, and met with American prisoners, Jane Fonda’s trip was the first that raised charges of treason. At the request of the House Internal Security Committee (who wanted to prosecute), the Justice Department investigated her conduct in North Vietnam. Their conclusion was she had violated no U.S. laws, including the law intended to punish anyone who “in any manner causes or attempts to cause insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny, or refusal of duty by any member of the naval or military forces of the United States.”
[21]
According to Hershberger, the notion that Fonda committed treason and caused pilots to be tortured began after Operation Homecoming, the return of U.S. prisoners after the 1972 signing of the Paris Peace Accords. The White House and Pentagon worked hard to make heroes of the prisoners and their return was a major public relations event. The event had to be managed because many of the pilots had made statements while in captivity that were critical of the war. Pilots who hoped to continue with their military careers felt the need to convince Pentagon officials that their conduct in North Vietnam had not been inappropriate under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Some of the pilots who had criticized the war insisted they only met with antiwar activists and made antiwar statements because of torture or threat of torture by their captors. Even though it turned out to be untrue that antiwar activists had a causal role in the torture of prisoners, the connection between American prisoner suffering and peace activists stuck, especially when the claims of the pilots were publicly challenged by Fonda
http://www.library.vanderbilt.edu/central/brush/Jane-Fonda-Vietnam.htm
You may argue our course was correct in Nam- it was wise to not tell people how involved the Soviets were in the fighting and torturing and killing of POW's, that it was wise that we had to call the Pentagon to get permission to bomb an area - and in the days before the internet we had to wait on weekends when they were closed or the next day once the day was done. You may say it was wise to leave behind the list of over 100,000 families that had informed on the North Vietnamese when we fled all because Kissinger refused to negotiate a withdrawal- but you know what Unionblue? If you admit those things were wrong, you were just a protester, too.
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