Jane Fonda in Vietnam
During a 1972 trip to Vietnam -- with the U.S. war still raging -- "Hanoi Jane," as she came to be known, was photographed sitting on a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft battery. The Barbarella star and heir to one of Hollywood's legendary acting families was surrounded by opposition troops who serenaded her with a song about the day "Uncle Ho" declared the country's independence. She returned the favor by struggling through a rendition of "Day Ma Di," a song written by anti-war South Vietnamese students that she had memorized before the trip.
Fonda was harshly criticized for the photo, which she now says she will "regret to my dying day." She was surrounded by North Vietnamese photographers as soon as she got to the site, and now believes that they invited her as a propaganda stunt.
She may not have meant to pose for the photo, but her comments are harder to defend. Fonda was angered by the U.S. government painting what she thought was a distorted picture of how the North Vietnamese abused U.S. prisoners of war, and lashed out in one of her 10 Radio Hanoi broadcasts by calling those POWs "liars, hypocrites and pawns." She claims that the Nixon administration sought to charge her with treason, but could find no evidence.
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