Even today, as I write this, just typing the name, "Adolph Hitler", stirs unwanted emotions. Today, thanks to the memory of older people who lived through World War II and to the various Holocaust exhibits, Hitler is still despised by millions and the story of his cruelty and depravity will be remembered and retold throughout the ages.  

Tragically, there is another story of an equally cruel, treacherous and depraved individual that threatens to be forgotten forever. That is the story of "Hanoi Jane". As a member of the American military proud to have served my country in Viet Nam, I have the same difficulty typing the name "Jane Fonda", as I do the name, "Adolph Hitler".

If you ask most people what they know about Jane Fonda, they will tell you that she is an actress who was married to eccentric billionaire Ted Turner --   who owns the Atlanta Braves. Others, will tell you that she made a very successful video tape dealing with exercise. A few will remember her father, was the distinguished actor, Henry Fonda. However, only a fraction of the populous have heard of the torture, suffering and death to American prisoners of war that this devil incarnate caused. Only in the time, place, tactics and number of people involved, do her atrocities differ from those of Hitler. Morally, they are equivalent. To set the record straight, the story of this outrage must be told and retold. 

In 1978, the Commandant of the USAF Survival School, a colonel, was a former 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, accidentally pulling the man's shoe off-which sent that officer berserk.

In '78, the AF colonel still suffered from double vision - permanently grounding him - from the Vietnamese officer's frenzied application of a wooden baton.

From 1983-85, Col. Larry Carrigan was 347FW/DO (F-4Es). He'd spent 6 [product] years in the Hilton-the first three of which he was listed as MIA. 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 Social Security number 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 notes.

Three men died from the subsequent beatings. Col. Carrigan was almost number four.

For years after their release, a group of determined former POWs, including Col. Carrigan, tried to bring Ms. Fonda and others up on charges of treason. I don't know that they used it, but the charge of "Negligent Homicide due to Depraved Indifference" would also seem appropriate. Her obvious "granting of aid and comfort to the enemy" alone should've been sufficient for the treason count. However, to date, Jane Fonda has never been formally charged with anything and continues to enjoy the privileged life of the rich and famous.

I, personally, think that this is shame on us, the American Citizenry.

Part of our shortfall is ignorance: Most don't know such actions ever took place.

And there is this account:

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.

Jane Fonda had the audacity to say that the POWs were lying about our torture and treatment. Now ABC is allowing Barbara Walters to honor Jane Fonda in her feature "100 Years of Great Women." Shame on the Disney Company.

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, her husband (at the time), Tom Hayden, answered for her. She was mind controlled by her husband. This does not exemplify someone who should be honored by "100 Years of Great Women."

Jane Fonda, on the other hand, chose to be a traitor, and went to Hanoi, wore their uniform, propagandized for the communists, and urged American soldiers to desert. As we were being tortured, and some of the POWs murdered, she called us liars. After her heroes - the North Vietnamese communists - took over South Vietnam, they systematically murdered 80,000 South Vietnamese political prisoners. May their souls rest on her head forever."

In the words of Paul Harvey, America, "now you know the rest of the story."

ABC and Babs Walters will undoubtedly include "Hanoi" Jane in their televised celebration because their black souls are too hardened and too imbued with an anti-American sentiment to do anything else. And ultimately, they will all answer for what they have done in their lives.

In the meantime, I don't plan on watching anything that has Jane Fonda's face anywhere near it. I won't buy her videos; I won't rent or go see her movies. As far as I'm concerned, she's already dead to me.

Larry,

I read you post with interest. I was part of the USN Operation Homecoming debrief team at Clark AFB and escorted three returnees from Clark to the States. I had the opportunity to do the detailed debrief of the third individual who was shot down during the Christmas 1972 bombing missions. I was an intel officer aboard USS Oriskany at that time.

My returnee friend was shot down over Vinh after being hit by the second or third SAM fired at him. He punched out of his F-4 while making a mayday broadcast and fractured his left shoulder. He was immediately captured by the people in the village where his F-4 made a one point vertical landing.

He was held over night and taken to Hanoi the next day. That first night the locals took him out in the woods and simulated an execution, complete with digging a grave and a lock, load and firing. He told me that your life really does pass in front of you just before you think you are gong to die.

In any case, they did not shoot him, but took him to Hanoi, a couple of days before Christmas. Incidentally, Eldridge Cleaver was at the Hanoi Hilton playing a piano in a cafeteria type room where my friend was held while being processed and being seen by a doctor. The NVN doctor tried to set his shoulder, not well, but he did what he could.

Any way my friend was a senior officer among the new guys, who were kept segregated from the guys shot down in the sixties. The rules about what you could say during interrogation had changed in the late sixties and early seventies from the name, rank, serial number to a more permissive rule about resisting as long as you could, but not being hard line about obvious things. A few months later, guess who showed up, Hanoi Jane and Ramsey Clark. My friend was selected to be interviewed by Jane and Ramsey. They expected he would play the game and say something nice to Jane and Ramsey.

He didn't, and was quite candid about his/their treatment during a private interview. He hoped they would have the common courtesy not to dime them out the NVN. Well of course, that didn't happen. Jane told the NVN all that happened and shortly after she and Ramsey left, the NVN did the rope drop trick on my friend. The put him on a chair, and tied a rope to the meat hook in the ceiling and then kicked the chair out from underneath him. That re-broke his shoulder and it took quite some time before they reset it. It was very obvious from what the NVN guards said to my friend that Jane had told them everything he said.