I grew up during World War II. My childhood was influenced by the roles my father played in his movies. Whether Abraham Lincoln or Tom Joad in the Grapes of Wrath, his characters communicated certain values which I try to carry with me to this day. I remember saying goodbye to my father the night he left to join the Navy. He didn't have to. He was older than other servicemen and had a family to support but he wanted to be a part of the fight against fascism, not just make movies about it. I admired this about him. I grew up with a deep belief that wherever our troops fought, they were on the side of the angels.
For the first eight years of the Vietnam War I lived in France. I was married to the French film director, Roger Vadim and had my first child. The French had been defeated in their own war against Vietnam a decade before our country went to war there, so when I heard, over and over, French people criticizing our country for our Vietnam War I hated it. I viewed it as sour grapes. I refused to believe we could be doing anything wrong there.
It wasn't until I began to meet American servicemen who had been in Vietnam and had come to Paris as resisters that I realized I needed to learn more. I took every chance I could to meet with U.S. soldiers. I talked with them and read the books they gave me about the war. I decided I needed to return to my country and join with them -- active duty soldiers and Vietnam Veterans in particular -- to try and end the war. I drove around the country visiting military bases, spending time in the G.I. coffee houses that had sprung up outside many bases -- places where G.I.s could gather. I met with Army psychiatrists who were concerned about the type of training our men were receiving... quite different, they said, from the trainings during WWII and Korea. The doctors felt this training was having a damaging effect on the psyches of the young men, effects they might not recover from. I raised money and hired a former Green Beret, Donald Duncan, to open and run the G.I. Office in Washington D.C. to try and get legal and congressional help for soldiers who were being denied their rights under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. I talked for hours with U.S. pilots about their training, and what they were told about Vietnam. I met with the wives of servicemen. I visited V.A. hospitals. Later in 1978, wanting to share with other Americans some of what I had learned about the experiences of returning soldiers and their families, I made the movie Coming Home. I was the one who would be asked to speak at large anti-war rallies to tell people that the men in uniform were not the enemy, that they did not start the war, that they were, in growing numbers our allies. I knew as much about military law as any layperson. I knew more than most civilians about the realities on the ground for men in combat. I lived and breathed this stuff for two years before I went to North Vietnam. I cared deeply for the men and boys who had been put in harm's way. I wanted to stop the killing and bring our servicemen home. I was infuriated as I learned just how much our soldiers were being lied to about why we were fighting in Vietnam and I was anguished each time I would be with a young man who was traumatized by his experiences. Some boys shook constantly and were unable to speak above a whisper.
It is unconscionable that extremist groups circulate letters which accuse me of horrific things, saying that I am a traitor, that POWs in Hanoi were tied up and in chains and marched past me while I spat at them and called them 'baby killers.' These letters also say that when the POWs were brought into the room for a meeting I had with them, we shook hands and they passed me tiny slips of paper on which they had written their social security numbers. Supposedly, this was so that I could bring back proof to the U.S. military that they were alive. The story goes on to say that I handed these slips of paper over to the North Vietnamese guards and, as a result, at least one of the men was tortured to death. That these stories could be given credence shows how little people know of the realities in North Vietnam prisons at the time. The U.S. government and the POW families didn't need me to tell them who the prisoners were. They had all their names. Moreover, according to even the most hardcore senior officers, torture stopped late in 1969, two and a half years before I got there. And, most importantly, I would never say such things to our servicemen, whom I respect, whether or not I agree with the mission they have been sent to perform, which is not of their choosing.
But these lies have circulated for almost 40 years, continually reopening the wound of the Vietnam War and causing pain to families of American servicemen. The lies distort the truth of why I went to North Vietnam and they perpetuate the myth that being anti-war means being anti-soldier.
Little known is the fact that almost 300 Americans -- journalists, diplomats, peace activists, professors, religious leaders and Vietnam Veterans themselves -- had been traveling to North Vietnam over a number of years in an effort to try and find ways to end the war. (By the way, those trips generated little if any media attention.) I brought with me to Hanoi a thick package of letters from families of POWs. Since 1969, mail for the POWs had been brought in and out of North Vietnam every month by American visitors. The Committee of Liaison With Families coordinated this effort. I took the letters to the POWs and brought a packet of letters from them back to their families.
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Our Veterans are not extremist groups. Surely you are not including them in your generalization.
Where have you been all these years Jane while the Veterans and families have desperately been dealing with missing loved ones and war trauma?
Even when you were married to a representative in Washington who did absolutely nothing to help the Veterans you refused to do anything.
In your letter you state nothing of apologizing or wanting to help those you negatively impacted.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boat_people
----quote the site--
Events resulting from the Vietnam War led many people in Cambodia, Laos, and especially Vietnam to become refugees in the late 1970s and 1980s, after the fall of Saigon. In Vietnam, the new communist government sent many people who supported the old government in the South to "re-education camps", and others to "new economic zones." An estimated 1 million people were imprisoned without formal charges or trials.[1] According to published academic studies in the United States and Europe, 165,000 people died in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam's re-education camps.[1] Thousands were abused, tortured, and executed.[1] These factors, coupled with poverty and the total destruction of the country that happened during the Vietnam war, caused hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese to flee the country. In 1979, Vietnam was at war (Sino-Vietnamese War) with the People's Republic of China (PRC). Many ethnic Chinese living in Vietnam, who felt that the government's policies directly targeted them, also became "boat people."
---end quote--
That the USA did wrong in the Vietnam war does not make the communist government of Vietnam good, right, moral or honorable. The facts plainly show they were not.
If a country has "weapons of mass destruction"...
and that country has suitable warning that they are about to be INVADED by a foreign power...
...then WHY would they transport their best weapons OUT OF THE COUNTRY!?!?!?
I mean, wouldn't you want to, say, I don't know, use them against the troops of that invading country?!??!!?
Yes, it is perhaps true she isn't denying the story, but the seven individuals she did meet in North Vietnam aren't claiming she gave SSNs to the North Vietnamese, either. In fact it appears the seven never claimed they gave her any names which were turned over to the North Vietnamese.
Her intentions may have been to help, but the fact is, she did not help anyone, including herself. My family has fought in every war in which this country has been engaged since the Revolutionary War, including Vietnam. Her actions, in my opinion (which is simply that), were unpatriotic at a time when my big brothers (both enlisted and both Purple Heart Recipients) were serving their country in that jungle. They needed support, not bad mouthing by an American Citizen with the press in the palm of her hand and the luxury of a hot bath and a flight home when she had her fill of publicity. Rather than continuing to try to justify her actions, it's time to just say, "I'm sorry. I was wrong". It's been many years and I doubt she will change the minds of many, but if even a few find some sort of comfort in her coming clean that should be reason enough.
You used your celebrity to bring attention to the War. That is a powerful instrument to wield. While I believe your intentions were noble, your actions better served the persons trying to kill our soldiers at that time. There is no debate about that, our veterans all agree. Instead of debating when they stopped torturing our airmen in the Hanoi Hilton, you should limit your remarks to that it never should have happened. You had not qualifications what so ever to involve yourself other than being a recognizable face and name. You let it get away from you, and if you care about the average american that serve din that war, you'd simply apologize.
Who sits in an anti aircraft gun used to shoot down American planes on a dialy basis? Honestly, it got away form her, her husband at the time, her manager/producer etc...it destroyed any good will of that trip by allowing that to happen. She can blame herself and them for that happening, they did it to themselves. And any service man or woman, or family has a right to say whatever they want for about that lapse of judgment.
The US supported Thieu and his fellow colonial collaborators who forced themselves on their people. You have to remember that those folks spent their military careers fighting for the French, Japanese, French, and then the US. When Thieu ran from Saigon. he told his troops to fight to the death, and ran away with most of the gold in the treasury. Such a great leader and "patriot". He wanted his troops to die to make himself rich, and that was the whole attitude of the so called South Vietnamese leaders. THAT is why they lost the war. They were collaboratioinist cowards who would sell their own mother for a few bucks.
Is it possible that the history of the planet Earth might contain some parts that do not fit your pocahontas world-view? Maybe there are situations in which the United States has no guilt-free pain-free options. Ever think of that? How do you know what the history of the world would have been without the US as an opposing force to the global spread of marxism-leninism backed up by the Soviet Union.