Jane Fonda is one of the genuine heroines of the 20th Century. She helped found FTA, a network of anti-war coffee houses located near army bases across Amerikkka and was very active in the VVAW anti-war veterans' movement. She was an inspiration to everyone who worked and hoped for peace and a thorn in the side of every war-mongering bastard and fascist storm-trooper in the world.
But the one thing I remember best about Jane was an interview at some local airport (mighta been Buffalo, NY) when the interviewer referred to a possible "mistake" that the U.S. might have made in getting into Viet Nam in the first place, and Jane cut the interviewer off in mid-sentence with "Mistake? This is no "mistake!" It's a crime!"
This was something I had been thinking every time I watched or read the news. The most "courageous" reporters or commentators might admit that possibly, only possibly, mind you, it might have been a "mistake" to get involved in Viet Nam, and every time I heard this, it would drive me bananas. What is WRONG with these fucking ass-holes? What kind of "mistake?" Did they get lost on the way to Japan? It was as if the U.S. government had a Pravda-like death grip on the media and no one dared state the obvious - - the obvious being the criminality of the entire U.S. effort.
And then right there, on my old black-and-white TV, in the middle of an afternoon of nothing, Jane Fonda -- this absolutely drop-dead gorgeous all-American babe, said it, and in front of the whole world. I felt like a dam had been broken. It was one of those turning-point moments in the war, a moment when I could see that Amerikkkan fascism and aggression COULD be broken and WOULD be broken, that the rulers were losing their grip on the public discourse. Beauty, brains and courage combined in that one moment and stood up to be counted against all the evils of Amerikkka.
I am a Jane Fonda fan and will be all of my life. I was sickened and nauseated when she apologized to Amerikkka's vets, but I felt that even the ignominy of that apology was washed away by the hope that she had given to hundreds of millions of people in Amerikkka and around the world, during the darkest days of the Viet Nam struggle, a renewed faith that the human spirit would triumph even over the biggest and wealthiest death machine on this planet, as it eventually did.
So, Jane Fonda can say whatever she likes on TV, even the C-word. She's certainly earned that right. And anyone who wants to see her at her best, with a great 60s sound-track as well, can go out and rent "Coming Home," a wonderful vehicle for her talents and beauty and in itself an indictment of the war and the fascist and militarist movements in Amerikkka that supported it.
