Hanoi Jane: Unconscious Rage

Caution: This blog contains graphic language and images.

Hanoi Jane: Unconscious Rage

           Social media has undoubtedly made societal impacts far beyond virtual face-to-face 

conversation. The decade-old digital networking phenomenon of Facebook, Twitter, and the 

hundreds of various other up-and-coming applications has united communities and 

organized movements. 

Social media has also reincarnated journalism. The Internet has enabled multi-way 

communication. The information release that was once dictated by the authority of 

professional news outlets can now unravel through user-generated blogs, tweets, and 

videos. However, beyond the reincarnation of the story lies the reincarnation of the 

interview. The opportunity for users to comment on every online post creates an 

“unconscious interview” that allows the capture and study of beliefs, opinions, and 

reactions. 

      An investigation into the lingering irrational rage towards actress and political activist, 

Jane Fonda, demonstrates how unconscious interviews pave a path to an explanation. 

According to the 2011 Fiscal Times, there are approximately 750 million Facebook 

and 100 million Twitter users worldwide (The Social Media Explosion: By the 

Numbers). Studies show that digital natives, the first generation to grow up using 

the Internet, spend an average of nine hours on social media per day (Lin 200).  

Because social media communication is often as frequent as casual, in-person 

conversation, users typically carry their online behavior with the same nonchalance. 

When an individual is being interviewed with the traditional method of question and 

answer, they monitor and censure their demeanor and responses because they are 

aware that their feedback is being documented. 

However, social media activity has the permanence of any visual, vocal, or print 

recording.  Facebook’s legal terms state, “When you publish content or information 

using the ‘Public’ setting, it means that you are allowing everyone, including people 

off of Facebook, to access and use that information (Statement of Rights and 

Responsibilities).” User blogs, tweets, statuses, and the unconscious interviews 

attached can be printed, copy-pasted, screen shot, and distributed easily, freely, and 

legally. But because social media activity is avidly frequent in their daily lives, users 

often forget the digital scars they are capable of creating. A Facebook post of a Jane 

Fonda photo on November 13th, 2011, followed by the comment, “Jane Fonda is a 

cunt whore (Nelson),” provides a glimpse into the raw emotions and scathing 

honesty that fuel unconscious interviews.  

Fonda’s controversy began nearly 4 decades before the conception of social media 

when the Barbarella bombshell started participating in anti-Vietnam War activism. 

In her autobiography, My Life So Far, Fonda claims to have felt moral motivation to 

use her fame towards promoting peace. She began touring college campuses to speak 

on GI rights and issues in the late 1960s. She joined fellow actors, Fred Gardner and 

Donald Sutherland to create Free the Army, an anti-war road show performed 

outside of United States military bases.   

According to Fonda, backlash began with finding an American flag hung on her Klute 

film set. Animosity escalated to her place on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s 

Counter Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO) surveillance list. COINTELPRO was a 

series of projects that aimed to discredit and disrupt political organizations involved 

in progressive causes such as the Civil Rights Movement and Anti-Vietnam War 

demonstrations (Fonda 254-256). The FBI and the CIA eventually complied a 

20-thousand-page file on Fonda and distributed her 1970 phone call records to 

President Richard M. Nixon (Fonda 256).  In My Life So Far, Fonda hints suspicion 

of COINTELPRO playing a role in her Cleveland Airport arrest for drug smuggling, 

which led to her notorious mug shot with her fist clenched and arm raised in a 

“Power to the People” salute. 

Charges were dropped when authorities realized that Fonda was smuggling vitamins 

and not illegal narcotics (Fonda 261-262).  But it was Fonda’s July of 1972 trip to 

Hanoi, Vietnam that dubbed her an unpatriotic “Hanoi Jane” stigma to a legion of 

foes. 

Hanoi Jane toilet paper 

Four decades of Hanoi Jane urinal target stickers, “Kill Jane Fonda” eye patches 

(Hanoi Jane/ Veteran Stickers), and mobs of furious protestors holding signs with 

messages like “Traitor Commie Bitch” (Drue-AFCL) at Fonda’s film openings stem 

from three main junctures in Hanoi: Fonda’s broadcasts over Radio Hanoi airwaves, 

her visit with American prisoners of war (POW), and incriminating photographs of 

Fonda sitting in a North Vietnamese antiaircraft gun site (Fonda 318-325). 

The facts are that Fonda made ten broadcasts on Radio Hanoi, stating that weapons 

and civilian attacks troops were inflicting on the Vietnamese categorized America’s 

political and military leaders as war criminals. She urged American pilots to think 

about their actions before following orders (Fonda 324).  Fonda met 7 American 

POWs: Edison Miller, Walter Wilber, James Padgett, Kenneth James Fraser, 

William G. Byrns, Edward Elias, and David Wesley Hoffman. The POWs were driven 

from their camp, the Zoo, in a bus with blacked out windows to the headquarters of 

the army film studio. All 7 had previously signed an antiwar letter (Fonda 314), 

including Lieutenant Commander David Hoffman, who appeared 6 times at meetings 

with anti war visitors in 1973(Fonda 326). After returning to the United States in 

February of 1973, Hoffman claimed that his meeting with Fonda and former 

Attorney General, Ramsey Clark shortly afterwards had caused him to be tortured. 

However, Hoffman’s prison roommate, Norris Charles claimed that he never saw or 

heard of any torture in his camp.  In the spring of 1973, Wilber told the Los Angeles 

Times that Fonda “could see that we were healthy and had not been tortured.” 

Fonda also called the POWs that claimed torture liars, hypocrites, and pawns, 

saying, “I’m quite sure that there were incidents of torture. But the pilots who are 

saying it was the policy of the Vietnamese and that it was systematic, I believe that’s 

all a lie (Fonda 327).” 

Like any image, the photographic evidence of Fonda laughing among Vietnamese 

soldiers is subject to the interpretation of every individual viewer. 

In self-defense, Fonda elaborates on her childhood admiration for servicemen when 

her father, Henry Fonda, an already renowned actor, enlisted into World War II. 

She speaks of meeting American servicemen while living in France, claiming that 

their trauma and embitterment towards the Vietnam War inspired her activism and 

return to the United States. She says that she devoted 2 years to traveling to 

military bases, interacting with service members in GI coffee houses, discussing the 

emotional and mental detriments of military training with Army psychiatrists, and 

fundraising for legal and congressional help for soldiers being denied rights under 

the Uniform Code of Military Justice before touching Hanoi grounds.

On her official website, Fonda addresses her research on military law, the 

corruption and lies she believed were being told by the government about the war, 

and her anguish from those who returned from the Vietnam battlegrounds 

disheveled and traumatized (Fonda). Her autobiography unveils her interviews with 

doctors who informed her of the increasing potency in America’s weapons upon 

Nixon’s presidency. They described pellets that were permanently lodged and 

expanding inside of bodies as well as infant deformations emerging after America’s 

Agent Orange showers over Vietnam rainforests (Fonda 300-303). 

She describes the warm welcoming from Vietnamese 

citizens, the United States government’s proclaimed enemy, 

who embraced Americans, while claiming that only its political leaders were villains. 

She writes of her encounter with a young Vietnamese girl who helped her find cover 

from American bombs (Fonda 311-312). In her autobiographies, website, and 

interviews, she explains her gun site photo as a result of being exhausted and an 

emotional wreck from her trip. She describes language barriers, being asked to sing   

a  song with the Vietnamese soldiers, and being led to sit on an antiaircraft gun. 

Fonda still believes she was framed. She has made a series of public apologies from   

the 1980s until present day and has taken responsibility for embarking on her 

journey to Hanoi without the guidance of somebody more politically experienced. 

Fonda has repeatedly regarded that photo as one of her greatest regrets (Fonda).
 

The Hanoi Jane rumors arose about seven months after her return from Vietnam 

once the war was over and the POWs were home. According to Fonda, the White 

House selected a group of the top ranking POWs to go on a media circuit, with 

President Nixon specifically ordering Chief of Staff H.R. Halderman to have the 

POWs use “the worst quotes” from Fonda they could find (Fonda). Fonda was 

initially rumored to be an unpatriotic traitor who provided aid and comfort to the 

enemy while openly vilifying American troops.  Over the decades, inculpating Fonda 

hearsay has flourished. The most popular rumor is that while meeting with the

 POWs in Hanoi, Fonda took a tiny piece of paper from each of them that contained 

their social security number. She then turned them into their Vietnamese captors, 

which led to their torture. Variations of the story have since been recycled and 

redistributed on the Internet. Some versions claim that the POWs had given Fonda 

letters for their families. Others state that the POWs were forced to meet with her. 

The most gruesome tale is that her visit and betrayal led to the execution the POWs. 

The fiction flourished within The Digital Revolution. In 1999, an email went viral in 

protest of Fonda being honored by Barbara Walters in the ABC special, A 

Celebration: 100 Years of Great Women. The email included testimonials, 

quotations, and precise details of the “paper strip” rumor naming specific names and 

military ranks of victims and witnesses. The message still continues to reappear in 

blogs and social media posts (Mikkelson). 

Every veteran named in the email has 

denied the stories and claims to have never met Fonda. Former POW, Captain Mike 

McGrath, president of the POW-NAM Organization has declared the story an 

“Internet hoax.” 

This is a hoax story placed on the Internet by unknown Jane Fonda haters. No one 

knows who initiated this story. I have spoken with all the parties named. They all 

state that this particular story is a hoax and wish to disassociate their names from the 

false story. They never made the statements attributed to them. (Fonda)

           

However, unconscious interviews provide impressive evidence that Hanoi Jane malice 

thrives. As of December of 2013, there are approximately eleven Facebook pages 

targeted for virtual communities connected by a shared Jane Fonda repugnance. 

The most popular, Vets Boycotting Hanoi Jane has almost forty thousand Facebook 

fans, about half of the fans of Jane Fonda’s official Facebook page.

 Nearly fifty anti-Jane Fonda videos are posted on YouTube along with dozens of 

websites, blogs, and “Hanoi Jane Traitor” gifts and merchandise from sweatshirts to 

coffee mugs. 

Most of the claims made on the websites are regurgitation and frequent direct quotes 

from the “Internet hoax” email.    

User posts as well as the unconscious interviews that follow unveil shameless 

odium and in some cases, a threatening wrath. 

The following are examples of statements from users that are publicly posted on    
anti-Jane Fonda social media: 

• Hang the traitor whore (Horton).
• Bitch, burn in hell, you Asian whore (Lewis)!
• When she dies, we should go to her wake, have a bottle of urine in our pocket, kneel at the casket, dump some on our fingers and flick it out onto her face as we leave (Jacob)!
• I wish somebody would take that TRAITOR WHORE and torture her until she wants to die and then have her tortured even more. DIE HANOI JANE. DIE A HORRIBLE DEATH AND HOPEFULLY YOUR FAMILY GETS IT TOO [sic] (Keene).
• Someone should shove a 12mm rocket up her ass and set it off  [sic] (Gootz)!
• Need to hang that bitch for treason [sic] (Speake).
• I can only hope she gets hit by a bus while being raped by a moose and burns in hell (Henze).
• She should have faced a military firing squad years ago (Farrell).  

           

 There are several plausible explanations as to why, out of the nearly three hundred 

American journalists, diplomats, peace activists, professors, religious leaders, and Vietnam 

War veterans themselves who visited POWs and enemy soldiers in Hanoi, Jane Fonda 

carries the bulk of veterans’ Vietnam War embitterment. When trying to comprehend the 

mentality of those who hold rancor towards Fonda, one must begin with the assumption 

that they genuinely believe the most extreme of the rumors behind her alleged treason. The

 most sensational of the Hanoi Jane tales are that her visit with them led to the torture and

 ultimate death of the seven POWs she met, voiced unpatriotic propaganda over Radio 

Hanoi airwaves, laughed and carried on with enemy soldiers, and called all American 

soldiers “liars” and “baby killers (Lembcke 2-3).” 

            The following is a list of explanations for such a severe abhor for Hanoi Jane: 

• She was already established as a public figure before her anti-Vietnam War activism and Hanoi trip.
• She was accused of voicing propaganda over Radio Hanoi.
• She visited American POWs and then claimed that they were healthy and humanely treated.
• She posed in compromising photos with Vietnamese soldiers.
• She accused military members of being war criminals.
• Her actions caused deaths.
• She is a celebrity.
• She is a famous liberal celebrity playing a famous conservative first lady in 2013 film, Lee Daniels’ The Butler.  
• She is a female.
• She was an established female sex symbol at the dawn of her controversy.

The first consideration one must make is that Fonda was and still is susceptible to 

harsher backlash than the typical political activist because she was an established 

public figure before her Vietnam War involvement. Any behavior she conducted in, 

especially in controversial nature, posed risk for scandal. However, Fonda was one 

of several public faces that traveled to Hanoi. An example is Ramsey Clark, who 

served as United States Attorney General under President Lyndon B. Johnson from 

1967 to 1969. 

Clark visited North Vietnam in 1972, just a few weeks after Fonda’s departure, 

to protest the bombing of Hanoi.  Like Fonda, Clark’s denunciations of the Vietnam

 War were broadcasted over Radio Hanoi.  Also parallel to Fonda, Clark visited with 

United States POWs in Hanoi and claimed that they were humanely treated, 

“un-brainwashed,” and “healthy.” Time magazine featured several articles on Clark’s 

criticism of the Vietnam War and United States bombing raids. Time also ran 

several photographs of Clark in North Vietnam, including one with him surrounded  

by several smiling North Vietnamese soldiers, similar to the photographs that still 

fuel spite towards Fonda (Lembcke 16).  

Ramsey Clark in Hanoi, 1973

Clark visiting POWs 

Despite the controversy in Clark joining Saddam Hussein’s defense team in 2004, 

social media indicates that Clark was either forgiven or forgotten. There are no anti-

Ramsey Clark Facebook pages or YouTube videos created to denounce or discredit 

him. When he does appear in blogs that express aggression towards his Vietnam 

War activism, he is only mentioned as an accomplice of Hanoi Jane. Approximately 

seven blogs are posted condemning Ramsey Clark alone as a traitor, but they barely 

mention his Vietnam War involvement and focus on his defense of Saddam Hussein. 

The readers’ unconscious interviews below each blog are insulting, but not the 

vicious, personal attacks targeted at Fonda. 

The following are unconscious interviews for the blog, “Ramsey Clark: An American

 Traitor (Sparks).” 

• Maybe he should have lived in Iraq for ten years during Saddam’s rule and let’s see if he would still want to defend him (Brandonh).
• Clark, along with others, is a treasonous scoundrel (Old Cracker).
• Clark has been a traitor for a long time. He was a real darling during the anti war crowd during the Vietnam era (Nightdriver).
• Traitor he is, but I damn sure wouldn’t call him American [sic] (Dc-Zoo).

While Fonda is frequently referred to as a “cunt,” “bitch, “whore,” and “piece of 

human waste” who deserves to be “hung,” “shot,” and “burned with her ashes sent 

back to Vietnam,” Clark is referred to as a “mockery” and “scoundrel.” Clark’s 

professional performance seems to be under attack rather than his humanity. 

 

Like Clark and Fonda, Secretary of State John Kerry was a prominent voice in 

anti-Vietnam War activism. The United States Navy Veteran was a member of 

Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW). 

He was the first Vietnam veteran to testify to Congress about the war and did so in 

uniform wearing his service ribbons. 

Two days later, he was one of thousands of other veterans to participate in an 

anti-war demonstration. They threw their medals and ribbons over the fence to the 

front steps of the United States Capitol building (Oliphant).  Like Clark, Kerry’s 

demonstrations were highly publicized, appearing multiple times on ABC’s The Dick 

Cavett Show, The Washington Star, and NBC’s Meet the Press. One of the most 

commonly known criticisms of Hanoi Jane is that she called American political 

leaders “war criminals.” However, Kerry made similar if not bolder statements. 

When appearing on Meet the Press in 1971, Kerry stated: 

I committed the same kind of atrocities as thousands of other soldiers have 
committed in that I took part in shootings in free fire zones. I conducted harassment 
and interdiction fire. I used 50 caliber machine guns, which we were granted and 
ordered to use, which were our only weapon against people. I took part in search and 
destroy missions, in the burning of villages. All of this is contrary to the laws of 
warfare, all of this is contrary to the Geneva Conventions and all of this is ordered as 
a matter of written established policy by the government of the United States from 
the top down. And I believe that the men who designed these, the men who designed
the free fire zone, the men who ordered us, the men who signed off the air raid strike 
areas, I think these men, by the letter of the law, the same letter of the law that tried 
Lieutenant Calley are war criminals (Kerry). 

There are currently two anti-John Kerry Facebook pages:  The page entitled John 

Kerry Sucks has approximately two hundred fans and the other entitled American 

Patriots Against John Kerry has approximately five thousand fans, nearly thirty five 

thousand less than the most popular anti-Fonda page. 

While Jane Fonda aggressors focus their posts on the degradation of Fonda, the 

posts on John Kerry’s page are only sporadically directed solely to Kerry. 

Compared to Fonda’s lashings, Kerry’s hold a mild, juvenile tone. Users call him 

names that mimic childish playground taunting such as, “Creepy Kerry,” “Johnny 

Longface,” and “Herman Munster (Patterson).” 

             They say that his “brain is full of ketchup (Dop).” The most scathing 

insults call Kerry a “worthless piece of toad shit,” a “pathological liar,” and “a mere 

façade of a drug induced generation (Ryder).” 

Note: Kerry is not slut-shamed, however his wife is. 

The diluted detest towards Clark and Kerry compared to Fonda could be supported 

by the rumor that Fonda caused fatalities. Hypothetically, if Fonda’s visit with the

POWs had led to their execution, Fonda would have been guilty for seven deaths. 

However, Second Lieutenant William Calley Jr. was responsible for significantly 

more. Unconscious interviews from Fonda antagonists often proclaim that she 

should have been a convicted criminal, but Calley actually was one. 

On September 5, 1969, Calley was found guilty for murder in his role in the My Lai 

Massacre on March 16^th, 1969 (Tucker 149). He was the only United States military 

member convicted for the My Lai Massacre. Calley was charged with six 

specifications of premeditated murder for the deaths of one hundred and four 

Vietnamese unarmed civilians near the village of My Lai in South Vietnam. The mass 

murder slaughtered and in some cases gang raped and mutilated up to five hundred 

unarmed men, women, elderly, children, and infant civilians (Fonda 259). 

Setting fire to a home. 

Notice the woman in the background buttoning her blouse, indicating that she was possibly just recovering from being raped by one or more American soldiers before being murdered by them. 

Calley served three years of house arrest at Fort Benning and was then released. He 

currently lives with his wife in Atlanta, Georgia. 

His crimes were highly publicized. He was on the cover of Newsweek 

 magazine on December 8^th, 1969, as well as Time magazine on December 5^th, 1969 

and April 12^th, 1971. 

             Unconscious interviews portray Jane Fonda’s controversial 

photo among Vietnamese soldiers as a horrific betrayal. However, Calley was 

featured on the cover of the November 1970 issue of Esquire, in uniform with four 

Asian children huddled closely around him. While he is smiling brightly, the children

 hold somber expressions.

            Although the cover story gathered its share of controversy 

at the time of its publication, unconscious interviews show that an astounding 

amount of rage towards Calley has not had the shelf life as the rage towards Fonda. 

There are currently zero anti-William Calley Facebook pages. Although there are 

nearly one hundred YouTube videos that mention Calley, they are merely pieces of 

documentaries that cover the My Lai massacre from a historical standpoint. There 

are no videos compiled to directly attack Calley. In fact, the only videos dedicated to 

Calley are songs by artists such as Smokey Harless and Pat Ryan that defend him

 (Vietnam War Song Project). 

             Both Fonda and Calley have publicly apologized for 

their actions. Unconscious interviews attached Internet articles of Calley’s apology 

appear to be far more forgiving than Hanoi Jane’s. Fonda’s apologies are followed by 

a few scattered unconscious interviews that accept and even praise her activism. 

However, the majority of them still crucify her, proclaiming to always remember her 

betrayal. The following are a few of the responses to one of her apologies: 

• I lost many friends in Vietnam and I can tell you right now I would slap Jane the traitor across her face if I could only get to it (Higgins). 
• Too little, too late, Hanoi Jane (Korman)!
• Hanoi-Jane will never be forgiven by the Vietnam veterans [sic] (Maxwell).
• I hope you die a slow, miserable life as you made my life miserable. Did I forget to say that I HATE YOU [sic] (Bill)?
• Jane, do the only thing possible. Take a gun and shoot yourself. Other than that, your apology means NOTHING [sic] (Chris).

Although very few unconscious interviews for Calley’s apology articles defend his 

actions,  they display empathy. They tend to blame his wrongdoings on his military 

orders and the horrors of war.

 The following are unconscious interviews posted to the New York 

Times feature of Calley’s August 24^th, 2009 apology: 
 

• As a young adult during the Vietnam conflict, this apology moves me very much (Pene).
• How sad that William Calley suffers permanent regret for what happened at My, Lai 40 years ago (Patterson).
• At least Calley recognizes that what he did was wrong (Mulegino).
• He seems to have accepted his guilt and shows remorse (Dave).
• Good to hear from Calley and see that he is doing well (Michael).
• Putting guns in the hands of young men and sending them in harms way will continue to lead to atrocities and horrible incidents that the fog of war helps induce. It has always been thus and will be and is a horrible part of war (Enlightened).

The negative unconscious interviews towards Calley incriminate him, but are mature 

and composed in comparison to the words directed at Fonda. He is not called names 

and persecuting remarks are often directed towards the American government as a 

whole, rather than Calley alone.  Users to not detail any desires to commit pain 

against him in revenge. The following are negative unconscious interviews towards 

Calley:

• There is no denying that Calley committed a horrific crime, but the government-conceived, media-aided attempt to lay the blame solely at his feet is nearly as great a scandal as the massacre itself (Jimmy).
• My God, it took Calley 42 years to proffer a simple apology? It’s quite too little, 4 decades too late (John).
• Where is the justice in the American justice system (Prakosh)?
• They murdered defenseless women and children, including nursing babies, for several hours. What more do you need to know? If Calley were a real man he’d fall on his sword (Bill).
• I can only wonder if the families of My Lai felt the same outrage 35 years ago that the families of the Lockerbie bombing seem to feel now when a government shows mercy and compassion (Mike).
• Wow. This man kills 22 people and is let go after 3 years of comfy house-imprisonment, just because the victims weren’t Americans! I’m filled with rage and disgust (Z.S.).

Fonda’s celebrity status stands as another potential justification for her backlash. While 

involvement in war is an obligation for politicians and service members, Hollywood 

actors, actresses, and musicians can easily be perceived as spoiled elitists getting 

involved for the sake of a publicity boost. In My Life so Far, Fonda remembers her 

regret for her photo shoot among the Vietnamese soldiers: 

I realize that it is not just a U.S. citizen laughing and clapping on a Vietnamese antiaircraft gun. I am Henry Fonda’s privileged daughter who appears to be thumbing my nose at the country that has provided me these privileges (Fonda 318).

However, Fonda was one of several famous Vietnam War activists including Bob 

Dylan, John Fogerty, Neil Young, Pete Seeger, Donald Sutherland, Dick Gregory, 

Fred Gardner, and specifically John Lennon, who President Nixon attempted to 

deport. The Beatles musician wrote the anti-war ballad, “Give Peace a Chance,” 

which was sung on November 15^th, 1969 in Washington D.C, the second Vietnam 

Moratorium Day, by a quarter million people demonstrating against the war in 

Washington (Smith). 

Although the activist celebrity did receive criticism and 

accusations of following communism, social media shows that antipathy towards 

him has faded over the decades. There are zero Facebook pages compiled in 

opposition to Lennon. There is no derogatory memorabilia depicting him as a 

            traitor. 

 A few blogs are posted questioning whether or not Lennon’s songs had underlying 

communist support, but the sparse unconscious interviews that attack Lennon do so

 either lightly and sarcastically. Examples are, “Lennon was a communist and a 

Satanist who obviously had affairs with Pokémon (Chris_Com283),” and “He was 

one of the richest and most famous people in the world, had reaped the benefits this 

country has to offer, but was a strong critic of the system that had brought him to 

success (Smith).” 

When the news that Jane Fonda was cast to play Nancy Reagan in the Lee Daniels’ The 

Butler was released in mid 2012, outrage was evident online. 

The Internet hoax originally  created in 1999 was edited. Fabricated accusations against Fonda 

from journalist and long 

time friend, Barbara Walters were installed (Mikkelson). The message went viral, once again,

 being repeatedly forwarded from one Facebook page with unconscious interviews such as, 

“If I could shoot her between the eyes and not have to go to jail for it, I would do it in a 

heartbeat. Then I would urinate on her body. Signed: a disabled Vietnam vet (Rico).” 

The Facebook page, “Vets Boycotting Hanoi Jane,” was created on March 28th, 2012 and 

accumulated nearly forty thousand supporters within eighteen months. 

Veterans nationwide protested the film’s release and a theater in Elizabethtown, Kentucky 

refused to play the film altogether (Stanton). 

The fury conveyed in unconscious interviews went beyond Fonda simply 

entering the public eye, but that the liberal Hanoi Jane, their American renegade, was 

portraying a beloved Republican first lady. But Fonda was not alone in playing a 

contradiction. John Cusack, famous for both his acting and political outspokenness, was cast 

as the Republican President Richard Nixon. As a Huffington Post blogger, Cusack has 

proclaimed being against the War in Iraq and has called the Bush Administration’s worldview 

“depressing, corrupt, unlawful, and tragically absurd (Cusack).” 

Actor and comedian, Robin Williams, who plays President Dwight Eisenhower, has also 

mocked the Bush administration.

In early 2009 when President Barrack Obama took over office, he stated, “The reign of error 

is over. America is officially out of rehab (McDopenheim).” But outside of Fonda, there was 

little fuss on the digital airwaves. While Cusack and Williams were criticized for a poor 

performances and not looking enough like their characters, social media users were persistent 

in their pleas for Fonda’s eternal punishment.  Most jeers towards Cusack and Williams were 

evenly portioned among politically outspoken costars (Adams). One unconscious interview 

attached to an article about the casting stated, “John Cusack, Jane Fonda, and Robin Williams

 all playing Republicans? Oh the humanity! Or rather, oh the jingoistic, one-dimensional, 

stereotyping portrayals I foresee (Hail_Ants).” 

            Although Fonda mentioned her gender being part of the equation in the Hanoi Jane outrage,

 claiming that her activism was perceived by many as a “gender betrayal” (Fonda 318), but she was 

among several famous anti-war activist females. Author Angela Davis, filmmaker Susan Sontag, and 

singers Judy Collins and Joan Baez. Baez was arrested twice for blocking the entrance of the Armed 

Forces Center in Oakland, California (BBC News). 

She was involved in several anti-war marches and rallies and like Fonda, visited North Vietnam in 

1972 to address human rights and bring Christmas mail to American POWs. Although there are no 

Facebook pages, websites, or YouTube videos  compiled to portray her as treasonous, Baez has not 

remained clean of military animosity. In 2007, she was invited by John Mellencamp to perform with 

him at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. However, she was uninvited 

by Army Officials. “There might have been one, there might have been fifty soldiers that thought I 

was a traitor,” she stated (Cooper). 

Her rejection received a fair amount of media converge, including a mention on CNN’s show,  

Anderson Cooper 360, who welcomed viewers to state their opinions on the

 CNN website. The majority of the unconscious interviews on his announcement sided with Baez, 

stating that she should have been allowed to perform. Many boasted that anti-Vietnam war activism 

needed to be forgiven. One demonized Fonda and downplayed Baez’s damage, stating,  “Jane Fonda 

was the one who was called Hanoi Jane and visited Hanoi.  Joan Baez sang protest songs, blocked 

streets, and made a peaceful protest against the Vietnam War by not paying her taxes voluntarily 

(Charlotte).” Other unconscious interviews opposing her performance unleashed mild insults that 

lacked the gruesome, violent tone typically reserved for Hanoi Jane. The following are unconscious 

interviews on CNN’s website that side with her rejection: 

•           It was almost a savage mockery of everything America stands for. Because John invited Joan Baez, profession troop-hater, to sing a couple songs with him (Pareene).

•           Joan Baez performing for soldiers who believed in and lost for a cause she protests is just hypocritical, tacky, and a lovely PR move on her part (Tammy C).

•           Anyone who hates the US military as much as she does shouldn’t be performing for them. Maybe she can get an invite to perform for the Taliban or Al-Qaida (Perry).

•           Joan Baez is far too radical, liberal, and anti-war to be singing at Walter Reid (Sarasota).

Even the unconscious interviews following the blog entitled, “Traitorous Hippie Barred From 

Mocking Wounded Heroes,” which stated that Baez “lambasted the soldiers serving in 

Vietnam” and “figuratively spat at them upon their return,” simply degraded “hippies,” 

“liberals,” and claimed Baez was egocentric and immature for speaking out about the 

situation (Pareene). A few claimed to hate her politics, but like her music (Goat). In fact, if 

one Google searches “Joan Baez traitor bitch,” they will find a plethora of anti-Jane Fonda 

material. 

Of the numerous famous faces in Vietnam War demonstrations, Fonda was the only bona fide sex 

symbol. 

Her 1968 role as the science fiction siren, Barbarella, was an erotic icon for the generation

 of young men who found themselves on the front lines. Her political involvement began shortly 

afterwards. Suddenly Barbarella became a harsh critic of the very cause that her fan base was 

fighting for. In his book, Hanoi Jane: War, Sex, and Fantasies of Betrayal, Vietnam veteran, Jerry

 Lembcke, claims that Fonda has been used as a scapegoat to blame for America’s defeat in the war.

 “Hanoi Jane was female and sexual, a representative of the unrepressed other deeply embedded in 

the culture and psyche of the disciplined male warrior that surfaced, most troublingly for 

conservative supports of the war, in the POW camps themselves [sic],” (Lembcke 38).

In her autobiography, Fonda recalled her guilt when hearing about GI's tearing down their 

Barbarella posters. She wrote, “I am a woman who is seen as Barbarella, a character existing 

on some subliminal level as an embodiment of men's fantasies; Barbarella has become their 

enemy (Fonda 318).” 

            According to social media’s unconscious interviews, a vast amount of the verbal beatings 

towards Fonda are sexually charged. Her aggressors frequently choose derogatory terms with erotic 

connotation, such as “slut,”“skank,” “hussy,” and “whore.” 

Although fans of anti-Jane Fonda 

Facebook pages do not express desire for copulation, they indirectly insinuate the possibility with 

statements such as, “If she was the last woman on earth and I needed a  jjuh iu  [sic] (Monahan), I 

would play with myself instead of doing her,” and “Jane, how long as it been since you used an 

enemy tank for your dildo (Pacheco)?” 

The “Help Boycott Jane Fonda” Facebook page features several nude photos of Fonda with 

captions that accuse her of having sexual relations with Ho Chi Minh, former Chairman of 

the Central Communist Party of Vietnam (Help Boycott Jane Fonda). The unconscious 

interviews attached call Fonda a “whore of communism,” and a “Number 1 Hanoi slut 

(Simpson).” Several images posted on anti-Fonda Facebook pages feature her in tight 

clothing with her legs spread.

 

"Help Boycott Hanoi Jane" administrator

Sexualization and racism in a blog written by a Jane Fonda aggressor 

 One particularly explicit post is a still shot from one of Fonda’s 

workout videos. The photo is a close-up of her crotch while she is in the middle of a leg lift. 

Facebook user, Bren Pool Vignaroli who posted it to the page, remarks, “Jane (Hanoi Jane) 

Fonda: The Truth" calls it the “fondugliest crotch award (Vignaroli).” 

The facts and fiction behind Hanoi Jane have been differentiated and clearly proven for over

 a decade. There are just as many websites that portray the truth as the lies. However, when 

the links that clear Jane Fonda’s name are attached to the virtual threads of unconscious 

interviews, her aggressors either ignore them or briefly acknowledge them, only to hastily 

dismiss them and claim that they “still hate her (Nelson).”

Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of unconscious interviews isn’t the gruesome insults towards 

Fonda, but the lack of anonymity behind those who release them.  Connected to unconscious 

interviews are the profiles that compile them, providing the digital universe a glimpse into their 

lives.  Behind the virtual personalities who vividly detail their desires for the infinite agony of Jane 

Fonda are images of loving fathers fishing with their children, elementary school teachers running 

for breast cancer awareness, and retirees who play racquetball on Sundays. They listen to Taylor 

Swift and Fleetwood Mac. They post recipes for bourbon bacon chocolate chunk cookies and their 

gratitude for God. They cut the crusts off their peanut butter sandwiches and have “Honor, Courage, 

and Commitment” tattooed on their forearm. They protest war and vow to never forget their nineteen-

year-old son who perished in Afghanistan in 2010. It would be naive to overlook social media as a 

method of cultural analysis. Though it is new, it is worthy of serious observance.  Unconscious 

interviews unlock a gateway into psyches of wretched honesty.

A few profiles behind the hatred:

Charlie Discenza
High school teacher& dog lover 
"Hey Hanoi Jane, I WILL outlive you just so I can piss on your grave!"

Bren Pool Vignaroli
Christian& Jane Fonda crotch enthusiast

Katy Pacheco
Duck Dynasty supporter and loving grandmother
"It must be really frustrating, Jane. How long as it been since you used your enemy tank for a dildo?" 

Derek Keene
American patriot and loving father

" Wish somebody would take that TRAITOR WHORE and torture her till she wants to die and then have her tortured even more. DIE HANOI JANE, DIE A HORRIBLE DEATH AND HOPEFULLY YOUR FAMILY GETS IT TOO.” 

Larry CoyoteLar Henze
 Steelers fan and selfie taker
“I can only hope she gets hit by a bus while being raped by a moose

and burns in hell.”