'Hanoi Jane' Honour Is Defeated

BBC News

March 17, 2006

A move to honour actress Jane Fonda for her US charity work has been defeated because of her infamous opposition to the Vietnam war in the 1970s.

Senators in Fonda's home state of Georgia voted 38-1 against a resolution praising Fonda for charity donations and work to combat teenage pregnancy.

Many in the US still see her as a traitor after a trip to the North Vietnamese capital, Hanoi, in 1972.

She has since apologised for visiting a gun site used to shoot down US planes.

Republican Senator John Douglas said Fonda, who picked up the nickname "Hanoi Jane", was "guilty of treason".

"I can think of no living American who is less worthy of this honour," he said. The resolution was sponsored by Senator Steen Miles, who said her charity work should make up for past mistakes.

But even she voted against the motion after Fonda herself tried to have it withdrawn to avoid controversy.

A Republican leader forced the vote to go ahead, saying members of his party wanted to go on record against it.

Fonda, who lives in Atlanta, recently acknowledged her visit to the Hanoi gun site was a "betrayal" of the US military.

It was the "largest lapse of judgement that I can even imagine", she said.

Charity roles

But she said she did not regret meeting American prisoners of war in North Vietnam or making broadcasts on Radio Hanoi.

The actress is founder of the Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention, a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations and has made donations to universities and charities.

She has starred in films including Barbarella, Nine to Five, On Golden Pond and Monster-in-Law.

She won Oscars for her roles in Klute and Coming Home in the 1970s and has been nominated on five other occasions.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/entertainment/4816004.stm

Published: 2006/03/17 09:44:19 GMT

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