Vietnamese activists in L.A. are furious over the county’s declaration of April 30 as “Jane Fonda Day.”
Only days after county officials announced the homage to the 86-year-old actress, members of the Vietnamese community were outraged.
Activists immediately retaliated against the celebration by dubbing the month as “Black April,” referring the fall of Saigon, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Fonda, who has been denigrated as “Hanoi Jane” for decades, is notorious not just for opposing the U.S. war effort but for actually traveling into North Vietnamese territory and giving aid and comfort to the Chinese-backed enemy.
“She may be a very strong activist for climate change, but besides that, we also view her as being a person who was very cruel to the rights of the South Vietnamese people during the antiwar protests,” said L.A. resident Phat Bui, chairman of the Vietnamese American Federation of Southern California.
Bui also sent a letter to county officials to change the date and added that choosing “such a date can inflict so much pain to our community and to the Vietnam War veterans.”
U.S. forces fled the South Vietnamese Capitol on April 30, 1975. Members of L.A.’s Vietnamese community gather every April 30 to memorialize that dark day.
Republican State Sen. Janet Nguyen blasted the county, saying Fonda Day was “alarming and profoundly disrespectful to over half a million Vietnamese Americans in California.”
Rep. Michelle Steel, also a Republican, also blasted the county.
“To elevate Hanoi Jane over the Vietnamese Community, Americans who sacrificed their lives, and the loved ones they lost to communism, is deeply offensive to the freedom-loving Vietnamese Americans who bear such tragic and painful memories of the Vietnam War,” Steel said.
With all the pressure over the offensive choice of dates, the county’s board of supervisors agreed to move the date and is now considering April 8 instead. The board also insisted that the choice of April 30th for Fonda’s honors “was unintentional.”
Fonda, who spent many years refusing to apologize for her aid to the Communists, did relent later in life. In 2013, she admitted to making a huge mistake posing for her infamous photos alongside North Vietnamese soldiers in 1972.
“I made one unforgivable mistake when I was in North Vietnam, and I will go to my grave with this,” she said at the time, adding, “I don’t know if I was set up or not.” “I was an adult. I take responsibility for my actions…”
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She has also said she often apologizes to American Vietnam veterans whenever she meets them.
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