[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 63 (Friday, May 13, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E970]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   AN ARTICLE BY MR. DEXTER LEHTINEN

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. DANIEL E. LUNGREN

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 12, 2005

  Mr. DANIEL E. LUNGREN of California. Mr. Speaker, it is my privilege 
to place into the Record the words of Dexter Lehtinen, a reconnaissance 
platoon leader who was seriously wounded in the Vietnam War. After 
serving our country in Vietnam, Mr. Lehtinen graduated first in his 
class from Stanford Law School and went on to serve as a Florida State 
Senator and a United States Attorney for the Southern District of 
Florida.
  On May 8, the world celebrated the 60th anniversary of V-E Day 
marking the end of the war in Europe. With ceremonies commemorating the 
Allies victory over tyranny, the day served as a reminder of the 
sacrifices made to this country by what many call our greatest 
generation.
  In contrast to the fitting tribute paid to the World War II 
generation, Jane Fonda recently published a book ``My Life So Far.'' 
There, she expresses regret not for her visits to North Vietnam, her 
broadcasts on Radio Hanoi nor her cavalier description of our tortured 
POW's as ``hypocrites and liars,'' but only for being photographed in a 
North Vietnamese antiaircraft gun site.
  Let us not forget how damaging her actions were to the POW's and 
combat troops in the field. I firmly believe in the First Amendment 
rights all American's cherish, but traveling to enemy soil to criticize 
our soldiers and airmen during the war is a reprehensible act not 
easily forgotten nor pardoned.
  I urge my colleagues to read Mr. Lehtinen's article and never forget 
the sacrifices made by all veterans of this great nation.

               [From the National Review, April 29, 2005]

                        Jane Fonda in Wonderland


                        non-apology not accepted

                          (By Dexter Lehtinen)

       You may have heard that Jane Fonda apologized to Vietnam 
     veterans in her current book. That's incorrect. She expressed 
     ``regret'' for one photograph, but remains proud of her Radio 
     Hanoi broadcasts, her efforts to achieve a Communist victory, 
     and her attacks on American servicemen as war criminals. She 
     never uses the word ``apology.''
       Fonda's latest foray into her past--with her pseudo-apology 
     for having been photographed while sitting on a Communist 
     North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun, along with her continued 
     vigorous defense of all other aspects of her trip to North 
     Vietnam and her support for the North Vietnamese and 
     Cambodian Communist wars--reminds us that apologies can be 
     very tricky things. An unqualified apology offered with 
     sincere regret for the full scope of the wrong by someone who 
     recognizes the harm inflicted on others can help in 
     reconciliation. But a ``pseudo-apology,'' offered with 
     limitations by someone who still defends the bulk of the 
     wrong, only serves to aggravate the injury.
       Everyone knows the negative effects of the common pseudo-
     apology, the refrain of which goes, ``I'm sorry if I offended 
     you.'' Pseudo-apologies attempt to subtly shift the blame to 
     the injured party, who apparently misunderstood the good 
     intentions of the offender.
       So it is with Jane Fonda's book. In My Life So Far, ``Hanoi 
     Jane'' expresses ``regret'' for one thing--being photographed 
     with an anti-aircraft gun. ``I do not regret that I went. My 
     only regret about the trip was that I was photographed in a 
     North Vietnamese antiaircraft gun site.'' Fonda amplifies: 
     ``That two minute lapse of sanity will haunt me until I 
     die.'' She is ``innocent of what the photo implies,'' but 
     ``the photo exists, delivering its message, regardless of 
     what I was really doing or feeling.'' She makes it abundantly 
     clear, without apology or regret, that what she was ``really 
     doing'' was aiding the Communist enemy (who ``touch our 
     hearts''), and that what she was ``really feeling'' was that 
     U.S. aviators were war criminals.
       The photograph is not Fonda's primary transgression. Of 
     course, the photo itself became the everlasting graphic proof 
     of her outrageous behavior. So in a way Fonda is right--in 
     practice, it is the photograph that reminds generations of 
     who Jane Fonda really is. In her ``regret,'' limited to the 
     photograph alone, Vietnam veterans see Fonda's endeavoring to 
     ameliorate the harm to herself with virtually no regard to 
     the harm she caused to others.
       Hanoi Jane's wrongs go far beyond the photograph. First, of 
     course, are the facts that she joined the enemy gun crew at 
     all and made two visits to North Vietnam. Second, Fonda's 
     self-initiated broadcasts on Radio Hanoi accused Americans of 
     being war criminals. It was these broadcasts from the enemy's 
     capital (not the gun photo) that gave her the lasting handle 
     ``Hanoi Jane'' in emulation of ``Tokyo Rose,'' an American 
     who broadcast Japanese propaganda in World War II. In her 
     self-proclaimed FTA (``F*** the Army'') rallies, she 
     claimed that personal atrocities ``were a way of life for 
     many of our military''.
       Third, Fonda exploited American POWs for Communist gain, 
     asserting that the POWs were being treated humanely following 
     a Communist-controlled visit. In fact, the remarkable POWs 
     who showed any resistance to the Fonda visit were beaten 
     severely and she betrayed the POWs by falsely claiming that 
     they expressed ``disgust'' and ``shame'' over what they had 
     done. When the returning POWs reported their torture, showing 
     their broken bodies as proof, Fonda called them ``hypocrites 
     and liars.'' She claims in her book that she was ``framed.''
       Fourth, Fonda ignored the non-Communist Vietnamese and 
     Cambodians who resisted the Vietnamese Communists and the 
     Cambodian Khmer Rouge, showing no concern for their fate. 
     Fonda continued to support the Communists against indigenous 
     non-Communists even after American withdrawal. She was not 
     ``anti-war''; she was ``pro-war''--for a Communist victory. 
     She was not even ``anti-atrocity'' per se, remaining silent 
     on Communist executions of Vietnamese and Cambodian civilians 
     (such as the 3,000 slaughtered with their hands tied in Hue 
     in 1968, or the final tragedy following Communist victories 
     in 1975).
       Fonda's hopes for a Communist victory in South Vietnam and 
     Cambodia were fulfilled. But her hopes for fame as an 
     instrument of Communist achievements have been dashed on the 
     rocks of reality--the truth about Communist malevolence and 
     disregard for human dignity; the truth about the commitment 
     by most American soldiers to honorable behavior; the truth 
     about the torture and murder of American POWs. Now her 
     efforts to promote commercial gain through a limited pseudo-
     apology, which is simultaneously withdrawn by a less visible 
     (yet explicit) defense of her transgressions, will fail on 
     the same rocks of reality.
       Jane Fonda has always lived in a kind of Wonderland--where 
     American POWs are liars and Communist tyrants are honorable 
     men. Now she says that ``the U.S. loss represented our 
     nation's chance for redemption'' and that the Communist 
     victory ``symbolizes hope for the planet.'' Her latest foray 
     into the Vietnam War only shows that, unlike Alice, Jane 
     Fonda has yet to emerge from Wonderland.

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