Hanoi Jane: War, Sex & Fantasies of Betrayal

Abstract

Jane: War, Sex & Fantasies of Betrayal Jerry Lembcke. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2010.In Jane, Jerry Lembcke, professor of sociology at The College of Holy Cross, seeks to understand why myth of actress Jane Fonda as a traitor who gave aid and comfort to enemy during Vietnam War continues to resonate in American culture long after Fonda's retirement from social activism and silver screen. Of course, Fonda did travel to North Vietnam in July 1972, meeting with prisoners of war and recording radio broadcasts critical of war. Lembcke dispels several myths regarding Fonda's controversial visit to Hanoi. He finds no evidence for allegation that when prisoners slipped her notes for their families, Fonda turned these communications over to North Vietnamese, who severely beat prisoners for breaking rules, killing three of them. In addition, Lembcke suggests that few service personnel even heard her radio broadcasts from Hanoi, undermining notion that Fonda was responsible for spreading defeatism among American soldiers.On hand, Fonda was popular with many servicemen for her contributions to FTA (Free Army) variety shows which toured near military bases and criticized military and civilian leadership responsible for Vietnam War. Yet, Lembcke notes that while a favorite performer, Fonda was not founder of this antiwar organization. In fact, Fonda was only one of many antiwar activists who visited North Vietnam during waning years of conflict. And her visit actually generated little controversy in American press, which gave more coverage to pilgrimage of former Attorney General Ramsey Clark to Hanoi. Fonda's emergence as face of antiwar activism during Vietnam era occurred following conflict, and Lembcke argues that Fonda's story fits trope that political right would employ to assert that Vietnam War was lost by a betrayal of soldiers on home front. To assure that future conflicts are not undermined by dissent and that all Americans support troops, myth of Jane is resurrected by right as a warning to those who might question American foreign and military policies.It was essential to scapegoat a figure such as Jane Fonda so that warriors did not have to question their own masculinity. Lembcke asserts that betrayal of prisoners of war is crucial to Jane mythology as it resonates with tradition of captivity narratives dating back to nation's Puritan ancestors and cultural fears that captives might succumb to attractions of the other found paradoxically both outside of civilization and within dominant culture itself. Lembcke writes, Hanoi Jane represented antiwarrior latent within culture, self-indulgent and rebellious underbelly of America that could, and did, turn hard men soft and cost nation its victory in Southeast Asia (38).Hanoi Jane was also a sexualized object, which Lembcke argues was based upon a misreading of Fonda's science-fiction character Barbarella (1968) as a sex kitten rather than a more complicated bisexual persona. Lembcke certainly seems to have a point in his analysis of Barbarella, but he tends to ignore that soldier fantasies of Fonda as a sexual object may have more to do with her Oscar-winning portrayal of sexy prostitute Bree Daniels in Klute (1971). …