Warsaw Leathernecks Det 1254

Barbara Walters comments on Jane  Fonda

We have heard this many times before but never  from Barbara  Walters.

Jane Fonda is being honored as  one of the “100 Women of  the Century”.

Barbara Walters Writes:

Unfortunately, many have forgotten and still countless others have never known how Ms. Fonda betrayed not only the idea  of our country, but specific men who served and sacrificed during the  Vietnam War.

The  first part of this is from an F-4E pilot. The pilot's name is Jerry  Driscoll. In 1968, the former Commandant of the USAF Survival  School was a POW in Ho Lo Prison the ' Hanoi  Hilton.'

Dragged from a stinking  cesspit of a cell, cleaned, fed, and dressed in clean PJ's, he was ordered  to describe for a visiting American 'Peace Activist' the 'lenient and  humane treatment' he'd received.

He  spat at Ms. Fonda, was clubbed, and was dragged away. During the subsequent  beating, he fell forward on to the camp Commandant 's feet, which sent that  officer berserk.

In 1978, the Air Force  Colonel still suffered from double vision (which permanently ended his  flying career) from the Commandant's frenzied application of a wooden  baton.

From 1963-65, Col. Larry  Carrigan was in the 47FW/DO (F-4E's). He spent 6 years in the ' Hanoi  Hilton', the first three of which his family only knew he was 'missing in  action'. His wife lived on faith that he was still alive. They, however, had time and devised a plan to get word to the  world that they were alive and still survived. Each man secreted a tiny  piece of paper, with his Social Security Number on it, in the palm of  his hand. When paraded before Ms. Fonda and a cameraman, she walked  the line, shaking each man's hand and asking little encouraging  snippets like: 'Aren't you sorry you bombed babies?' and 'Are you grateful  for the humane treatment from your benevolent captors?' Believing this HAD to be an act, they each palmed her their sliver of  paper. She took them all without missing a beat. At the end of the line and once the camera stopped rolling, to the shocked disbelief of the  POWs, she turned to the officer in charge and handed him all the little pieces of  paper.

Three men died from the  subsequent beatings. Colonel Carrigan was almost number four but he  survived, which is the only reason we know of her actions that  day.

I was a civilian economic  development advisor in Vietnam , and was
captured by the North Vietnamese  communists in South Vietnam in 1968, and held prisoner for over 5  years. I spent 27 months in solitary  confinement; one year in a cage in Cambodia ; and one year in a 'black box'  in Hanoi . My North Vietnamese captors deliberately poisoned and murdered a  female missionary, a nurse in a leprosarium in Banme Thuot , South Vietnam  , whom I buried in the jungle near the Cambodian border. At one time, I  weighed only about 90 lbs. (My normal weight is 170  lbs)

We were Jane Fonda's 'war  criminals.

When Jane Fonda was in  Hanoi, I was asked by the camp communist political officer if I would be  willing to meet with her. I said yes, for I wanted to tell her about the  real treatment we POWs received and how different it was  from the treatment purported by the North Vietnamese, and parroted by her as 'humane and lenient.'

Because of this, I spent three days on a rocky floor on my knees, with my arms  outstretched with a large steel weight placed on my hands, and beaten with  a bamboo cane.

I had the opportunity to  meet with Jane Fonda soon after I was released.. I asked her if she would  be willing to debate me on TV. She
never did answer me.

These first hand experiences do not exemplify someone who should be honored as part of '100 Years of Great  Women.' Lest we forget.' 100 Years of Great Women' should never include a traitor whose hands are covered with the blood of so many  patriots.

There are few things I have  strong visceral reactions to, but Hanoi Jane's participation in blatant treason, is one of them.