One has to wonder why our society gives so much credibility to the opinions of celebrities. In December 2002, the actor Sean Penn visited Iraq to help avert the impending war with the US. The comedian Joan Rivers remarked: 'He thinks he can solve it, that moron. This is a man who couldn't even make it work with Madonna.'

At a Stand Up for America Rally Alabama State Auditor Beth Chapman said,

"I am not here tonight because Sheryl Crowe, Rosie O'Donnell, Martin Sheen, George Clooney, Jane Fonda or Phil Donahue, sacrificed their lives for me. If my memory serves me correctly, it was not movie stars or musicians, but the United States Military who fought on the shores of Iwo Jima, the jungles of Vietnam, and the beaches of Normandy. Tonight, I say we should support the President of the United States and the U.S. Military and tell the liberal, tree-hugging, Birkenstock-wearing, hippy, tie-dyed liberals to go make their movies and music and whine somewhere else." Click Here to read entire speech.

The attempt by celebrities to influence public opinion is not a new phenomenon. One such example is actress and activist Jane Fonda. Fonda began her participation in anti-war activities around 1967. Her activities included active participation in demonstrations, rallies, radio broadcasts and plays. She now says she intends to take a cross-country bus tour to call for an end to U.S. military operations in Iraq. In reference to her upcoming “anti-war” tour Fonda said, “I can’t go into any detail except to say that it’s going to be pretty exciting.” Jane, “Hanoi Jane,” has a long history of parading in front of the American public and the world in protest of one thing or another. Fonda’s life, by her own admission is riddled with self doubt and emotional issues. She admits to neglecting her daughter, a 25 year bout with bulimia, and breast implants at the time she was hypocritically pushing good health through diet and exercise. Fonda’s fitness tape, "The Workout," sold nearly 17 million copies.

When CBS Correspondent Lesley Stahl in an interview with 60 Minutes asked her why she had breast implants, she replied, "I know, and I'm really ashamed of it," says Fonda. She continued to bill herself a “victim” by blaming her actions on the end of her marriage. She stated, “The marriage was ending, and I felt so bad about myself. And I felt so un sexy and unwomanly. And for a while, it made me feel more confident." Fonda also admitted to Stahl that she neglected her daughter Vanessa Vadim. "I didn't show up for her. I was away a lot, and it’s one of the great regrets of my life, and she and I are still working on that."

She didn't forget to show up at the University of Michigan in November of 1970. She told a University of Michigan audience of some two thousand students, "If you understood what communism was, you would hope, you would pray on your knees that we would some day become communist." At Duke University in North Carolina she repeated what she had said in Michigan, adding "I, a socialist, think that we should strive toward a socialist society, all the way to communism." Washington Times July 7, 2000

During a 1972 trip to North Vietnam, Jane Fonda propagandized on behalf of the North Vietnamese government, declared that American POWs were being treated humanely and condemned U.S. soldiers as "war criminals" and later denounced them as liars for claiming they had been tortured.

In July of 1972, actress Jane Fonda arrived in Hanoi, North Vietnam, and began a two-week tour of the country conducted by uniformed military hosts. She visited villages, hospitals, schools, and factories. Fonda also appeared proud when she posed for pictures in which she was shown applauding North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gunners. She posed peering into the sights of an NVA anti-aircraft artillery launcher, and made ten propagandistic Tokyo Rose-like radio broadcasts in which she denounced American political and military leaders as "war criminals."

She also spoke with eight American POWs at a carefully arranged "press conference," POWs who had been tortured by their North Vietnamese captors to force them to meet with Fonda, deny they had been tortured, and decry the American war effort. Fonda somehow didn't pick up on the fact that the POWs were delivering their lines under duress nor did she find it unusual the she was not allowed to visit the prisoner-of-war camp (commonly known as the "Hanoi Hilton") itself. She merely went home and told the world that "[the POWs] assured me they were in good health. When I asked them if they were brainwashed, they all laughed. Without exception, they expressed shame at what they had done." She did, however, charge that North Vietnamese POWs were systematically tortured in American prison-of-war camps. Click Here to read a transcript of Jane's Hanoi broadcast.

When American POWs finally began to return home (some of them having been held captive for up to nine years) and describe the tortures they had endured at the hands of the North Vietnamese, Jane Fonda was quick to tell the country that they should "not hail the POWs as heroes, because they are hypocrites and liars." Fonda said the idea that the POWs she had met in Vietnam had been tortured was "laughable," claiming: "These were not men who had been tortured. These were not men who had been starved. These were not men who had been brainwashed." The POWs who said they had been tortured were "exaggerating, probably for their own self-interest," she asserted. She told audiences that "Never in the history of the United States have POWs come home looking like football players. These football players are no more heroes than Custer was. They're military careerists and professional killers" who are "trying to make themselves look self-righteous, but they are war criminals according to law."

Sixteen years later, in 1988, Fonda finally met with Vietnam veterans to apologize for her actions. During this nationally-televised apology she described her actions as "thoughtless and careless.

In 2000 she said, "I will go to my grave regretting the photograph of me in an anti-aircraft carrier, which looks like I was trying to shoot at American planes. It hurt so many soldiers. It galvanized such hostility. It was the most horrible thing I could possibly have done. It was just thoughtless.”

Fonda again "apologized" in 2005, an act which not surprisingly coincided with the release of a film in which she had a starring role (Monster-in-Law, her first leading role since 1990's Stanley & Iris) and a book tour to promote her autobiography. She said, "I will go to my grave regretting that. The image of Jane Fonda, 'Barbarella,' Henry Fonda's daughter, just a woman sitting on an enemy aircraft gun was a betrayal. It was like I was thumbing my nose at the military and at the country that gave me privilege." She made is very clear that she was NOT apologizing for any other actions she took during her trip to North Vietnam, or for any of her other anti-war or political activities. Instead the 67-year-old actress and activist defended her decision to go to Hanoi and said she had no regrets about being photographed with American POWs there or making broadcasts on Radio Hanoi because she was trying to stop the war.

Many Americans felt Fonda's apology to be a day late and insincere. One man who didn't take Fonda's confessions to heart was 54-year-old Michael Smith. While Fonda was autographing copies of her autobiography, My Life So Far, in Kansas City in April 2005 as part of a promotional book-signing tour, then spat tobacco juice on Fonda .

Was she simply young and impressionable? She was 34 years old when she made her infamous trip to North Vietnam and she was in her 30’s when she participated in anti-war demonstrations and rallies. She was an adult. Now that she is planning an anti-war cross-country bus tour at the age of 67 there is speculation that she once again exploiting the war in Iraq and thumbing her nose at the military and at the country that gave her the freedom to do so. A "has been" desperate for media attention.

Young Americans, not yet old enough to vote or drink alcohol were at the same time fighting the war in Vietnam. They were held accountable for all of their actions. The Vietnam memorial Wall contains the names of 25,493 American soldiers under 21 years of age who served their country and paid the ultimate price. You be the judge.

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