Officials in Los Angeles have reversed a decision to rename April 30 “Jane Fonda Day” because it falls on the anniversary of the fall of Saigon.
The actress and noted anti-Vietnam War activist was recognized by Los Angeles County last month in tribute to her “tireless and important climate activism.”
However, the move was widely supported by Vietnamese-American lawmakers, who immediately began pressuring officials to withdraw recognition.
Fonda, 86, was heavily criticized and dubbed “Hanoi Jane” after she posed for photos with North Vietnamese Army soldiers sitting on their anti-aircraft guns in 1972 during the Vietnam War.
She was also interviewed for communist radio broadcasts during the war, with some American authorities labeling her protests as treason.
The actress and noted anti-Vietnam War activist was recognized by Los Angeles County in honor of her “tireless and important climate activism”
Fonda visits an anti-aircraft position in North Vietnam in this July 1972 photo
Actress Jane Fonda, seen near a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gunnery surrounded by soldiers and reporters, sings an anti-war song near Hanoi during the Vietnam War in this July 1972 file photo
Janet Nguyen, whose father and mother were imprisoned after the city fell, were jailed after trying to flee the country.
Nguyen eventually reached California, where she became a senator Cal is important that April 30 was ‘a day we mourn’.
She told the outlet, “I begged them that, you know, if you’re not going to revoke that, you should at least change the date. April 30 is not the right day.’
Nguyen was outraged by LA County leaders’ decision to rename the day after Fonda, and immediately began pressuring leaders.
Tri Ta, a member of the California State Assembly, was equally disgusted when he heard of the measure.
Ta and fellow Assemblywoman Stephanie Nguyen wrote a letter signed by nearly all Republican members urging officials to reverse the decision.
Their letter said: “This honor for Ms. Fonda is an insult to the service and sacrifice of American and South Vietnamese soldiers who gave everything in the cause of freedom.”
Ta told Cal Matters, “I was really, really upset because [Black April] It’s a very sad day for almost every Vietnamese American here.”
Fonda at the Hammer Museum’s Gala in the Garden held at The Hammer Museum on May 4, 2024 in Los Angeles
Horvath, left, presents Jane Fonda with a proclamation that April 30 is “Jane Fonda Day” in Los Angeles County
On Friday, LA County officials announced they would change the date, saying in a statement: “Out of respect for the community voices who have spoken out, we will make a motion to celebrate Jane Fonda Day at our next regular board meeting. April 8 as part of Earth Month.”
A week earlier, Lindsey P. Horvath, chairman of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, welcomed Fonda to a board meeting to celebrate the move.
She said: ‘Jane Fonda’s activism knows no bounds. Where Jane focuses her passion and heart, great things happen.
“Starting today, we proudly proclaim April 30 each year as ‘Jane Fonda Day’ in Los Angeles County, in recognition of her incredible contributions to entertainment, environmental sustainability, gender equality and social justice.
“Let us remain committed to service and advocacy for social and environmental justice, following Jane Fonda’s example in using our voices to make a difference in the lives of others, and protecting our planet today and for generations to come .’
Upon accepting, Fonda said, “This is so beautiful, I am so honored and grateful. Thanks to Lindsey and the Board of Trustees.
“I’m a little overwhelmed, I can’t believe there is a Jane Fonda Day. This is great, thank you very much.”
In this file photo, two U.S. Marines support a wounded soldier as they leave a building that was attacked on February 6, 1968 in South Vietnam
The body of a slain comrade is carried to an evacuation helicopter by soldiers of the US 1st Cavalry Division in the Ia Drang Valley early in the week of November 15, 1965.
Fonda has repeatedly apologized for the photos of her with anti-aircraft guns, saying her actions were a protest against the U.S. government and not U.S. troops.
Of the infamous photo in her 2005 memoir “My Life So Far,” she said, “Someone leads me to the gun, and I sit down, still laughing, still clapping.
‘It has nothing to do with where I sit. I hardly think about where I sit.
‘The cameras are flashing. I stand up and as I walk back to the car with the translator, the implication of what has just happened dawns on me.
‘Oh my God. It’ll look like I was trying to shoot down American planes! I beg him, ‘You have to make sure those photos don’t get published. Please, you can’t get them published.”
‘I’m sure it will be taken care of. I don’t know what else to do. It’s possible the Vietnamese had it all planned. I’ll never know.
“If they did, can I really blame them? The money stops here. If I was being used, I let it happen. It was my mistake, and I paid dearly for it and still do.”
In 2015, 50 veterans protested her appearance at the Weinberg Center for the Arts in Frederick, Maryland.
The large group held up signs reading “Forgiven?” Maybe. Forget? Never’. Fonda later told the crowd, “I am pained and will remain to my grave that I made a huge mistake that caused many people to think I was against the soldiers.”