Interview With Jane Fonda & Tom Hayden
Interview With Jane Fonda & Tom Hayden
WKBD-TV Detroit interview with anti-Vietnam War activist JANE FONDA and TOM HAYDEN, conducted by LOU GORDON.
Interview With Jane Fonda & Tom Hayden
Lou Gordon asks Jane Fonda how she happened to go to Vietnam and what she saw there. Jane says she got to know the Vietnamese delegation in Paris (who were there for Peace Talks) while she was making a film there. Jane says that the Pentagon Papers have proven that the government has not been telling the truth to the American people. Jane says she saw houses & schools & villages leveled to the ground. She says that the Vietnamese people are not our enemy. She says she was offered a bomb shelter by some Vietnamese citizens during a bombing raid.
Interview With Jane Fonda & Tom Hayden
Jane Fonda says that "4 million tons of bombs have been dropped on Vietnam during the four years that Nixon has been in office", that the American people don't like being lied to and that Nixon is not telling the truth and is responsible for the "killing without trial of 50 million Vietnamese civilians in the carrying out of the CIA run Phoenix operation." Host Lou Gordon balks at that outrageous figure, causing her to check her notes; "50,000 South Vietnamese civilians" Jane clarifies. Lou condemns the war, but plays the devil's advocate and asks Jane for her response to criticisms of her vocal anti-war sentiments; Jane says that anti-war protesters are "speaking out as patriots," that the war is "betraying the democratic ideals upon which our country was founded." Lou believes that Jane's efforts have been counter-productive, that they have created a backlash and resentment. Jane retorts that the majority of people want the war to end, reiterates that the government is not telling us the truth. She then discusses the bipartisan group she has been working with.
Interview With Jane Fonda & Tom Hayden
Host Lou Gordon asks Jane Fonda is she's being na ve when she comes onto North Vietnamese radio and implores American servicemen not to do their jobs; Jane says that those who served in the war have been the ones who turned her onto her anti-war campaign. Lou asks for her response to the atrocities committed upon the South Vietnamese by the North; Jane that the "bloodbath that is being caused by our massive bombings". Lou goes to commercial.
Interview With Jane Fonda & Tom Hayden
Host Lou Gordon introduces Tom Hayden, one of the founders of SDS (Students for a Democratic Society), then asks Tom why he believes that Lou at one time or another called him a Communist. Lou asks on record if Tom is or ever was one or if he has any sympathies to Communism; Tom says no. Lou asks if Tom is still with SDS; Tom says no, that many people have followed splinter groups or ideas. Lou asks if Tom was one of the "crazies" in SDS who believed in the use of violence to achieve their goals; Jane Fonda says that Nixon must be a crazie b/c of his escalation of violence in Vietnam. Lou asks if Tom was ever convicted of anything; Tom says he was one of the Chicago Seven Conspiracy defendants, that he's out of bail and appealing; Tom displays his tenuous relationship with Lou, the two butting heads over really trite matters.
Interview With Jane Fonda & Tom Hayden
Host Lou Gordon asks Tom Hayden and Jane Fonda how many POWs they've spoken with, and if the North Vietnamese are simply trotting out the same people to make it seem that there are more than there actually are. Lou asks if the Viet Cong supplied POW lists to Jane; Tom says she was in the North, but Lou doesn t believe that the North wouldn't have knowledge of who the VC are holding; Jane doesn't believe that America releases all the names of prisoners held in tiger cages and being interrogated by "the CIA and Rand Corporation." Jane pleads the risks of traveling in Vietnam, that "every plane that Richard Nixon sends overhead is putting in jeopardy the lives of the American POWs", and that she asked to see more POWs while she was there. Lou cuts to commercial.
Interview With Jane Fonda & Tom Hayden
Host Lou Gordon asks guests Tom Hayden and Jane Fonda set up slide projection segment. Slides of Operation Ranchhand in which American bombers defoliated jungle growth with chemical spray. Slide of craters made by bombs. Slide of pineapple and guava bombs, fragmenting anti-personnel bombs. Slide of Vietnamese child, victim of napalm. Slide of "the worst part of American culture" being exported to Vietnam: a woman in Western styled clothing and cosmetics, a swimming pool / brothel called the Miami. Tom Hayden decries the rampant drug use and prostitution being introduced by American presence. Jane Fonda says that the Indochina Peace Campaign is bipartisan and not campaigning for George McGovern. Lou asks Jane if she's anti-Nixon; Jane spins the answer by saying her group wants to reach a broad audience.
Interview With Jane Fonda & Tom Hayden
Host Lou Gordon asks Jane Fonda what she's really like, what she's seeking in life; a rather indignant Jane replies that she's "trying to end the war in Vietnam" and "save the democratic principles of this country". Lou says that the White House heard she was going to be on his show and wanted to send a spokesperson over, which they did; the spokesperson is a wife of an American POW; Jane agrees to speak with the woman. Tom Hayden finds it interesting that the WH has pulled this pony trick before, then says that he knows her husband. Lou cuts to commercial, which also happens to be the end of the program.