Couple of things. A minor correction and some detail. The year was 1973, not '72 when Fonda came to the campus of Yuba college (where, by the way, she was warmly received).
As it turned out we had both been in Vietnam the year before. Me, stationed near Saigon with the Air Force, and she making her infamous appearance in Hanoi. Although at the time, I was unaware she was in country.
When she spoke on campus I was still quite politically naïve – some of you think still am. I hadn't understood the significance of her visit to a college campus so soon after her controversial trip to North Vietnam where she was photographed sitting on a NVA anti-aircraft gun. With so many pilots shot down over Hanoi many thought it was a betrayal and felt the image of her smiling with NVA anti-aircraft gunners served as a tool in Ton Duc Thang's propaganda war.
Now, after gaining some perspective I recognize her speaking tour of college campuses was an attempt to rehabilitate her image after her betrayal tour of the North. By the way, she did give an apology of sorts in 1988 in an interview with Barbara Walters for some of what she did and said while touring in Hanoi. Of course, many veterans never forgave her.
Honestly? The interview I turned in to the editor was a fluff piece. Like something you'd see in people magazine. I hadn't developed the probing instincts of a reporter, yet. Besides, I was awestruck by her celebrity. I mean, there I was interviewing Barbarella! Behind those shades I was making goo-goo eyes.
