To the editor: Jane Fonda's actions arguably triggered the end of the Vietnam War. (“Why L.A. County’s ‘Jane Fonda Day’ statement was so shockingly insensitive,” Opinion, May 9)
As a Vietnam War-era infantry officer whose company was ordered to Vietnam for the purpose of flushing Viet Cong fighters out of hiding, my life expectancy, as one general later told me, was about 12 days.
Then Fonda was photographed with a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun in 1972, and all hell broke loose. While waiting at the airport to board my flight to Vietnam, orders came out of nowhere to return to our base.
I know the 100+ members of my company and I were allowed to live because of Fonda's courage. As to how many more American soldiers were saved from the battlefield, I can only speculate.
I thank Fonda every day of my life.
Frank Arentowicz, Los Angeles
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To the editor: I flew 34 combat missions to Vietnam in 1972. When Fonda celebrated North Vietnamese anti-aircraft crews by posing for a photo with their weapons that July, I was angry. When she posed with captive American prisoners of war in Hanoi, I began to hate her.
For more than 15 years, that hatred was never far from my mind. I grew it. He ate me.
Then, in 1988, he publicly apologized. Something clicked in me and allowed me to realize that all the energy I had invested in keeping my hatred alive had been worse than wasted.
I forgave her. I stopped hating. It was like a breath of fresh air.
I recently read in The Times that Los Angeles County had designated April 30 as “Jane Fonda Day.” The United States was expelled from Saigon on April 30, 1975. It is the day the South Vietnamese community in the United States remembers the loss of their homeland.
Now I know what people mean when they say that although forgiving is easy, forgetting is not.
Mark Janssen, Yorba Linda
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To the editor: Many Vietnamese expatriates, including Assemblyman Tri Ta (R-Westminster), do not understand the history of Vietnam. The fall of Saigon and the South Vietnamese government in 1975 was a direct result of American meddling in Vietnam.
As a small country, Vietnam was repeatedly invaded, including by Japanese forces in World War II. After the war, Vietnam might have achieved independence if not for then-President Harry S. Truman, who supported French control of the country.
After the defeat of the French, the main actors in the region decided to divide Vietnam. China never wanted a strong, unified Vietnam, and the United States wanted to prevent the spread of communism.
The invention of the second Gulf of Tonkin incident in 1964 ensured the escalation of American involvement in Vietnam, with tragic consequences.
The Vietnam War – or rather the US War – was a colossal miscalculation and failure of the US government and military. It caused millions of Vietnamese deaths and the destruction of the country.
Son Trinh, Long Beach
