A group of Republican lawmakers in California, including a number of Vietnamese Americans, have come together in opposition to Los Angeles County’s newest day of recognition: Jane Fonda Day.
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors introduced the day last month to honor Fonda, 86, and her contributions to entertainment, climate justice and gender equality throughout her career. They scheduled it to be celebrated each year on April 30.
For many conservative Vietnamese American leaders, the date presented a major issue. April 30 is also known to many in the Vietnamese diaspora as “Black April,” or the day the North Vietnamese captured the South Vietnamese stronghold of Saigon, now known as Ho Chi Minh City, on April 30, 1975, effectively ending the war.
“As State Senator of the largest Vietnamese population outside of Vietnam, I find this decision alarming and profoundly disrespectful to over half a million Vietnamese-Americans in California,” Republican state Sen. Janet Nguyen wrote in a letter to the Board of Supervisors on May 1. “This directly undermines the memory and sacrifice of the 58,220 US soldiers and 250,000 South Vietnamese soldiers who died in defense of freedom and democracy during the Vietnam War.”
In the 1970s, Fonda was an outspoken opponent of the Vietnam War and the U.S. government’s involvement. She also visited North Vietnam in 1972 and was photographed sitting on an anti-aircraft gun, which caused her to be lambasted in the U.S. as anti-American and pro-communist. She later apologized to American Vietnam veterans and their families, saying the photographs were “a thoughtless and careless thing to have done.”
The Vietnam War caused deep divisions in the U.S., spurring a massive counterculture movement that sought to end the violence. Many who called for an end to the war and American involvement, like Fonda, were seen as unpatriotic.
Nguyen refers to Fonda in the letter as “Hanoi Jane,” a nickname she was given after…
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