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White House Blasts ‘Hanoi Jane’ For Reviving Cold War-Era Group

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Jane Fonda
Photo Credit: "2019.11.29 Fire Drill Fridays with Jane Fonda, Washington, DC USA 333 115032" by tedeytan is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/?ref=openverse.

The White House lashed out at “Hanoi Jane” after she revived of a Cold War-era group to go after the Trump administration.

Ultra-liberal actress Jane Fonda announced on Wednesday that she was relaunching the Committee for the First Amendment, a group originally formed in the 1940s.

The new version of the committee immediately drew support from more than 600 prominent entertainment figures, including Rob Reiner, Barbra Streisand, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, John Legend, Whoopi Goldberg, Rosie O’Donnel, Natalie Portman, Sean Penn, Viola Davis, and Pedro Pascal.

In a letter to her Hollywood peers, Fonda painted a bleak picture of America’s future.

“I’m 87 years old. I’ve seen war, repression, protest, and backlash,” she wrote.

“I’ve been celebrated, and I’ve been branded an enemy of the state. But I can tell you this: this is the most frightening moment of my life.”

The “Barbarella” star, infamous for her anti-Vietnam War activism in the 1970s that earned her the nickname “Hanoi Jane,” said she looks to the past for guidance.

“When I feel scared, I look to history,” Fonda penned. “The only thing that has ever worked — time and time again — is solidarity: binding together, finding bravery in numbers too big to ignore, and standing up for one another.”

Fonda warned her Hollywood colleagues that, “They’re betting on our fear and our silence.”

“We face a powerful assault today, but we still have our voices, each other, and the freedom to express ourselves. Let’s speak out before it’s too late,” the Academy Award winner added.

She accused the federal government of running a campaign to “silence critics in the government, the media, the judiciary, academia, and the entertainment industry.”

White House Spokesperson Abigail Jackson mocked Fonda, using the derisive nickname from her Vietnam days.

“Hanoi Jane is free to share whatever bad opinions she wants,” she commented.

“As someone who actually knows what it’s like to be censored, President Trump is a strong supporter of free speech and Democrat allegations to the contrary are so false, they’re laughable.”

“Where were these clowns when Joe Biden was demanding private companies censor average Americans for sharing facts about COVID?” she sniped. “Or when Joe Biden’s FBI investigated parents for expressing concerns at school board meetings?”

Jackson stressed that Trump “is focused on left-wing organizations that have fueled violent riots, organized attacks against law enforcement officers, coordinated illegal doxing campaigns, arranged drop points for weapons and riot materials, incited violence all across America.”

In its historical overview, the committee highlighted its origins during the McCarthy era.

Henry Fonda, Jane’s father, was among those who participated in the original group.

“The McCarthy era ended when Americans from across the political spectrum finally came together and stood up for the principles in the Constitution against the forces of repression,” the statement said.

But now, it warned, “Those forces have returned. And it is our turn to stand together in defense of our constitutional rights.”

On its website, the committee promised members would “stand together — fiercely united — to defend free speech and expression from this assault.”

The group insisted its efforts were not partisan: “That is why we urge every American who cares about the First Amendment—the cornerstone of our democracy—and every artist around the globe who looks to the United States as a beacon of freedom to join us.”

The statement issued a warning to corporate players accused of caving to pressure.

“And to those who profit from our work while threatening the livelihoods of everyday working people, bowing to government censorship, and cowering to brute intimidation: we see you and history will not forget. This will not be the last you hear from us.”

The announcement coincided with the media controversy surrounding late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, who was yanked from ABC’s airwaves last month after mocking the death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

The move followed public criticism from Trump-appointed FCC Chair Brendan Carr, who suggested affiliates hold Kimmel accountable.

Kimmel later returned, after several affiliates backtracked on their boycott, sparking further debate about the limits of free speech in entertainment.

During a Wednesday interview with CNN’s Dana Bash, Fonda described the country as being in “a very chilling time.”

She drew parallels to earlier authoritarian movements, saying, “You know, we’ve faced attempts at autocracy before in the ’20s and ’30s, and you’ve cited the example of McCarthyism. There was Jim Crow. This is different, and we should all be very scared, and the key is solidarity.”

Fonda explained her reasoning for bringing back the committee her father once supported.

“That’s why I thought to resurrect the spirit of the committee that was started in the ’50s, and it included my father, within the entertainment industry,” she explained.

“This is contained within — we want to work cross-sectorally with other people because, obviously, a lot of other people are affected by what’s happening,” Fonda noted.

She then launched into an attack on President Trump, claiming, “No president has ever sent troops into the Democratic cities across the country saying full force. No president, as far as I know, has tried to control the Federal Reserve, the central bank.”

“He is amassing power in a way that will destroy our democracy,” Fonda asserted.

“And so we‘re going to stand up. We‘re creatives. We‘re storytellers. We can do it creatively. We can have a good time while we do it.”

The actress also confirmed broader political ambitions, noting that she plans to expand her political action committee focused on climate change and encourage allies to run for office.

“I also have a PAC, a climate PAC that elects people all over the country because I don‘t feel that our leaders are doing what they need to do,” she detailed.

“And if you can‘t change the people, change the people. That‘s what we‘re doing.”

Fonda capped off her media blitz with a new slogan for her Hollywood resistance movement, one that carried a not-so-subtle nod to Bash’s own network.

“Our statement is, ‘When they come for one of us, they come for all of us’ — Oh! I thought of this last night. We’re going to engage in Creative Non-violent Non-cooperation. CNN.”

“We’ll take it,” Bash replied approvingly. “Good, I knew you would,” Fonda answered with a laugh.

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