Hanoi Jane
War, Sex, and Fantasies of Betrayal

Meet author
Jerry Lembcke
Book Talk & Signing
Wednesday, June 22, 2011 – 6:30 p.m.
From Aristophanes’ Lysistrata to Mata Hari and Tokyo Rose, stories of female betrayal during wartime have recurred throughout history. The myth of “Hanoi Jane” Fonda, Dr. Jerry Lembcke argues in Hanoi Jane, War, Sex & Fantasies of Betrayal, is the latest variation on this enduring theme – com-bining traces of fact with heavy doses of fiction to create a potent symbol of feminine perfidy – part erotic warrior-woman Barbarella (the title role of a 1968 Fonda film), part savvy antiwar activist and part powerful entrepreneur.
Dr. Lembcke deconstructs the myth, identifying its origins in a need for some Americans to explain defeat in Vietnam through fantasies of home-front betrayal and the emasculation of the national will-to-war. Dr. Lembcke notes that the expression “Hanoi Jane” didn’t even appear until several years after the war’s end. Blaming the antiwar movement for undermining the military’s resolve, many found in the imaginary “Hanoi Jane” the personification of their stab-in-the back theories.
The origin of the myth goes back to Ms. Fonda’s 1972 visit to Hanoi as a peace activist. Rumors surrounding her visits with U.S. POWs and radio broadcasts to troops combined to conjure allegations of treason that had cost American lives. That such tales were more imagined than real did not prevent them from insinuating themselves into public memory, where they continue to infect American politics and culture.
Dr. Lembcke is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the College of the Holy Cross (Worcester, MA), where his research interest centers on media (re)constructions and myth-making. He has taught Development of Social Theory, Sociology of Power, and Reading the Times. He is also the author of The Spitting Image: Myth, Memory, and the Legacy of Vietnam (NYU Press, 1998) and is the New England representative of Vietnam Veterans Against the War.
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