CAPTAIN MIKE
Member
Below is an article now being submitted by my older brother General Joe Potter to VIETNAM magazine. Thought you'd find it interesting and touching. God Bless America and our troops current and past.
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HOW JANE FONDA SLIPPED THE SURLY BONDS OF TREASON
by General Joe Potter
Introduction: This is a personal true story that took place during 1988 at a dinner in Killeen, TX attended by the author, his wife, former POW BG Risner, former POW Lt. Colonel Bill Spencer and his wife. It lays out why and how Jane Fonda was not tried and convicted for treason.
A group Senators and U.S. Congressman pleaded passionately with Brigadier General Robinson Risner, USAF. It was summer 1973, just a few months after our POWs were released from North Vietnam. They told him that he would be the key witness in Congressional hearings to bring the charge of Treason against Jane Fonda. Her famous visit to North Vietnam while her country was at war caused great harm to American soldiers in the field bringing aid, abetting and encouragement to the enemy. They fought with even more confidence that the American will was waning…….and caused even more American casualties. Many of those casualties would have their names engraved on the Vietnam Memorial "Wall" a few years later. She caused U.S. Prisoners of War, held in Hanoi, to suffer more torture and torment and would surely be convicted of Treason, as was "Tokyo Rose," an American citizen, during WWII. General Risner, who was one of the highest ranking POWs, held captive for seven years, three of those in solitary confinement, would be the final and most important witness to make the charges of Treason really hold. No matter how hard they attempted to convince General Risner, he held firm. He would not testify. Reluctantly, the Congressional hearings, scheduled for the charge of treason against Jane Fonda, were canceled.
When Jane Fonda was a Hollywood pre-teenager oblivious of the war waging in Korea, Brigadier General Risner, USAF was flying F-86 "Sabre" jet fighters high over North Korea, locked in air-to-air combat against North Korean Russian-built MIG-15 jets. He became an "ace" during the Korean War, having shot down over 5 enemy jet fighter planes. His picture came out on TIME magazine, published and distributed nationwide the very week his F-100 "Super Sabre" jet fighter was brought down by North Vietnamese SAM II missiles. He had been a Fighter Wing Commander, a Colonel, and was a "prize" POW to the North Vietnamese. While he was held in solitary confinement for the first three years of his captivity, he was tortured unmercifully to sign statements or to make recordings against his country. After 3 years in solitary confinement, the North Vietnamese guards finally allowed him to be placed in a cell with another prisoner, with even more American POWs in surrounding cells. But, the torture and mental anguish never stopped.
Jane Fonda's well-publicized visit to North Vietnam brought even more inhumane treatment from the enemy guards. An important American was on 'their side' and spoke against the war. She said that all American military forces were fighting against 'the people' of Vietnam in an unjust war. The North Vietnamese were elated. Her visit to North Vietnam was applauded back in the United States by the "anti-war" protesters, including the misguided Vietnam Veterans Against the War, led by now presidential candidate, Senator John Kerry.
After seven years of captivity, however, General Risner could not bring himself to talk, think or "go back" over his brutal torture that she brought to him and his fellow POWs. He had "lost" those seven years of his life and could never "bring them back," even if his testimony would cinch the charge of Treason against Jane Fonda and place her in a federal penitentiary for many years. For him, any more time thinking, talking or testifying about those seven years would bring back too many horrible memories and further mental anguish. He had to get on with his life, even if it meant freedom for a clearly treasonous American. General Risner was a broken man, physically, emotionally and mentally. It would be years before he could bring himself to even mention any details of his seven years of captivity as a POW.
In 1988, fifteen years later, I was stationed at Fort Hood, TX. I was commander of an 800 Air Force tactical detachment among 44,000 soldiers. Fort Hood was, and still is, the largest military installation in the world. That year, General Risner, then retired, was invited to Fort Hood to be the honored speaker for the National Prayer Breakfast. As he described his capture, torture and his faith in God and country, there wasn't a dry eye in the huge auditorium filled with soldiers of the III Mobile Armored Corps (2nd Armored Division and 1st Cavalry Division). Everyone had a very difficult time, choking back tears, as they tried to sing "America the Beautiful," at the end of his presentation. I couldn't sing at all. We knew that the humble man that stood before us was a true American hero.
After the breakfast, I asked General Risner if he would stay with us for the rest of the day and speak to my Air Force detachment, later in the day. He graciously agreed. As I knew it would, my troops were awed by him, his quiet manner and his inspiring story and patriotic motivation that he gave to them. They crowded around him, trying to get closer, after his presentation. Many just wanted to shake his hand and thank him, through tear-filled eyes.
As I had a Lieutenant Colonel working for me at Fort Hood who also had been a Vietnam POW, I invited BG Risner out for dinner that evening with my wife, LTC Bill Spencer, USAF and his wife. It was an intimate setting at a cozy restaurant in Killeen that night and we enjoyed a wonderful meal and very interesting conversations. As General Risner relaxed, he and Bill exchanged POWs experiences that I found riveting. That talked about the tap code, the terrible foul-tasting thin soup that they were fed along with hard bread rolls crawling with weevils. They always ate it, though, because they were in such a survival situation. They needed any kind of nourishment they could get, even as revolting as it was.
As our conversation soon turned to the anti-war protesters, his manner stiffened and he slowly shared with us the pleading of the Senators and U.S. Congressmen who wanted to file treason charges against Jane Fonda. He told us, at the time, his experiences and torture were just too "raw" and, mentally and emotionally, he just could not deal with it. But, now, after years of reflection and re-playing that scene in his mind over and over, he truly regretted not testifying and putting Jane Fonda in prison for treason against our country and our courageous soldiers, nurses, pilots, our "brown water navy" and our POWs. She had flaunted her 'anti-war activism' and many years later made a half-hearted "apology," obvious to veterans that she did so without real sincerity. He also noted that, after our troops were withdrawn from Vietnam, the "anti-war" crowd quickly disintegrated and turned a blind eye to the millions of Vietnamese, both North and South, who were killed in the next two years of vicious war. It was clear to see that the misguided "anti-war" protesters were not really "anti-war", at all, while millions more died in both the overthrow of South Vietnam, the conquer of Cambodia by the North Vietnamese nor the fields of death and dying in Laos under the Khmer Rouge. Their "anti-war" protests, marches and anarchistic behavior were clearly a sham.
I often wonder what even more pain and regret he must have felt when General Riser heard the news, in the year 2000, that Jane Fonda had been honored and named to the "100 Most Influential Women of the Century."
My hope is that, someday, when BG Robinson and Jane Fonda finally "touch the hand of God", they each will be judged accordingly.
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HOW JANE FONDA SLIPPED THE SURLY BONDS OF TREASON
by General Joe Potter
Introduction: This is a personal true story that took place during 1988 at a dinner in Killeen, TX attended by the author, his wife, former POW BG Risner, former POW Lt. Colonel Bill Spencer and his wife. It lays out why and how Jane Fonda was not tried and convicted for treason.
A group Senators and U.S. Congressman pleaded passionately with Brigadier General Robinson Risner, USAF. It was summer 1973, just a few months after our POWs were released from North Vietnam. They told him that he would be the key witness in Congressional hearings to bring the charge of Treason against Jane Fonda. Her famous visit to North Vietnam while her country was at war caused great harm to American soldiers in the field bringing aid, abetting and encouragement to the enemy. They fought with even more confidence that the American will was waning…….and caused even more American casualties. Many of those casualties would have their names engraved on the Vietnam Memorial "Wall" a few years later. She caused U.S. Prisoners of War, held in Hanoi, to suffer more torture and torment and would surely be convicted of Treason, as was "Tokyo Rose," an American citizen, during WWII. General Risner, who was one of the highest ranking POWs, held captive for seven years, three of those in solitary confinement, would be the final and most important witness to make the charges of Treason really hold. No matter how hard they attempted to convince General Risner, he held firm. He would not testify. Reluctantly, the Congressional hearings, scheduled for the charge of treason against Jane Fonda, were canceled.
When Jane Fonda was a Hollywood pre-teenager oblivious of the war waging in Korea, Brigadier General Risner, USAF was flying F-86 "Sabre" jet fighters high over North Korea, locked in air-to-air combat against North Korean Russian-built MIG-15 jets. He became an "ace" during the Korean War, having shot down over 5 enemy jet fighter planes. His picture came out on TIME magazine, published and distributed nationwide the very week his F-100 "Super Sabre" jet fighter was brought down by North Vietnamese SAM II missiles. He had been a Fighter Wing Commander, a Colonel, and was a "prize" POW to the North Vietnamese. While he was held in solitary confinement for the first three years of his captivity, he was tortured unmercifully to sign statements or to make recordings against his country. After 3 years in solitary confinement, the North Vietnamese guards finally allowed him to be placed in a cell with another prisoner, with even more American POWs in surrounding cells. But, the torture and mental anguish never stopped.
Jane Fonda's well-publicized visit to North Vietnam brought even more inhumane treatment from the enemy guards. An important American was on 'their side' and spoke against the war. She said that all American military forces were fighting against 'the people' of Vietnam in an unjust war. The North Vietnamese were elated. Her visit to North Vietnam was applauded back in the United States by the "anti-war" protesters, including the misguided Vietnam Veterans Against the War, led by now presidential candidate, Senator John Kerry.
After seven years of captivity, however, General Risner could not bring himself to talk, think or "go back" over his brutal torture that she brought to him and his fellow POWs. He had "lost" those seven years of his life and could never "bring them back," even if his testimony would cinch the charge of Treason against Jane Fonda and place her in a federal penitentiary for many years. For him, any more time thinking, talking or testifying about those seven years would bring back too many horrible memories and further mental anguish. He had to get on with his life, even if it meant freedom for a clearly treasonous American. General Risner was a broken man, physically, emotionally and mentally. It would be years before he could bring himself to even mention any details of his seven years of captivity as a POW.
In 1988, fifteen years later, I was stationed at Fort Hood, TX. I was commander of an 800 Air Force tactical detachment among 44,000 soldiers. Fort Hood was, and still is, the largest military installation in the world. That year, General Risner, then retired, was invited to Fort Hood to be the honored speaker for the National Prayer Breakfast. As he described his capture, torture and his faith in God and country, there wasn't a dry eye in the huge auditorium filled with soldiers of the III Mobile Armored Corps (2nd Armored Division and 1st Cavalry Division). Everyone had a very difficult time, choking back tears, as they tried to sing "America the Beautiful," at the end of his presentation. I couldn't sing at all. We knew that the humble man that stood before us was a true American hero.
After the breakfast, I asked General Risner if he would stay with us for the rest of the day and speak to my Air Force detachment, later in the day. He graciously agreed. As I knew it would, my troops were awed by him, his quiet manner and his inspiring story and patriotic motivation that he gave to them. They crowded around him, trying to get closer, after his presentation. Many just wanted to shake his hand and thank him, through tear-filled eyes.
As I had a Lieutenant Colonel working for me at Fort Hood who also had been a Vietnam POW, I invited BG Risner out for dinner that evening with my wife, LTC Bill Spencer, USAF and his wife. It was an intimate setting at a cozy restaurant in Killeen that night and we enjoyed a wonderful meal and very interesting conversations. As General Risner relaxed, he and Bill exchanged POWs experiences that I found riveting. That talked about the tap code, the terrible foul-tasting thin soup that they were fed along with hard bread rolls crawling with weevils. They always ate it, though, because they were in such a survival situation. They needed any kind of nourishment they could get, even as revolting as it was.
As our conversation soon turned to the anti-war protesters, his manner stiffened and he slowly shared with us the pleading of the Senators and U.S. Congressmen who wanted to file treason charges against Jane Fonda. He told us, at the time, his experiences and torture were just too "raw" and, mentally and emotionally, he just could not deal with it. But, now, after years of reflection and re-playing that scene in his mind over and over, he truly regretted not testifying and putting Jane Fonda in prison for treason against our country and our courageous soldiers, nurses, pilots, our "brown water navy" and our POWs. She had flaunted her 'anti-war activism' and many years later made a half-hearted "apology," obvious to veterans that she did so without real sincerity. He also noted that, after our troops were withdrawn from Vietnam, the "anti-war" crowd quickly disintegrated and turned a blind eye to the millions of Vietnamese, both North and South, who were killed in the next two years of vicious war. It was clear to see that the misguided "anti-war" protesters were not really "anti-war", at all, while millions more died in both the overthrow of South Vietnam, the conquer of Cambodia by the North Vietnamese nor the fields of death and dying in Laos under the Khmer Rouge. Their "anti-war" protests, marches and anarchistic behavior were clearly a sham.
I often wonder what even more pain and regret he must have felt when General Riser heard the news, in the year 2000, that Jane Fonda had been honored and named to the "100 Most Influential Women of the Century."
My hope is that, someday, when BG Robinson and Jane Fonda finally "touch the hand of God", they each will be judged accordingly.
