Fact check: Barbara Walters did not say Jane Fonda committed treason during Vietnam War

The 84-year-old legend said goodbye on the View today. Oprah Winfrey introduced a number of female anchors who all said they wouldn’t be where they are today without Barbara paving the way for women in journalism.

The claim: Barbara Walters wrote viral commentary accusing Jane Fonda of treason during the Vietnam War

Despite several decades and fact checks, a viral hoax accusing American actress and activist Jane Fonda of treason persists. This time, the 20-year-old piece says it’s from journalist Barbara Walters.

“Barbara Walters writes: Unfortunately, many have forgotten and still countless others have never known how Ms. Fonda betrayed not only the idea of our country, but specific men who served and sacrificed during the Vietnam War,” Brian A Steffen posted on Facebook in May.

The lengthy post, which names two men, goes on to accuse Fonda of betraying several prisoners of war during her 1972 trip to Vietnam, and inciting deadly beatings. “Please take the time to forward to as many people as you possibly can. It will eventually end up on her computer, and she needs to know that we will never forget,” it continues.

Not only are the claims in the commentary untrue, Walters didn’t write it.

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Fonda’s controversial 1972 trip

Fonda traveled to Hanoi, Vietnam, to protest the Vietnam War, but she did not do most of the things the post claims.

Many Americans disapproved of Fonda’s comments about the war and the image of North Vietnam she perpetuated on her trip. Fonda has said the insensitive photo she took with North Vietnamese soldiers while sitting on an anti-aircraft gun used to shoot down American planes still haunts her.

Her famous, and often infamous, anti-war efforts earned her the nickname “Hanoi Jane.”

Actress Jane Fonda visits an anti-aircraft position in North Vietnam in this July 1972 file photo.

 (Photo: AP Photo) How Barbara Walters got tied in

During a 1988 “20/20” interview with Walters, Fonda apologized for her actions during her trip and the things she said about American soldiers.

“Jane Fonda told me that she now realizes in her urgent desire to end the war, she unthinkingly caused pain to many Americans who fought in Vietnam,” Walters said during the broadcast. “In our interview tonight, she speaks directly to former prisoners of war, to Vietnam veterans and their families. And confronting her past, she then apologizes.”

“I would like to say something, not just to Vietnam veterans in New England, but to men who were in Vietnam, who I hurt, or whose pain I caused to deepen because of the things that I said or did,” Fonda said. “I was trying to help end the killing and the war, but there were times when I was thoughtless and careless about it and I’m … very sorry that I hurt them. And I want to apologize to them and their families.”

Jane Fonda gestures during a rally staged in downtown Rome by an Italian women’s liberation organization, March 9, 1972.

 (Photo: Claudio Luffoli, AP)

In 1999, ABC controversially selected Fonda to be part of “A Celebration: 100 Years of Great Women” which was hosted by Walters. Many Americans felt Fonda hadn’t properly atoned for her mistakes and expressed anger toward the program.

Veterans named in the commentary said its claims are not true

Jerry Driscoll, a Vietnam veteran named in the post, publicly said in May 2002 that he and Larry Carrigan, another named veteran, had never met Fonda and that the allegations were false.

“The story has taken on a life of its own. It is not true,” said Driscoll. “We can at least slow it down. I doubt if we’ll ever kill it, but please I beg you do not pass it on.”

The Minneapolis Star Tribune also confirmed the story was false, with accounts from both veterans that it claimed had been beaten, on May 25, 2005, according to FactCheck.org.

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While Fonda was in Vietnam she met with seven American prisoners of war: Edison Miller, Walter Wilber, James Padgett, David Wesley Hoffman, Kenneth James Fraser, William G. Byrns, and Edward Elias. None of those men accused Fonda of dangerously betraying them during her visit. In fact, some of those POWs like Miller have debunked the viral claim themselves.

Debunked many times over two decades

After Fonda participated in Walter’s 1999 ABC special “A Celebration: 100 Years of Great Women,” angering some members of the public and intensifying online misinformation, Snopes debunked the commentary in June 2000.

In January 2001, Fox News called the claim an “urban myth.”

FactCheck.org debunked a lengthy email chain, nearly identical to what Steffen posted on Facebook, in November 2010. That version of the hoax claimed Obama was planning to honor Fonda and attributed the copied commentary to Walters.

In February 2013, Truth or Fiction addressed the claims in the commentary for a second time after news that Fonda would play Nancy Reagan in “The Butler” inspired it to resurface online.

Broadcast journalist Barbara Walters addresses an audience at the John F. Kennedy School of Government on the campus of Harvard University, Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2014, in Cambridge, Mass. Walters, known over her long career for interviews with newsmakers including Cuban leader Fidel Castro and Britain’s first female prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, was a news anchor and co-host for decades. (AP Photo/Steven Senne) ORG XMIT: MASR101

 (Photo: Steven Senne/AP)

PolitiFact has tackled the claim that Walters authored the commentary twice, first in October 2019 then in January 2020, ruling it false both times.

Check Your Fact also found no evidence Walters wrote the commentary in December 2019.

USA TODAY has also found no record of Walters ever making that statement.

Neither Steffen nor Rogers & Cowan, the agency that represents Walters, has responded to USA TODAY’s request for comment. 

Our rating: False

We rate the claim that Barbara Walters wrote an inaccurate commentary condemning actress Jane Fonda as FALSE because it is not supported by our research.  Misinformation about Fonda’s actions in Vietnam has been circulating for 20 years. Despite fact-checkers and the veterans named in the hoax’s many efforts to correct it, it’s continued to circulate and evolve. It’s resurfaced many times with new fabricated details that are relevant to current events, whether it be Barack Obama’s fictional honoring of Fonda or a misattribution to Walters. 

Our fact-check sources:

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