Hanoi Jane

Annotation

Punk Rock group formed in 1978 in Catasauqua, Pennsylvania, USA, featuring Johnny Loftus (bass), Art Zawodny (guitar), and Mike DiPollo (drums). They released the song "Hanoi Jane" (Strain 003), the title of which referenced Jane Fonda, a famous actress and political activist who visited North Vietnam in 1972, and met with American P.O.W.s. She released a documentary in 1974 with her husband Tom Hayden, called Introduction to the Enemy, which depicted their travels through North and South Vietnam. Hayden, a political activist, one of the founding members Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), played a major role in the protests outside of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, 1968. He and several others were arrested for inciting riots, and they became known as the "Chicago Seven". See the list: While in Vietnam Fonda posed in a photograph with North Vietnamese soldiers and an anti-aircraft cannon. She urged US soldiers to stop bombing North Vietnam and accused them of being war criminals. As mentioned above, she visited a select group American P.O.W.s, while also delivering 200 letters from P.O.W. families. These P.O.W.s apparently 'volunteered' to meet Fonda for a photo shoot, and many had turned against the war. When the P.O.W.s returned to the US in 1973, the government paraded a selected group of hardliners who supported the president and the war. Those that had met with Fonda were accused of being traitors and threatened with court-martial. One of them, David Wesley Hoffman, claimed that he had been "hung from a hook by his broken arm until he agreed to meet" with Fonda. On 31 March 1973, the Associate Press quoted Fonda as saying that "POWs who reported that they were tortured are hypocrites and liars". Because of these activities, Fonda became known as "Hanoi Jane".123 This theme featured in other songs, such as "Hanoi Jane" by Leon Rausch - see the list The narrator of the song criticised Fonda in grotesque and over-the-top language, saying that she was a traitor, who "fucked all the commie bastards in Vietnam". It threw various names around, such as "fucked-up bitch" and "worthless tramp". The song also used the term "gook", a derogatory term for Asians by soldiers, it became widely used during the Vietnam conflict: "you fucking all the gooks in Vietnam". Also of note was the first two lines of the song, which recalled that the Vietnam veterans were not welcomed home like previous generations of soldiers, such as after World War Two, which is a frequent theme in post-Vietnam War songs: "When Johnny comes marching home again, there'll be no ticket tape parade". The use of "Johnny comes marching home" is of course a reference to the famous title of a song from the American Civil War.Sources1academics.wellesley.edu↩2lrb.co.uk: Operation barbarella↩3The Vietnam War: An Encyclopedia of Quotations (Howard Langer, 2005)↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Annotation — Punk Songs

Punk Rock group formed in 1978 in Catasauqua, Pennsylvania, USA, featuring Johnny Loftus (bass), Art Zawodny (guitar), and Mike DiPollo (drums). They released the song "Hanoi Jane" (Strain 003), the title of which referenced Jane Fonda, a famous actress and political activist who visited North Vietnam in 1972, and met with American P.O.W.s. She released a documentary in 1974 with her husband Tom Hayden, called Introduction to the Enemy, which depicted their travels through North and South Vietnam. Hayden, a political activist, one of the founding members Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), played a major role in the protests outside of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, 1968. He and several others were arrested for inciting riots, and they became known as the "Chicago Seven". See the list: While in Vietnam Fonda posed in a photograph with North Vietnamese soldiers and an anti-aircraft cannon. She urged US soldiers to stop bombing North Vietnam and accused them of being war criminals. As mentioned above, she visited a select group American P.O.W.s, while also delivering 200 letters from P.O.W. families. These P.O.W.s apparently 'volunteered' to meet Fonda for a photo shoot, and many had turned against the war. When the P.O.W.s returned to the US in 1973, the government paraded a selected group of hardliners who supported the president and the war. Those that had met with Fonda were accused of being traitors and threatened with court-martial. One of them, David Wesley Hoffman, claimed that he had been "hung from a hook by his broken arm until he agreed to meet" with Fonda. On 31 March 1973, the Associate Press quoted Fonda as saying that "POWs who reported that they were tortured are hypocrites and liars". Because of these activities, Fonda became known as "Hanoi Jane".123 This theme featured in other songs, such as "Hanoi Jane" by Leon Rausch - see the list The narrator of the song criticised Fonda in grotesque and over-the-top language, saying that she was a traitor, who "fucked all the commie bastards in Vietnam". It threw various names around, such as "fucked-up bitch" and "worthless tramp". The song also used the term "gook", a derogatory term for Asians by soldiers, it became widely used during the Vietnam conflict: "you fucking all the gooks in Vietnam". Also of note was the first two lines of the song, which recalled that the Vietnam veterans were not welcomed home like previous generations of soldiers, such as after World War Two, which is a frequent theme in post-Vietnam War songs: "When Johnny comes marching home again, there'll be no ticket tape parade". The use of "Johnny comes marching home" is of course a reference to the famous title of a song from the American Civil War. Sources1academics.wellesley.edu↩2lrb.co.uk: Operation barbarella↩3The Vietnam War: An Encyclopedia of Quotations (Howard Langer, 2005)↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Lyrics

English: When Johnny comes marching home again / There'll be no ticket tape parade for him / For Hanoi Jane, you fucked our vets, stupid little fucked-up bitch / Sitting in a bar room thinking of you / Have a couple more, yeah drank a few... / Hanoi Jane I gonna piss on you / Gonna piss on you, Hanoi Jane, gonna piss on you / You really didn't know what was your plan when you took the other side down in Vietnam / Gonna piss on you, don't give a damn / Hanoi Jane you're just a worthless tramp... / The picture in the urinal, I'll be pissing on it all night long / Because you fucked all the commie bastards in Vietnam / And all the time, which said are you really on / You fucking all the gooks in Vietnam / Now you're gonna wish you were Goldie Horn... / Start pissing...

About the artist

Formed 1978, Catasauqua, Pennsylvania, USA

Themes

Jane Fonda · Mistreatment of Vet

In collections

Punk Songs · 1968 Chicago Seven / Eight Songs · P.O.W. / M.I.A. Songs