Originally Posted by
WillowRun 6-3
As I write this, news reports are heavily emphasizing the search and hoped-for rescue of the second aircrew member of the downed F-15E aircraft.
A few posts previous to this, Gums wrote of his experience in similar situations. Together with the media focus of the moment, I've been reminded of an item I read recently with some details about Jane Fonda's visit to North Vietnam which I had not previously known about. What that article brought to my attention (and yes, I am taking its assertions at face value, as I have no reason to find them exaggerated or falsified, but I also claim no particular expertise on the efforts by which she became known as "Hanoi Jane") was that the captors cleaned several American POWs up and presented them to Ms. Fonda as proof of the captors' good treatment. Several (according to the article) surreptitiously slipped their visitor small strips of paper, with notes intended to tell officials back home about their mistreatment, assuming Fonda would bring their notes home and deliver them accordingly. Instead, ....
Instead, according to the article, Ms. Fonda delivered the notes to the captors. Several POWs were severely beaten, and (if I recall the article correctly) at least one died as a result of injuries so sustained.
Those were hoaxes debunked by the very POWs named in these stories.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/jane-fonda-pows/