Jane Fonda Regrets Vietnam Missile Launcher Picture

Jane Fonda has admitted she will “go to my grave with regrets” over the now-infamous 1972 photograph of her sitting on a North Vietnamese missile launcher aimed at U.S. soldiers.

The snap was taken during Fonda’s visit to Hanoi in July 1972, and earned her the nickname ‘Hanoi Jane’. The actress, a highly vocal opponent of the war, accused the American forces at the time of deliberately targeting the dike system along the Red River.

Forty years after it was taken, Fonda has told British mag Hello that the picture, which outraged many Americans, had haunted her throughout her career since:

“In 1972 I was photographed, laughing, sitting on a North Vietnamese missile launcher aimed at American soldiers, without realising what I was doing.

“I paid heavily for that mistake, and am still criticised for it. I’ll go to my grave with regrets about that picture.”

Is there something to Fonda’s fears? Well, perhaps. Only last year, she claimed QVC had boycotted her appearance over her anti-Vietnam views.

And this isn’t the first time the Barbarella icon has expressed regret at the photo: she admitted as much in her 2005 autobiography, saying she had been “horrified at the implications” of the pictures.