Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr, dead at age Seventy Four, from Filip Bondy, New York Daily News [1]:
I was the Vietnam War protestor. My dorm-mate, Joe, was the ROTC recruit. We were good friends at the University of Wisconsin, bound by somewhat limited social schedules and a love of hockey.
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With all the acclaim and love now showered upon Ali in his death, it is just as important to remember how hated this man once was in some quarters; how he once was reviled by many, even as he sacrificed his titles and his fortune. Before he was hailed universally, he was a divisive figure, not that different in his time from Jane Fonda. For some reason, however, Ali was forgiven more easily than Fonda over the years. Some of that forgiveness, frankly, might have been born of condescension, from guilt mixed with pity toward an increasingly vulnerable soul.
Many lessor persons than Clay will falsely flock to associate with him, and will falsely associate traitors like Jane “Hanoi Jane” Fonda with Clay. While many sought to depict their utter cowardliness with the patina of “war protestor”, they were never against the war itself, but rather only against there personal participation. Whereas many sought to run out the draft clock, hello Bernie, with endless college deferments, and others fled like rats fleeing a ship to Canada, Clay actually stood up for what he professed to believe. Clay reported to the induction center but refused to take the Oath of Enlistment. He stood trial, and went to prison rather than violate his professed beliefs. Clay was a man of honor. While I disagree with his professed beliefs, I respect his honorable deeds in standing up for them.
I don’t know, nor care, about Bondy’s personal history, but I suspect the ilk of Hanoi Jane. She on one hand claimed to be against the war, but traveled to North Vietnam and participated in the war in the uniform of North Vietnam. Fonda is a traitor.