Hollywood star and activist Jane Fonda is planning to take a bus tour across the United States to call for an end to US military operations in Iraq in a move that has already drawn sharp reactions from both the pro- and anti-war camps.

Fonda, who earned the nickname Hanoi Jane after she was photographed sitting on a Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun at the height of the Viet Nam War, said she would be joined by families of Iraq War veterans and her daughter on the tour.

"I've decided I'm coming out," she told a cheering audience during an appearance in New Mexico to promote her autobiography, explaining that Iraq veterans had encouraged her to break her silence.

"I have not taken a stand on any war since Viet Nam," she added. "I carry a lot of baggage from that."

Fonda said her anti-war tour in March would use a bus that runs on vegetable oil. "I cannot go into any detail except to say that it's going to be pretty exciting," she said.

Fonda is still reviled by many Viet Nam veterans for her stance and actions during the Viet Nam War. In her autobiography, "My Life So Far," she said she was not thinking about what she was doing when she sat on the aircraft gun, and the impression it gave that she was the enemy of US soldiers and veterans was something she still carried "heavy in my heart."

But Ted Sampley, vice-president of Rolling Thunder, one of the largest Viet Nam Veterans organizations, said it was a case of deja vu. "She has no credibility; she is going to make a lot of people mad, me being one of them," he said.

Jim Phillips, a Middle East analyst at the Heritage Foundation, a Washington think-tank, said: "Her book sales are not going too well so I guess she has latched on to the Iraq War as a way of staying in the news."

"She is irrelevant, and I just see her the same as Tom Cruise, spouting off about things they know nothing about."

But anti-war groups were generally supportive of the Hollywood star. Wes Hamilton, 57, a former Viet Nam soldier and a member of United States Veterans for Peace, said: "I'm excited about it frankly and I really applaud her for what she is doing. It is critical to keep the war in the public attention.

"I was just back from Viet Nam when she made her controversial journey. There was a tremendous division in the US... I was still in the Marines or recently discharged and my point was that whatever it takes to get the conversation in the media is important."

"The people from my generation are the ones who did stand up and bring the Viet Nam War to its conclusion. If it means bringing that generation back together again and getting a new generation to stand up to stop this war then so be it," said Hamilton.

Source: China Daily