Jane Fonda visited Hanoi in July 1972. Among other statements, she repeated the North Vietnamese claim that the United States had been deliberately targeting the dike system along the Red River. In fact the dike system suffered bomb damage, but was not strategically targeted.

In North Vietnam, Fonda was photographed seated on an anti-aircraft battery. In her 2005 autobiography, she writes that she was manipulated into sitting on the battery, and was immediately horrified at the implications of the pictures. After the release of the pictures of Fonda seated behind the anti-aircraft gun, she was dubbed 'Hanoi Jane' by opponents of the anti-war movement in the United States.