AceShowbiz - Jane Fonda has credited Vietnam veterans with giving her life meaning in the 1960s.

The Hollywood veteran insists she was interesting but far from engaged until she became one of the world's most famous anti-war activists, protesting America's conflict in Vietnam.

And she admits all it took was a meeting with soldiers in Paris and a good book.

"I had lived an eventful and interesting life but a meaningless life," she tells WENN. "I was a kind of a pretty girl who made movies and kind of hedonistic. I had met American soldiers in Paris and they told me what they had seen and done in Vietnam and gave me The Village of Ben Suc by Jonathan Schell.

"Prior to that experience, I had been completely uninvolved with anything. I didn't even know where Vietnam was and after reading that book and talking to these men the coin shifted and I felt betrayed by this country's leadership. We'd been lied to and I want to do whatever I can to expose that.

"When you find out something is totally not true, then you become a staunch advocate on the other side. We had to end that war and I decided I would do everything in my power to stop it as part of a movement. So when I decided to join the anti-war movement everything shifted - the way I looked at the world and other people".

Fonda travelled to Vietnam as part of an anti-war protest and became known as Hanoi Jane by supporters and critics alike, but she admits her activism got the better of her one day when she agreed to clamber onto a tank for a photo opportunity.

"I am so sorry I was thoughtless enough to sit down on that gun at that time and the message that says to the guys that were there and their families," she says. "It's horrible for me to think about that".

The image, which remains one of the most famous Fonda photos, led to a backlash as patriotic Americans deemed it disrespectful.