PW: I lost my cousin during the Tet Offensive in 1968. He was with the Marines and was killed during the fighting for Hue City. I mention this because he was in my thoughts when I visited the Vietnam War Memorial, and I agree with you wholeheartedly. What Ms. Lin created was as true a memorial as I have ever seen. As a former soldier myself, it literally brought tears to my eyes, and it honors the loss and sacrifice of every one of those 58,000 soldiers, airmen, Marines and sailors who died there. To single her out for disparagement because of her ethnicity (and her age as well) is reprehensible, but entirely consistent with the rhetoric and jingoism that rears its ugly head in this country periodically.

I can remember movies like “Die Hard” and books like Crichton’s “Rising Sun” during the supposed Japanese takeover of the world. Same thing. I’m sure as China continues to ascend, we will undoubtedly focus on their hegemonic intentions as well.

What we really need to do is look inward and fix our own problems before demonizing someone else. But politicians are clever enough to recognize there are no votes in that course of action, so we’ll focus on the Chinese, or North Koreans, or “insert enemy of choice here”.