The following letter was sent on October 30 to Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, both Democrats representing Illinois in the U.S. Senate. It is also to be sent to all members of the House of Representatives from Illinois.
On behalf of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America Illinois Division, we write to express our dismay and condemnation of the recent attacks on Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who is now accused as a possible spy and a traitor exercising dual loyalties.
We state our support of a U.S. Army officer and war hero, a top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council, who came to the United States as a 3-year-old boy from Ukraine, and dedicated his life to service to his country as a U.S. officer in multiple overseas tours, including South Korea and Germany, and was deployed to Iraq for combat operations, where he was wounded in an explosive device attack and awarded a Purple Heart.
After he testified in a Congressional hearing under oath in defense of the truth – a man who dedicated his life to serving the United States of America – he now has been the subject of scurrilous unfounded and deliberate charges of disloyalty impugning his integrity, because he was born in Ukraine. These shameful attacks on his loyalty as an American, and the intentional toxic xenophobia that has been engendered are a dangerous precedent in our democracy.
This incident can have major negative consequences for all immigrants and even their American-born children who are citizens, who believe in the values this country stands for. The attack on this Ukrainian-American is an attack on all hyphenated Americans, and must be condemned by all members of Congress.
This outrageous incident was a deliberate and sustained effort to damage the reputation and credibility of a witness in a Congressional hearing. It is unacceptable. Such character assassination should be condemned by both political parties and all people who stand for American values.
We trust that you support our position and thank you for the defense of the Constitutional right of American citizens to testify and bear witness to the truth without fear of reprisals through false accusations of disloyalty to their country.
Sincerely,
Ihor Diaczun, President
Marta Farion, Vice-President
Paul T. Bandriwsky, Vice-President