Dear Editor:
Letter-writer Jeffrey Ojeda Bellinger (December 15) reacted to the statement of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America in defense of Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman and the UCCA’s condemnation of “anti-immigrant voices” in the media who have questioned his character. Mr. Bellinger cited favorable coverage by The New York Times, National Public Radio and The Washington Post, among other outlets, to support his conclusion that “Lt. Col. Vindman does not seem to be on the Endangered Species list,” but he completely disregarded the right-wing media stories about Lt. Col. Vindman having a dual loyalty.
Most alarmingly, on October 28, three Fox News personalities, host Laura Ingraham, former Republican Congressman Sean Duffy of Wisconsin and former Justice Department lawyer John Yoo questioned Lt. Col. Vindman’s loyalty to the United States.
Mr. Duffy surmised that Lt. Col. Vindman’s place of birth may have motivated him to report concerns about the demands President Donald Trump made of Ukraine during his July phone conversation with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy: “It seems very clear that he is incredibly concerned about Ukrainian defense. I don’t know that he’s concerned about American policy… we all have an affinity to our homeland where we came from… he has an affinity for the [sic] Ukraine.”
Mr. Yoo suggested that Lt. Col. Vindman, a decorated Iraq war veteran and the National Security Council’s Ukraine expert who testified during the recent impeachment hearings, might be guilty of “espionage.” (Later he wrote in an op-ed for USA Today that he meant to say Ukraine had engaged in “espionage”)
It is disingenuous to argue that there is no need to defend the honor of Lt. Col. Vindman, if America’s most-watched cable news network is the venue for such a smear campaign against him.
Walter R. Iwaskiw
Arlington, Va.