The Marcia Landau I know…

Contributed
Published: May 29, 2008

To the editor,
I met Marcia Landau when I was a director of the Vietnam Veterans Leadership Program, a special White House initiative. America was faced with the turmoil that followed the Vietnam conflict. The veterans of that war were being spit on as they returned home.
We were able to support our Vietnam veterans with a very successful nationwide bipartisan campaign to inform the public how valuable a resource they were. The results of this work are a legacy that lasts to this day. During that same time, Ms. Landau was also helping to build the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (the Wall) in Washington, one of this country’s most cherished monuments.
Ms. Landau went on to do the critical work of helping lift the embargo against Vietnam and welcome normal relations between the two countries. She helped form the Vietnam Children’s Fund, teaming with the late Lew Puller, Vietnam veteran and Pulitzer Prize-winning author, and Terry Anderson, best known for being held hostage for years by radical fundamentalists in Beirut. Over the years, this group, with Ms. Landau at the helm, has constructed 42 elementary schools serving over 20,000 children in the poorest and most remote locations in Vietnam.
By nature, Ms. Landau is a woman who sees a problem and works to find a solution. This is a patriot, not someone who disrespects the rule of law. I am proud to have worked with her and to call her my friend.
Edward Timperlake
Former Assistant Secretary, Department of Veteran Affairs and a former Marine fighter pilot