"Nation's hero"? "War criminal"? (#268, Topic Q)

A week ago, I saw, in Washington Post, a front-page photo of President Bush, at the Presidential Palace in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, for the APEC forum. The background of this photo is a bust of Ho Chi Minh. I thought the photo provides contrast at several levels: (1) optically, Bush in the foreground is well lit while Ho in the background is dark; (2) visually, Bush is smiling while Ho is grim; and (3) geopolitically, US and Vietnam, formerly enemies, are now friends. This contrast is simply too much, even to an uninvolved bystander like myself. To those who were deeply involved, I thought this photo would produce a lot of reactions. Sure enough, in today's WP, there are two letters to the editor commenting on this photo -- WP also saw fit to reproduce that photo in 6"x6" size. One, who lives in Maryland, queries, cryptically, the following: "Where does the Post get the arrogance to disgrace a nation's hero and father with the picture of one of the worst war criminals in modern times?" After reading it several times, I confess I do not know how to interpret this quote. Another one, who lives in Virginia and is much more straight forward, concludes with the following query: "Where were his [Bush's] advisers when he was allowed to be seen in that photo op?" Both are excellent queries. All I need do is to include both, together, as an entry in this blog.