The Nation - News from Jan. 1, 1985

With the help of Vietnam War veterans from across the country, a new, larger temple has risen from the ashes of a Buddhist shrine that was burned last New Year’s Eve by three angry veterans of the war. Linda Albright, caretaker of the destroyed shrine, said the congregation of the Mahasiddha Nyingmapa Center in rural Hawley, Mass., holds no grudges against the three veterans who claimed they torched the shrine to protest the lack of mental health facilities for men who served in Vietnam. “We’re sort of happy the veterans got the publicity they sought,” she said. “Their plight is probably worse than ours.”