Why is Le Thi Cong Nhan a hero and why don't others measure up?

The following words are taken from JPS's famous essay, "Existentialism and Human Emotions", which is widely anthologized. If you don't hear further from me, either because I voluntarily withdraw into my shell or I am hit by a bus or felled by a terrible disease, I would like to leave these words with you to remember me by. I wish I had the talent to articulate them myself. In one of my emails, I cited JPS as one of those thinkers who left an imprint on my thought process. I am not a deep thinker. I learned and borrowed from those who were/are smarter than me. A man is a sum of his experiences. JPS's influence was seen clearly in the mottos I sign off: "You don't know who you are until you are tested. A man defines himself by his actions. To do is to be. Dobedo." and in my activism for Vietnam. The man was no ivory academic. He participated in WW II against German occupation of his country. He took part in demonstrations against the war in Vietnam. He refused to accept the Nobel Prize in Literature. He was no angel, however. He had some sexual relationship with his adopted daughter. That was sick. Anyway, I took from the man what he could offer. The following was what he said and I strongly believed it had a stronger bearing on understanding a person like Le Thi Cong Nhan than what has been written so far on the Internet about this remarkable young woman and hero.

"A man is involved in life, leaves his impress on it, and outside of that there is nothing. To be sure, this may seem a harsh thought to someone whose life hasn't been a success. But, on the other hand, it prompts people to understand that reality alone is what it counts, that dreams, expectations, and hopes warrant no more than to define a man as a disappointed dream, as miscarried hopes, as vain expectations In other words, to define him negatively and not positively. However, when we say, "You are nothing else than your life," that does not imply that the artist will be judged solely on the basis of his works of art; a thousand other things will contribute toward summing him up. What we mean is that a man is nothing else than a series of undertakings, that he is the sum, the organization, the ensemble of the relationships which make up these undertakings.

When all is said and done, what we are accused of, at bottom, is not our pessimism, but an optimistic toughness....But when the existentialist writes about a coward, he says that this coward is responsible for his cowardice. He's not like that because he has a cowardly heart or lung or brain; he's not like that on account of his physiological make-up; but he's like that because he has made himself a coward by his acts....The coward is defined on the basis of the acts he performs. People feel, in a vague sort of way, that this coward we're talking about is guilty of being a coward, and the thought frightens them. What people would like is that a coward or hero be born that way...."

Le Thi Cong Nhan was not born a hero. She chose to be a hero. She chose to act and get involved for the betterment of her people and thus her country, at great costs to herself. She does not just talk or mouth off pious sentiments. She does not pontificate. She acts.

Yours in truth and knowledge, not in sophistry.