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Time to heal the wounds
Vet, tortured in Vietnam, to return as ambassador
April 11, 1997
Web posted at: 3:18 p.m. EDT (1918 GMT)WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Elderly locals of An Doai, a northern Vietnamese village, remember the night they plucked Douglas "Pete" Peterson and his parachute from the mango tree that caught his fall in September 1966.
After his fighter-bomber crashed in flames, two villagers found and guarded Peterson until soldiers arrived to take him away. They say they would have killed him if he had struggled. Today, they welcome his appointment. It is time, they say, to heal the wounds between the two countries.
"If I could see him now, I'd ask, 'Are you coming back?'" said Nguyen Viet Chop, one of the villagers. "I'd say, 'Come and visit us.' That would be a precious moment for us."
The United States and its former enemy, Vietnam, have cleared the way for a historic exchange of ambassadors. Hanoi's nominee, Le Van Bang, says his challenge will be to represent what he calls the "new Vietnam," a country with a large market economy which wants to befriend America.
Meanwhile, Peterson, Washington's new ambassador, won approval from the U.S. Senate late Thursday. Peterson is the first post-war U.S. ambassador and the first ever to a united Vietnam.
Peterson spent six and a half years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, enclosed in a solitary cell, and suffering torture and harsh repeated interrogations. He came home with a Purple Heart, the Silver Star and the Legion of Merit.
After his return home, he became an Air Force captain, retiring from the military in 1981 after 26 years of service. Peterson went into the computer business, and in 1990 the Florida Democrat was elected to Congress.
He has visited Vietnam twice in recent years and made it clear during those trips, and during his confirmation process, that his priority as ambassador to Hanoi would be a full accounting for the more than 1,500 U.S. servicemen listed as missing in action from the Vietnam War.
"The time for healing has arrived, and Congressman Peterson is the one to lead us in that direction," said Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Nebraska, another Vietnam veteran.
The former wartime fighter pilot and prisoner of war will head to Hanoi in the coming weeks.
Vietnam: a country, not just a war
He will arrive at a time when U.S. cultural and economic influence in the communist country is becoming more evident, but political ties remain very delicate. The Vietnam government welcomed his confirmation as another sign that, slowly but surely, the U.S. government is beginning to think of Vietnam as a country and not just a war -- a sentiment heard several times during Peterson's confirmation hearings.
Yet reminders of the war abound, even as Peterson returns, and Vietnamese are not altogether ready to forget its aftereffects on their country, which is still riddled with land mines.
Nonetheless, Peterson's former captors say his arrival in Vietnam will mark the beginning of a new era in relations between the two countries.
CNN's David Clinch contributed to this report.
Related stories:
- Florida congressman nominated to be ambassador to Vietnam - May 24, 1996
- CNNfn - Vietnam seeks investment from former enemies - May 2, 1996
Related sites:
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- Vietconnection
- Defense Pow Missing Personnel Office
- POW-MIA page - Russian-American Joint Commission On Prisoners of War and Missing in Action
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