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Ubi bene ibi patria
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"LONG XUYEN, Vietnam (AP) -- Vu Dinh Son was 18 months old when his father left home to fight American forces in Vietnam, and just 2 when the man was killed in a foxhole encounter with U.S. Marines. But the son now has fresh glimpses into the life of the father he never knew thanks to a wartime diary, returned to him courtesy of the United States.
The pocket-sized book was brought to Vietnam in June by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who, in return, was handed a bundle of letters written by an American soldier that had been kept in Vietnam. The high-level exchange of artifacts symbolized a joint desire for closer ties by the former enemies, who now share concerns over China's rise.
U.S. Marine Robert "Ira" Frazure took the diary from the chest of Son's father, Vu Dinh Doan, in March 1966 and then took it home with him, presumably as a war souvenir. Earlier this year, he asked the sister of a fellow Vietnam vet to track down Doan's family in Vietnam to return the diary. She did that with the help of the PBS television program "History Detectives," which tracked down Doan's family earlier this year.
"When my father left for the battlefield, I was too small to know anything, I was not even able to call out `Dad,'" Son said Friday after a tearful ceremony outside his house during which the diary was returned, along with a photo of him and two bank notes.
"Whatever he wrote in his small diary will make us extremely happy," Son said. "We are tremendously proud of him, and in our heart he is a tremendous hero."
The red book is hard to decipher in places, but gives a flavor of the life of a North Vietnamese soldier at the beginning of the war: Entries talk of a 15-day march by Doan, hunger staved off with a meal of rice, salt and shrimp paste, and a vow to destroy "eight planes and five tanks." "
"LONG XUYEN, Vietnam (AP) -- Vu Dinh Son was 18 months old when his father left home to fight American forces in Vietnam, and just 2 when the man was killed in a foxhole encounter with U.S. Marines. But the son now has fresh glimpses into the life of the father he never knew thanks to a wartime diary, returned to him courtesy of the United States.
The pocket-sized book was brought to Vietnam in June by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who, in return, was handed a bundle of letters written by an American soldier that had been kept in Vietnam. The high-level exchange of artifacts symbolized a joint desire for closer ties by the former enemies, who now share concerns over China's rise.
U.S. Marine Robert "Ira" Frazure took the diary from the chest of Son's father, Vu Dinh Doan, in March 1966 and then took it home with him, presumably as a war souvenir. Earlier this year, he asked the sister of a fellow Vietnam vet to track down Doan's family in Vietnam to return the diary. She did that with the help of the PBS television program "History Detectives," which tracked down Doan's family earlier this year.
"When my father left for the battlefield, I was too small to know anything, I was not even able to call out `Dad,'" Son said Friday after a tearful ceremony outside his house during which the diary was returned, along with a photo of him and two bank notes.
"Whatever he wrote in his small diary will make us extremely happy," Son said. "We are tremendously proud of him, and in our heart he is a tremendous hero."
The red book is hard to decipher in places, but gives a flavor of the life of a North Vietnamese soldier at the beginning of the war: Entries talk of a 15-day march by Doan, hunger staved off with a meal of rice, salt and shrimp paste, and a vow to destroy "eight planes and five tanks." "