ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, February 20, 1997 TAG: 9702200048
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: AN DOAI, VIETNAM
SOURCE: Associated Press
THE FIRST AMBASSADOR to Vietnam could be a pilot who was shot down in 1966.
The man picked to be the first U.S. ambassador to communist Vietnam is no stranger to the people of the northern hamlet of An Doai. He dropped in on them, literally, three decades ago.
It was Sept. 10, 1966, and Pete Peterson was an Air Force captain flying his fighter-bomber over the countryside on a nearly moonless night when an anti-aircraft missile clipped the tail of the jet.
The plane hit the ground in flames. Peterson's fighting days in the Vietnam War came to an end as his parachute dropped him into the branches of a mango tree.
Today, with Peterson preparing to return as America's first ambassador to postwar Vietnam, An Doai's residents remember the night he came crashing in on them.
``There was a smoke and fire streak across the sky,'' says 70-year-old Nguyen Danh Xinh, his finger tracing an arc in the air. ``We knew an American pilot had been shot down.''
Village bells clanged out the signal that a plane had been brought down. Xinh and fellow militiaman Nguyen Viet Chop were dispatched to the rice fields outside An Doai to find the pilot. It didn't take long.
At the foot of a mango tree - a bright white parachute silk tangled in its limbs - Peterson sat waiting, his arm, leg and shoulder broken.
``I wasn't thinking about being scared,'' Chop said. ``I was thinking either he or I am going to die.''
Vietnam, the United States and Peterson have made a long journey from the days of the war, but little has changed in An Doai, a village about 30 miles east of the capital, Hanoi. Rice crops and livestock dictate the day's routine.
Where the mango tree stood, a mud-caked water buffalo hauls a farmer's ancient cart and its load to market along a narrow dirt road.
In the fields, women in traditional conical hats stoop in rice fields. Music from a distant village loudspeaker rolls and echoes over the landscape.
In the history of the sleepy village, the downing of the American pilot remains a memorable event.
``It was the first time I had seen a foreigner,'' said Xinh, his brown army uniform faded and patched, the epaulets missing from its shoulders. ``We jumped on him and held him down. We called everyone in the village to come and help.''
But help soon turned to hostility, and captors Xinh and Chop became Peterson's guardians.
``The villagers threatened him,'' Chop said. ``They were throwing sticks and bottles, and some had knives.''
That harrowing night was the first of many for Peterson, who would spend 6 1/2 years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam.
In that time, he was tortured, held in solitary confinement and repeatedly interrogated.
He retired in 1981 after 26 years in the Air Force with a Purple Heart, a Silver Star and a Legion of Merit.
Peterson went into the computer business, then the Florida Democrat was elected to Congress in 1990. Senate confirmation is expected soon for his appointment as ambassador - the last step in a long process of establishing full relations between the one-time enemies.
For Peterson, there are still dark memories.
``But we have to start using the term Vietnam without adding the suffix war,'' Peterson told The Associated Press last year when he was nominated as ambassador to Vietnam, which he visited again in 1991 and 1993.
Like Peterson's, Chop's anger has faded.
``If Mr. Pete Peterson comes to Vietnam as ambassador, it will be a very precious thing,'' Chop said. ``Before we were enemies, and now he can return as a friend.''
Although Peterson has moved on, the war, or at least its legacy, is still high on his agenda. During a Senate confirmation hearing, Peterson said accounting for the 1,597 missing U.S. servicemen would be his top priority.
And if he returns to An Doai, the reception will be different from the one he got three decades ago.
``If he comes here, we won't hit him either,'' Xinh said, his eyes brightening with a smile as he turned to walk away.
LENGTH: Medium: 83 linesby CNB