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| In 1998, when returning to Vietnam with National Geographic Magazine, Tran Van Dinh encountered five American soldiers in a hotel, two black men and three white. He asked them why they were in Vietnam. They explained that, back in the United States, they had seen a television program on the problem of war-era mines exploding and killing farmers in their fields. They recognized the mines as ones they themselves had buried during the war. They contacted the Pentagon for maps, collected money from neighbors for their return mission, and then went back to Vietnam -- this time to remove the mines from the fields. Tran was amazed deeply moved by the men's story and it transformed his perspective of American soldiers and helped him fundamentally reconsider the meaning of "enemies". |
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