European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - March 26, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Vietnamese children surround Cane Spanos who Ted a Small delegation of marines Back to Vietnam to visit their eld bases. Good morning Vietnam visits a Healing experience by Tom Condon Hartford courant a s the thai airways Al eased Dod John. Maui file director of  Bacon dilation project a Philadelphia based Exchange program aimed at normalizing relations Between the United Stales and Vietnam. As Mca Lifto an american knowledgeable about postwar Vietnam explains a vols came Back lion world a War 11 with a Cense of jote Well Dono and go on with their lives they went to school on Iho go Bill got lobs and bought houses m the suburbs. Many Vietnam vets Cosmo Back confused won Dew what the Point was and have struggled with it Ever since so most of the resuming veterans offer a Good will gesture of some and to help put choir troubling War expo Ncnees to Rusl Johnson and Spanos for Esam to went to try to locale mines they d Laid 20 years ago As Marine combat engineers so Lar this year a dozen other groups of vels have gone to build or equip hospitals orphanages and clinics provide prosthetic devices for amputee distribute bibles Jaccoi Spany High school a Ludonis write books or Stafl on change programs. Sunday March 26, 1989 ithe vietnamese Are welcoming the veterans in part because Thoy want  Wilh the untied states and in Par because Buddha Irons on vengeance and living in Tho Paat. Both the Buddhist and hindu traditions to Acri thai destruction is the beginning of creation that when a Plant is Cut a new one will grow from the Stem said Phung cd a translator  guide. This grass roots reconciliation Between american and vietnamese seems ail the More improbable in Light of events that followed the North vietnamese Victory Over Trio american supported South vietnamese government in 1975. When North vietnamese tanks rolled Anlo Saigon on april 30.1975i they ended Lour decades of War against the japanese Fronch and americans. The country was devastated exhausted and depicted the northerners do Dell stage a Bloodbath As Somo  but neither did they display a sense of Good Fellowship. Thousands of southerners were interned in -. Re education  the country was largely closed to the West hundreds of thousands lied some on very primitive Craft Lor a boiler Hie abroad. The country adopted a soviet Model slate run Economy with collective instead of private farms and a ponderous Central bureaucracy it was a disaster. Tho proud and Lough vietnamese were worse Oil economically than they had been Chat ring the War. By 1985 All they had was the world s Mth largest army supplied by Iho soviets and a a of hungry unemployed people the country was forced to Send groups of labourers to Easton bloc countries to repay Loans and had to Sand fruits and produce to the soviet Union Hal might Otho Wiso have been sold Lor much needed Cash the highways still Are in such bad shape thai officials had trouble getting food from Hie Lush Mekong Delta in the South to Northern provinces Hal were experiencing Lood shortages last summer hospitals have to re Uso catheters and hypodermic Needles inflation has run at continued on Pago 14 the stars and stripes Page 13