Friday, September 18, 2009

POW's journey to Australia, via love in Vietnam

CAROLYN WEBB
September 17, 2009
Former US ambassador Douglas Pete Peterson becomes an Australian citizen with wife Vi Le Peterson.

Former US ambassador Douglas Pete Peterson becomes an Australian citizen with wife Vi Le Peterson.

Photo: Joe Armao

...Mr Peterson, 74, spent six years as a prisoner of war after his F4 Phantom jet was shot down over North Vietnam in 1966. After the war, he represented Florida in the US Congress and was surprised when, in 1997, president Bill Clinton asked him to be the first post-war US ambassador to Vietnam.

While initially reticent, he accepted and now sees his four-year stint there as vital in helping to re-establish ties between the US and Vietnam. ''I was able to open doors that maybe others couldn't have opened,'' he says...


Click here to read the full story:
http://www.theage.com.au/national/pows-journey-to-australia-via-love-in-vietnam-20090916-frp6.html



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