Reconciliation tours of Vietnam aid veterans who served in war
Albany Times Union
By J.p. Lawrence
August 14, 2016
Vietnam veteran Dan New of Troy met with Viet Cong veteran Tam Tien, as part of a reconciliation tour led by psychotherapist Ed Tick and his organization Soldier's Heart.
IMAGE 1 OF 8 Vietnam veteran Dan New of Troy met with Viet Cong veteran Tam Tien, as part of a reconciliation tour led by psychotherapist Ed Tick and his organization Soldier's Heart. (Photo: Ed Tick).Troy
The heat of the night enveloped Dan New as he got off the plane. The 68-year-old man was back in the city he had known as Saigon. New marveled at how much had changed in what was now known as Ho Chi Minh City.
Waiting for him at the airport was another veteran of the war that ended 40 years ago. That man, Tran Dinh Song, had served in the South Vietnamese Air Force.
Over the next two weeks, New and Song would learn more about each other's story. In the years after coming home from Vietnam, New had sealed an intense feeling of guilt within him. In the years after his country lost to Communist forces, Song of South Vietnam had spent three years in a re-education camp. In December, the two men's winding paths after the war intersected in Ho Chi Minh City.
Song, 67, was New's guide in a two-week reconciliation tour of a dozen American veterans and researchers arranged by the Soldier's Heart, a Troy-based organization that helps veterans heal the psychological wounds of war.
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