John Kerry meets comrade of Viet Cong soldier he shot dead
The Secretary of State and former US Navy Lieutenant revisits the Mekong delta where in 1969 he thwarted an ambush on his boat.
Monday 16 January 2017 09:01, UK
The outgoing US Secretary of State has visited the spot where he shot dead a Viet Cong soldier during the Vietnam War.
John Kerry met a former comrade of the man who took part in an attack on the US Navy officer's boat in the Mekong delta.
He shook hands with Vo Van Tam, 70, and the pair chatted about what happened to them nearly 50 years before on 28 February, 1969.
Kerry spent nearly five months as the commander of a US Navy Swift boat and won a Silver Star for his actions on that day.
The heroics that led to him being awarded the medal took place after his Swift was ambushed from the river bank.
According to the Washington Post, he leapt ashore to pursue a member of the Viet Cong who had been trying to attack his boat with a grenade launcher.
When he caught up with him, Mr Kerry shot him dead.
US consulate officials apparently tracked down Mr Tam and invited him to meet America's top diplomat.
Speaking through a translator, Mr Tam said he had known the man Mr Kerry had chased and killed.
His name was Ba Thanh and he was 24 years old, he said.
When he ran against George W Bush for the presidency, Mr Kerry's political opponents tried to denigrate his war record by claiming he had shot a teenager.
Mr Tam's revelation is the first time Mr Kerry has discovered anything about the man he killed in combat.
The Secretary of State asked the crab and prawn farmer several questions and said: "I'm glad we're both alive."
Afterwards, he took a trip along the narrow channels with a historian from Dartmouth College to find the spot where the ambush took place, about 20 miles south of the delta city of Ca Mau.
Mr Kerry also won three Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star for recovering a Marines adviser while under fire who had been knocked off his boat when it was hit by mines.
The Secretary of State and Senator John McCain, who was held prisoner of war when his Navy jet was shot down over Hanoi during the war, were key in efforts to return relations between the US and Vietnam to normal in the 1990s.
He was in Vietnam to defend a 12-nation trade pact that the incoming US administration has said it will scrap - his last duty as Secretary of State.
Before he visited the Mekong, he held meetings with Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and acting Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son.