Vietnam Veterans Set Hunt for Old Mines

Three former Marines extended a peace offering to Vietnam on Monday, in advance of a mercy mission on which they will look for land mines that might still be in place there, 20 years after they planted them.

The Americans presented a plaque at the Vietnamese mission to the United Nations. It reads: “In the hopes of preserving the peace, we come to Vietnam once again, this time to help the preservation of human life. 11th Engineers, January, 1989.”

While the nine-day trip to be made by six former Marines from the 11th Engineer Battalion, 3rd Marine Division, is a private and, in some ways, sentimental journey financed by an anonymous businessman, it will be watched closely by both the U.S. and Vietnamese governments.

The Jan. 9 trip will be another step in recent efforts to improve relations between the two countries. Vietnam, one of the poorest countries in the world, is seeking to reopen diplomatic relations with the United States and to win American aid and investment now banned under a U.S. trade embargo.