Walking out of the "Hanoi Hilton" prison a free man after six and a half years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, Douglas "Pete" Peterson never expected he would become a bridge between that country and its enemy, the United States.But that's exactly what happened when President Bill Clinton appointed Peterson as the first postwar U.S. ambassador to Vietnam in 1997. Peterson had decided to "leave his hate at the gate" and follow a path directed not by vengeance, but by purpose.As a U.S. Air Force pilot, Peterson was captured in 1966 after his plane was shot down by the North Vietnamese while …READ FULL ARTICLE
