To the Editor,

Some time ago I met a woman whose son had died in the Vietnam War. I met her at a Gold Star Family Weekend, an annual event at Camp Dawson in West Virginia. I am a Gold Star father and a Vietnam veteran. Her son was a member of a Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol when he was killed.

She had visited Vietnam in the 1990s in honor him, to see the nation he had died defending. She toured the country, spoke at an event, was interviewed by local media (she walked out of the interview after she, and America, were repeatedly blamed for the war.) At the end of her visit she was staying at a hotel in Da Nang. Early one morning she walked out onto the hotel grounds next to the South China Sea. A man was surf casting nearby and he saw her. He put his pole down, went over to her and said, “Thank you.” Then he went back to fishing. Somehow he knew she was an American.

That was acknowledgment by a citizen of a foreign land for the dedication of the leader of the free world to making a better life – freedom from hunger, thirst and illness – for people everywhere.

USAID – United States Agency for International Development – provides the assistance needed by the less fortunate. And those whom we help will never forget what we did.

Abraham Lincoln said, “No man stands so tall as when he stoops to help a child.” I think his words apply to nations as well.

Terry Cullinan

Follansbee