Hung served Axelrad and his family lunch, shared memories and reflected on all the time that had passed. Axelrad said he was pleased to learn where and how Hung had been living for so many years, and to meet his children and grandchildren.
‘‘I'm so happy that he was able to make a life for himself,’’ Axelrad said.
Vietnam is now a country full of young people who have no direct memory of the war, which ended in 1975 and killed an estimated 58,000 Americans and 3 million Vietnamese. But the war’s legacy persists in the minds of combat veterans who still are processing the events and traumas they witnessed in their youth.
John Ernst, a Vietnam War expert at Morehead State University in Kentucky, said he knows of a few American veterans who have traveled to Vietnam to return personal items to former enemy soldiers as a way to bring closure.
‘‘It is a fascinating phenomenon,’’ Ernst said by e-mail Sunday. ‘‘I always wonder what triggers the decision to make the gesture.’’
