Once again U.S. jeeps rolled through the rugged countryside of Viet Nam last week, but on a very different mission from that of 15 years ago. Accompanied by Vietnamese officials, two teams of Americans visited several sites north of Hanoi for clues to the fate of U.S. flyers missing in action in the Viet Nam War. The investigators were armed with metal detectors and a rare diplomatic privilege: for the first time, Americans were allowed to interview peasants and villagers who may have seen plane crashes or the captures of airmen during the war.
The intense search reflected the anguish of...