In January, senator Charles Robb, the Virginia Democrat, was sitting on Air Force One sipping soda with several congressional colleagues. They were flying to Bosnia with President Clinton, and the conversation turned to land mines. Robb related an experience he had as a Marine in Vietnam. His unit was escorting supply convoys passing through Viet Cong-held territory, and the mission included searching for mines by poking bayonets into any disturbed soil. One afternoon, an engineer several yards in front of Robb struck a detonator with his bayonet. "He was literally vaporized right in front of my eyes," Robb remembered. "We searched...
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