Vietnam said today former US senator Mr Bob Kerrey had been remorseful in his statements about his past service in the Vietnam War and called on him to help heal the wounds left over from the conflict.
"We think the best way for Mr Kerrey as well as other Americans who used to fight in Vietnam to find peace of mind is to have concrete and realistic actions to contribute to healing the wounds left by the war in Vietnam," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Ms Phan Thuy Thanh said in a statement.
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Mr Kerrey, who ran unsuccessfully for the US presidency in 1992 and is seen as a potential Democratic candidate in 2004, has said a Navy SEAL combat mission he led during the Vietnam War was responsible for the shooting deaths of more than 20 unarmed civilians, mostly women and children.
The February 1969 incident in Thanh Phong hamlet in the Mekong Delta province of Ben Tre emerged yesterday after a joint investigation by the New York Times Magazineand CBS News' 60 Minutes.
That Mr Kerrey should be implicated in such an incident will come as a shock to those who have admired his efforts since the war to promote reconciliation between Vietnam and the United States.
In an interview with 60 Minutes,set to air next Tuesday, Mr Kerrey (57) said that "to describe it [the incident] as an atrocity, I would say, is pretty close to being right, because that's how it felt, and that's why I feel guilt and shame for it."