World Food Prize Ambassador Quinn
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THE ARCHIVE OF AMBASSADOR KENNETH M. QUINN
FROM THE MISSISSIPPI TO THE MEKONG
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What it Means to be an American: Fulfilling the Bond of Combat in Hanoi

77/3/77

Amb. Quinn describes a visit by the Woodcock Commission and staff members to a cemetery outside Hanoi where they agree to receive the remains of 10 American service men that had been killed during the war. At a ceremony at the airport the following day, the small, metal caskets containing the bones of those Americans were carried onto the Air Force plane each covered with an American flag. Saluting with his hand over his heart, Amb. Quinn recalls the feeling of fulfilling the bond experienced in combat—that whenever an American was under fire, you always went to help him even though you never knew his name, race, or ethnicity. All you needed to know was that they were a fellow American. Now in the Capitol of our war-time enemy, Quinn felt that they were fulfilling that bond by bringing home the remains of these Americans.

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