(VOVWORLD) - US veteran Peter Mathews on Sunday handed over the diary of a Vietnamese martyr that he has kept for the past 56 years to his family in the central province of Ha Tinh.
 Peter Mathews hands over the diary to the family of martyr Cao Xuan Tuat, Ha Tinh province, February 5, 2023. (Photo: VNA) |
Mathews and his wife were welcomed by the family of Ha Huy My, the closest surviving relatives of martyr Cao Xuan Tuat, the diary’s owner.
Mathews found the diary on the battlefield among belongings of Vietnamese soldiers who laid down their lives in Dak To in the Central Highlands in November 1967.
For over half a century, the diary had been kept at Mathews' home in New Jersey, the US.
The story was published on North Jersey newspaper on January 27, 2023, which was later shared via the Internet to Vietnam with an image of the diary and the information of its owner.
After news of the lost diary spread, Chairman of the provincial Fatherland Front Committee Tran Nhat Tan contacted Mathews.
Cao Xuan Tuat, born in 1942, joined the army in 1963 and died in 1967.