In 1969, Jerilyn Brusseau’s brother, American Daniel Cheney, died when his helicopter was shot down over Vietnam’s southern provinces. Brusseau vowed that when the war was over she would work for reconciliation. Gathered with friends around the breakfast table one Sunday morning, the group decided on an avenue to build bridges of reconciliation between the United States and Vietnam: “We wanted to take the spirit of ‘citizen diplomacy’ fostered by 18 previous international PeaceTrees programs in other countries to a deeper level, by working with the Vietnamese people in removing landmines and planting trees.”
The Journal of ERW and Mine Action
: Vol. 16
, Article 11.
Available at: https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/cisr-journal/vol16/iss1/11