On his first full day in his new job, U.S. Ambassador Pete Peterson took in the sights of a rapidly changing Hanoi, where he once was a prisoner of war.
Peterson arrived Friday to become America's first ambassador to communist Vietnam. On Saturday, he strolled along the banks of Hanoi's scenic Hoan Kiem lake and stopped briefly at a local cafe - all during a carefully controlled photo opportunity.An Air Force captain during the war, Peterson spent 61/2 years in the notorious Hanoi Hilton prison after his bomber was shot down near Hanoi in 1966. In a sign of how times have changed, the site of the prison is now under construction to become a gleaming skyscraper.
Since the Vietnam War ended 22 years ago, Hanoi has grown from a poverty-ridden backwater to a budding economic hub. Busy shops and a few posh boutiques have replaced the one-person bomb shelters that used to line the capital's streets.
The ambassador refused to speak to reporters, saying he wanted to wait until he had formally presented his diplomatic credentials to the Vietnamese authorities.
Peterson's primary mission in Vietnam is to push forward with the search for about 1,600 American servicemen still missing from the war.