From the Independent Producer Project of KCRW and KCRW.com, I'm Bob Carlson, and this is Unfictional.

Unfictional is a program of true stories and personal documentaries and this week

marks the 40th anniversary of the reunification of Vietnam.

Before the Iraq War, before Afghanistan, of the an indelible imprint on the American psyche, a war that left over 58,000 Americans and millions

of Vietnamese dead.

One of those dead was a young North Vietnamese doctor, fresh out medical school who'd gone south to tend to wounded

Viet Cong soldiers. The young woman kept a diary during her brief time in the war that somehow

survived and became a runaway bestseller in Vietnam.

It's been translated into dozens of languages.

Until today, no one has returned. It has been almost 10 days since they left and promised to come back.

Why haven't they returned? I am not a child and already strong in the face of hardships, but at this minute why do I want so much a mother's head to care for me?

Random House published the book called Last Night I Dreamed of Peace here in the US almost 10 years ago and reporter Michael Sullivan who was at the time

NPR's Southeast Asia correspondent, based in Hanoy, did a story

about the diary and the American soldier who found it and kept it strictly against

orders.

Michael's report was long for all things considered. It was almost 13 minutes and it won an overseas press club award

but like most radio stories there was plenty he had to cut out.

So for this anniversary, he's produced an expanded version of the story for this program.

From KCRW.com, it's unfictional.

In December 1969,

Frederick Whitehurst was stationed in Kwangnai province in what was then South Vietnam.

Assigned to the 635 military intelligence unit near Dukful

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