THE days of war are the darkest days of one’s life. “It’s too painful to remember,” Tran van Thac acknowledged. The thin 64-year-old, a resident of Duang Nguyen Hong in Hanoi, Vietnam, was gazing into space. “Two million Vietnamese people died in those days,” he added softly.

At noon two weeks ago, Tempo arrived to have lunch with the Tran family. The sincere warmth of welcome by the host was felt in Thac̵