Legacies Post 
You've Got Mail!

From the desk of Angela Dickey , board member Legacies of War Angela is no stranger to the Legacies mission.  She was introduced to Legacies by the late U.S. Ambassador to Laos Douglas Hartwick, for whom she worked in Laos 25 years ago. Angela also served as deputy to Ambassador Karen Stewart -- current chair of the Legacies board -- at U.S. Embassy Vientiane in 2011-2012.  2000-2002, Angela with Lao embassy staff and personnel from the Lao-American project, Northern Laos. Th

From the desk of Richard A. Berliner, IVS volunteer in Viet Nam from 1966 to 1968, author of A Different Journey: Vietnam 1965-1973 International Voluntary Services  (IVS) was founded February 16, 1953 Hill overlooking An Khe, Richard A. Berliner In the fall of 2022 former volunteers with the International Voluntary Services (IVS) came together in Birmingham, Alabama, with at least two things on their minds. One was to reminisce about the time they served together some fifty

PRESS RELEASE Washington, D.C. — January 8, 2026  — Legacies of War, the leading organization dedicated to raising greater awareness and funds to support the clearance of unexploded ordnance, survivor assistance, and explosive ordnance risk education is honored to announce that Ambassador (ret.) Karen B. Stewart will begin her tenure as Chair of the Board . Ambassador Stewart is the first U.S. Ambassador ever to serve in this role at Legacies of War. A career Foreign Service

From the desk of Cathleen Balid, PICS Intern with Legacies of War 2025 Don and Cathleen at Library of Congress Today, and the rest of these three days, have left me wrestling a lot with the American political system and my smallness. And what I mean by that is that advocating  in this political system, in front of staffers, and oftentimes urgently showing up to representatives that may not even see you, makes you feel so insignificant . In the sense that you have this weight

Touring Vientiane sites (Pha That Luang) with my mother in 2005 I thought I had won the lottery when I was tapped to go to Laos in 2004. To prepare for my first ambassadorship, I read up on the Vietnam War, which was also referred to as the Second Indochina War or the American Secret War in Laos. I grew up in the 1970s and was aware of the war, but I never really knew the impact it had on Laos. I also consulted two former U.S. Ambassadors: Wendy Chamberlain recommended that I

From the desk of Ret. Ambassador Wendy Chamberlin Fifty-two years after the bombing stopped on Laos, the people of Laos continue to face the massive task of clearing farmland, forests, even schoolyards, and roadways of unexploded ordnance. Today, dangerous explosives still lurk in the muddy rice paddies. From 2013 to 2023, 440 casualties were reported, resulting in 114 deaths, many of whom are children. Advocating to remove these deadly hazards is the mission of Legacies of W

To:  Hon. Marco Rubio, Secretary of State cc: The White House From:  Douglas A. Hartwick, Amb. (ret.) U.S. Ambassador to Laos,  2001-2004 Patricia M. Haslach, Amb (ret.) U.S. Ambassador to Laos, 2004-2007 Victor L. Tomseth,  Amb (ret.) U.S. Ambassador to Laos, 1993-1996 Wendy J. Chamberlin, Amb.  (ret) U.S. Ambassador to Laos, 1996-1999 Harriet W. Isom, Amb.  (ret) U.S. Ambassador to Laos, 1986-1989 Charles Salmon, Amb.  (ret) U.S. Ambassador to Laos, 1989-1993 Ravic R. Huso,