Peter Huchthausen, a patrol officer of a two-boat river patrol, and his crew, rescued a badly wounded Vietnamese child, Nguyen Thi Lung. Huchthausen and his men arranged for Lung's treatment and education, only to lose track of her when her town was overrun by the North Vietnamese during the Tet Offensive.
After the war, Lung led a difficult and shadowy life under the communist regime. Finally, in 1982, she managed to smuggle a letter and photograph to Sylvana Foa, then a reporter for United Press International. Ms. Foa, now Spokesman for the Secretary General of the United Nations, published Lung's story and assisted her departure from Vietnam, while Huchthausen sponsored her entry into the United States.
In alternating chapters, Huchthausen and Lung recall the experience of war on the vast Mekong River while Lung recalls the terrifying years that followed. Echoes of the Mekong casts a fresh light on the American involvement in Vietnam as it follows two people caught in the war from youth to maturity.