John Kerry visits site where he killed 24-year-old man during the Vietnam War

John Kerry has visited the place in the Mekong Delta where he once killed a man after being ambushed during the Vietnam war .

On Saturday, the outgoing US Secretary of State warmly greeted a former soldier who knew the man he shot dead as a 26-year-old Navy lieutenant.

Recalling the incident, Viet Cong veteran Vo Ban Tam said he could hear Kerry’s boat cruising the Bay Hap River before the February 28, 1969, attack.

Vo told how the plan was to use rifle and grenade fire to lure the heavily-armed US vessel within range of a shoulder-held rocket launcher.

The tactic had previously paid off for the Viet Cong, but Kerry made the bold decision to deliberately beach his boat then storm ashore to pursue his enemy.

Grabbing his M-16 rifle, he chased down the guerrilla with the rocket launcher and shot him dead, saving his crew from a counterattack.

Vo remembered the dead man, 24-year-old Ba Thanh, as a respected member of the Viet Cong’s main force in Ca Mau province, who had been trained to use the prized launcher

Speaking through an interpreter, he said: “He was a good soldier.”

He had earlier told Kerry: “We were guerrillas. We were never there where you were shooting,” to which the American replied: “Well, I’m glad we’re both alive.”