Stonington - Just one day after the 50th anniversary of the start of the Vietnam War, former Republican congressman and current Selectman Rob Simmons and his wife, Heidi, will board a plane today bound for Hanoi.

Simmons, a retired Army colonel who served 20 months in Vietnam and then worked there for the CIA for two more years between 1967 and 1972, is not on any type of official mission.

Instead, he plans to meet with the country's former ambassador to the United States, Nguyen Tam Chien, whom he befriended while in Congress, and visit Chuck Searcy, an American veteran who has spent more than a decade working in Vietnam to help remove unexploded ordnance and help Vietnamese people injured by explosions as well as those dealing with the lingering effects of Agent Orange use.

"I bear no animosity towards the Vietnamese people. It's over. The remaining interest I have is the recovery of the country's economy and the well being of the people there and that we can cooperate to remove the last vestiges of an ugly war," he said Sunday while driving to Logan Airport in Boston.

Simmons was last in Vietnam in 2003 when he went there to help search for the 1972 helicopter crash site of Army Capt. Arnold E. Holm Jr. of Waterford. Holm's remains and those of his two man crew were returned to the United States in 2011 and were buried at Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors.

During that trip Simmons said Vietnamese officials were "friendly and helpful" and he was struck by their lack of animosity toward him.

The next year he helped form the U.S.-Vietnam caucus in the House of Representatives with the late Democratic congressman Lane Evans of Illinois, a former Marine who served with Simmons on the House Veterans Affairs Committee from 2001 to 2004. Simmons said a previous caucus had opposed relations with the communist government.

"I felt that was wrong. The war was over and it was time to move forward," Simmons said.

Simmons said he and Evans then worked together to help Vietnam gain admittance into the World Trade Organization.

"Lane and I felt it was time to turn the page on the war and to help the Vietnamese recover their economy through foreign trade and free markets," Simmons said, "because free trade is better than foreign aid. This month marks the 10th anniversary of these events and I wanted to be in Vietnam to mark the occasion. Sadly, Lane will not be there."

Simmons said one of the disappointments he had when he lost his re-election bid in 2006 was that he could not continue his work with the U.S.-Vietnam coalition. He added that the Vietnamese government, like China, has looked favorably on foreign investment in its country.

Simmons said he is also looking forward to meeting with Searcy as people are still being killed and injured by unexploded ordnance while Agent Orange has caused multi-generation health problems. Simmons said there were times in the war when he could smell the Agent Orange being dropped on the jungle.

During his two weeks in Vietnam, Simmons plans to visit Phu Yen Province, Nha Trang City, Saigon and Can Tho City - all places where he served during the war but did not see during his last visit.

j.wojtas@theday.com

Twitter: @joewojtas