Sitting peacefully amid us in the Pacific Northwest is one of the defining symbols of a trigger-point to America’s involvement in Vietnam in the 1960s and '70s.

Operation BabyLift was a program to fly Vietnam orphans out of the country to America. Nearly 50 years later, an amazing bond has formed between a veteran and an orphan because of a teddy bear.

Demilitarized zones—from Vietnam to Korea, Cyprus and Antarctica—require tourists to look beyond what exists and to find the ...