November 5, 1979 Amb. Kenneth Quinn
In November 1979, Ambassador Quinn, while on the staff of Iowa Governor Robert Ray, traveled with a delegation of US Governors to Thailand in order to visit refugee camps. Unexpectedly, they were rushed to an area in Thailand along the Cambodian border known as Sa Kaeo. There they encountered over 30,000 suffering victims of the Khmer Rouge who were dying at the rate of 50 to 100 per day. They also were exposed to various irregular military forces along that border. When Governor and Mrs. Ray and Ambassador Quinn returned to Iowa, the Governor with Ambassador Quinn's collaboration created the Iowa SHARES program that raised the equivalent of $2 million to rush food and medicine to assist the suffering Cambodian victims of genocide.
