January 1, 1992 Amb. Kenneth Quinn
This is the highest award presented to senior officials in the U.S. Government who have achieved exceptional objectives in foreign policy. Ambassador Quinn was one of only five State Department officials recognized, and the only one at the rank of Deputy Assistant Secretary of State. He received this award for his role in obtaining breakthrough achievements in accounting for POW/MIAs from the Vietnam War, including his negotiating in Vietnamese and the first-ever entry of U.S. search teams into a North Vietnamese prison; for his advancing of the Cambodian peace process which led to free and fair U.N. supervised democratic elections in that country; and for initiating the process to re-establish diplomatic relations between the United States and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.