A Stunning Diplomatic Achievement, with a Unique Iowa Connection

As the only State Department official to work on the Vietnam/Cambodia issue across both the Bush and Clinton administrations, Amb. Quinn took great pride when he invited the Vietnamese liaison officer to the State Department in 1995 to observe the announcement that day of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Hanoi and Washington. He and Vietnamese Ambassador Le van Bang shared a toast over the extremely complex array of issues that they had together successfully dealt with over the past four years which lead to this breakthrough moment. Subsequently, when President Clinton nominated former POW Air Force Officer Pete Peterson as the first U.S. Ambassador to Hanoi, Amb. Quinn took great pride in holding the Bible on which Peterson took the oath of office in an informal ceremony in the Protocol Office. It was there that he discovered that Peterson, like him, was from Iowa.