Doubts About Vietnam Policy Lead to My First Dissent

Outlining that dissent about policy is one of the threads that run through his entire 32 year diplomatic career, Amb. Quinn shares a story from 1968 while he was in Vietnamese language training in Washington, DC. The sense that America was no longer committed to winning the war in Vietnam led to many doubts about whether the risk of dying in the war was still worth it. A request from the Director of the Vietnam Training Center for anyone with such doubts to come forward. Amb. Quinn was the only one willing to voice such uncertainty. The Director, in turn, sought to have him banished from the Vietnam program and thrown out of the Foreign Service, almost ending his career before it started.