Amb. Quinn recounts how, while in Hanoi in March of 1977, he secretly approaches Ambassador Leonard Woodcock urging him to raise the case of the Vietnamese fiancé of a U.S. Air Force Officer who was trapped in Saigon at the end of the war. To avoid more senior State Department Officers who would likely prevent him from this conversation, Amb. Quinn waits until he can be alone to make his pitch. Woodcock does it and about a month later in Paris, Phan Hien tells Richard Holbrooke that he has good news about Ms. Lien being allowed to leave Vietnam with her children. Perplexed, Holbrooke asks the entire U.S. delegation if anyone knew what this was about.
THE ARCHIVE OF AMBASSADOR KENNETH M. QUINN
FROM THE MISSISSIPPI TO THE MEKONG