As fighting raged throughout Phnom-Penh on the Fourth of July weekend in 1997, Amb. Quinn was informed that all of his Cambodian employees at the embassy were too scared to work. They feared that once again the Khmer Rouge would take over the capital city and, as had happened in 1975, all of the Cambodian employees of the U.S. Embassy would be murdered. Calling all his trembling employees together, and seeing the fear in their eyes, Amb. Quinn raised his right hand and pledged that he would never leave without taking them all with him.
THE ARCHIVE OF AMBASSADOR KENNETH M. QUINN
FROM THE MISSISSIPPI TO THE MEKONG