With Cambodia getting ready to host its first democratic election and Vietnam moving forward, there was lots of foreign interest in the region. Amb. Quinn describes the issues that he faced working at the State Department trying to get these other countries to hold off before several issues were resolved. The problem of still accounting for American POW/MIAs and getting Vietnam to agree to the Cambodian Settlement were difficult to navigate while other governments began budging in. However, Amb. Quinn states that Japan was the one country that agreed and worked with the United States. Over the course of his career, Amb. Quinn would always refer to Japan as “America’s greatest ally.”
THE ARCHIVE OF AMBASSADOR KENNETH M. QUINN
FROM THE MISSISSIPPI TO THE MEKONG