The Fall of Saigon: Interpreter for the President

The war in Vietnam remained largely unchanged following Nixon's resignation until the first week in March 1975 when North Vietnamese attacks in the Central Highlands badly defeated the South’s most highly regarded divisions thus setting off a panicked retreat. As the situation worsened, a high-level delegation from Saigon arrived at the White House for a meeting with the president. When the delegation leader could not speak English, Quinn describes his becoming the interpreter in Vietnamese at this most critical meeting with the President in the Cabinet Room. Amb. Quinn describes the satisfaction he derived from this experience since he had not been among the best language students when he first went through the Vietnam Training Center almost 7 years earlier.