Anne D. Pham: From Vietnam to American Diplomacy
Carried out of Saigon at age three on a barge under rocket fire; later served at the U.S. missions in Vietnam and Laos.
- Fled
- Vietnam
- Status
- Refugee
- Arrived in the U.S.
- 1975
- Service
- Foreign Service; senior adviser, Office of U.S. Foreign Assistance Resources; service with the U.S. missions in Laos and Vietnam
- Region
- Southeast Asia
Anne Pham was three years old when Saigon fell. Her parents and six siblings escaped down the Saigon River on a barge, under rocket fire, and were picked up at sea by a U.S. Navy ship. The family reached the refugee camp at Fort Chaffee, Arkansas, in May 1975.
She grew up to join the Department of State. Her assignments included the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, the Office of the Secretary, the Office of Strategic Planning and Evaluation, and the U.S. missions in Laos and Vietnam. As an adult she went looking for the Americans who had helped her family get out, and wrote about finding them in the Foreign Service Journal.