Europe and the Soviet Union
Martina Anna Tkadlec Strong: From Czechoslovakia to American Diplomacy
Escaped Czechoslovakia on a family 'vacation,' waited in a camp near Belgrade, and became ambassador to the UAE.
- Fled
- Czechoslovakia
- Status
- Refugee
- Arrived in the U.S.
- 1982
- Service
- Career Foreign Service Officer; U.S. Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates (2023 to 2025)
- Region
- Europe and the Soviet Union
Martina Strong was fourteen when her family slipped out of Communist Czechoslovakia under cover of a vacation in Yugoslavia. They spent months in a refugee camp near Belgrade before they were resettled in Fort Worth, Texas.
She joined the Foreign Service and served in Warsaw, Prague, Sofia, Baghdad, and Basrah, and as chargé d'affaires in Saudi Arabia, before serving as U.S. Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates.
Read the history behind this story on the Czechoslovakia page, or browse all the diplomats.