Themes
Child Refugees Who Became Diplomats
Most of the people on this site fled as children.
Children of flight
Most of the diplomats on this site were children when they fled. Some were too young to remember. Others, like the Lost Boys of Sudan or the children of the Kindertransport and Operation Pedro Pan, made the journey without their parents.
Profiles
Anne D. PhamCarried out of Saigon at age three on a barge under rocket fire; later served at the U.S. missions in Vietnam and Laos.Hoa TranFled Vietnam at seven through Guam and Wake Island, then spent her career helping refugees in Asia.Madeleine Korbel AlbrightTwice a refugee as a child, she became the first woman to serve as Secretary of State.Hugo LlorensOne of the Operation Pedro Pan children flown out of Cuba alone, later ambassador to Honduras.Eduardo Aguirre Jr.Arrived alone from Cuba at fifteen through Operation Pedro Pan; later ambassador to Spain.George W. JaegerEscaped Vienna on the Kindertransport in 1939 and later joined the U.S. Foreign Service.Richard SchifterEscaped Vienna alone at fifteen; his parents were murdered in the Holocaust. He later led the Department's human rights bureau.Gai NyokOne of Sudan's 'Lost Boys,' he walked to Ethiopia as a child and became a U.S. diplomat.Tony Hornik-TranLeft Vietnam by fishing boat at fifteen, spent eleven months in refugee camps, and became a Diplomatic Security agent.Ints M. SiliņšEscaped Soviet-occupied Latvia as a toddler, grew up a displaced person, and became the first U.S. ambassador to free Latvia.Carlos PascualLeft Cuba at three on one of the last flights out; later U.S. ambassador to Ukraine and Mexico.Martina Anna Tkadlec StrongEscaped Czechoslovakia on a family 'vacation,' waited in a camp near Belgrade, and became ambassador to the UAE.Anya Yakhedts BrunsonA Jewish refugee from Minsk who became a Foreign Service Officer.Mustafa M. PopalFled Kabul after the Soviet invasion and returned to the same airport to help run the 2021 evacuation.Rina AmiriBecame a refugee as a small child when her family left Afghanistan through the Khyber Pass.Andreas F. LowenfeldArrived as an eight-year-old refugee from Berlin and later advised the Department during the Cuban Missile Crisis.Baktash AhadiCrossed the Hindu Kush on foot as a child and later taught American diplomats about Afghanistan.Tom MalinowskiBrought from Communist Poland at six by a mother seeking refuge; later the Department's top human rights official.Vladimir I. ToumanoffThe son of White Russian exiles, carried out of Constantinople as a baby, who later served in Moscow.Timothy EydelnantLeft Minsk at sixteen as a refugee and later coordinated U.S. aid to Syrian refugees.Jessica Adler (Hoang Seang Ear)A four-year-old boat refugee who later helped resettle refugees from the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok.Omar CardenteyGranted refugee status from Cuba at three; later a public diplomacy officer from Kyiv to Baghdad to The Hague.Sulaiman ToghralLeft Taliban-ruled Afghanistan at nine and, as a U.S. diplomat, helped process Afghan evacuees in 2021.