James Franklin Jeffrey is an American diplomat who served most recently as the United States Special Representative for Syria Engagement and the Special Envoy to the International military intervention against ISIL.
John Gunther Dean was an American diplomat. From 1974 to 1988,he served as the United States ambassador to five nations under four American presidents.
Nguyễn Ngọc Thơ was a South Vietnamese politician who was the first vice president of South Vietnam,serving under President NgôĐình Diệm from 1956 until Diệm's overthrow and assassination in 1963. He also served as the first prime minister of South Vietnam,serving from November 1963 to late January 1964. Thơwas appointed to head a civilian cabinet by the military junta of General Dương Văn Minh,which came to power after overthrowing and assassinating Diệm,the nation's first president. Thơ's rule was marked by a period of confusion and weak government,as the Military Revolutionary Council (MRC) and the civilian cabinet vied for power. Thơlost his job and retired from politics when Minh's junta was deposed in a January 1964 coup by General Nguyễn Khánh.
Bernadette Mary Allen is a retired United States foreign service officer and a former U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Niger.
William Caldwell Harrop is an American diplomat. Harrop served for 39 years as a Foreign Service Officer,with postings as United States ambassador to Guinea,Kenya and the Seychelles,the Congo (Kinshasa),and Israel.
The McNamara–Taylor mission was a 10-day fact-finding expedition to South Vietnam in September 1963 by the Kennedy administration to review progress in the battle by the Army of the Republic of Vietnam and its American advisers against the communist insurgency of the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam. The mission was led by US Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and General Maxwell D. Taylor,the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Joseph Abraham Mendenhall was a United States State Department official,known for his advisory work during the Kennedy administration on policy towards Vietnam and Laos. He was best known for his participation in the Krulak Mendenhall mission to South Vietnam in 1963 with General Victor Krulak. Their vastly divergent conclusions led U.S. President John F. Kennedy to ask if they had visited the same country. Mendenhall continued his work in the Indochina region after Lyndon B. Johnson assumed the presidency in wake of Kennedy's assassination.
Formal relations between the United States and Vietnam were initiated in the nineteenth century under former American president Andrew Jackson,but relations soured after the United States refused to protect the Kingdom of Vietnam from a French invasion.
The 1959 to 1963 phase of the Vietnam War started after the North Vietnamese had made a firm decision to commit to a military intervention in the guerrilla war in the South Vietnam,a buildup phase began,between the 1959 North Vietnamese decision and the Gulf of Tonkin Incident,which led to a major US escalation of its involvement. Vietnamese communists saw this as a second phase of their revolution,the US now substituting for the French.
1975 marked the end of the Vietnam War. The North Vietnamese People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) launched the Spring Offensive in March;the South Vietnamese Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) was quickly defeated. The North Vietnamese captured Saigon on April 30,accepting the surrender of South Vietnam. In the final days of the war,the United States,which had supported South Vietnam for many years,carried out an emergency evacuation of its civilian and military personnel and more than 130,000 Vietnamese.
Raymond Arthur Hare was a United States diplomat who was Director General of the United States Foreign Service from 1954 to 1956 and Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs from 1965 to 1966.
Robert Porter Jackson is a retired American foreign service officer and diplomat. He was a career member of the Senior Foreign Service with the rank of Minister-Counselor.
Francis Xavier Taylor was the Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Intelligence and Analysis at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS),nominated by President Obama in 2014. In that role,he provided the Secretary,DHS senior leadership,the DHS components,and state,local,tribal and private sector partners with homeland security intelligence and information they need to keep the country safe,secure and resilient. DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis is a member of,and the Department’s liaison to,the U.S. Intelligence Community.
Charles Aaron Ray is an American former diplomat who acted as the U.S. Ambassador to Zimbabwe between 2009 and 2012. He is a former Foreign Service Officer and career member of the Senior Foreign Service who held the position of U.S. Ambassador twice,and retired with the rank of Minister-Counselor. He is also a retired U.S. Army officer who was decorated twice for his actions in combat during the Vietnam War,and later served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for POW/Missing Personnel Affairs.
The Embassy of the United States in Beijing is the diplomatic mission of the United States in China. It serves as the administrative office of the United States Ambassador to China. The embassy complex is in Chaoyang,Beijing.
The Embassy of the United States of America to Somalia is a diplomatic mission of the United States in Mogadishu,Somalia from 1960 to 1991. In 1957,the US opened a consulate-general in Mogadishu—the capital of the Trust Territory of Somalia,a UN trusteeship under Italian administration. The consulate was upgraded to embassy status in July 1960,when the US recognized Somalia's independence and appointed an ambassador. The embassy served to counter Soviet influence during the Cold War and also served as a base for the United States Agency for International Development,which had a large presence in the country. In 1989,the embassy moved from a dilapidated building in central Mogadishu to a new compound on the outskirts of the city.
James Richard Bullington is an American retired diplomat who served as the U.S. Ambassador to Burundi.
Frances Dee Cook was a career Foreign Service Officer who was the US Ambassador to the Republic of Burundi from 1980–1983,Ambassador to the Republic of Cameroon,1989–1993 and she was sworn in as the U.S. Ambassador to the Sultanate of Oman on December 28,1995.
John Russell Countryman,stage name Johnnie Russell,is an American former child actor and retired career officer for the United States Foreign Service.
