Showing 21–30 of 58 results
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On April 30, 1975, the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese Army, effectively ending the Vietnam War. In the days before, U.S. forces evacuated thousands of Americans and South Vietnamese. American diplomats were on the frontlines, organizing what would be the most ambitious helicopter evacuation in history. This…
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X-Ray machines aren’t just used in hospitals and airports, they’re also a crucial tool used by the Diplomatic Security Service to detect threats to U.S. diplomatic missions around the world. This portable x-ray kit, manufactured in 1970s, was used by DSS Technical Security Officers to look for espionage devices, explosives, and other…
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Diplomatic Security Special Agent Patti Morton utilized these toy cars as part of her duties to train employees at U.S. Embassy Saigon in the art of defensive driving, demonstrating various scenarios which a diplomat might encounter on the road. Patti Morton was a trailblazer for women’s rights at the U.S. Department of…
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On April 30, 1980 – the eve of May Day – two protestors with Communist sympathies burst into U.N. Security Council chamber and splashed William vanden Heuvel, deputy U.S. ambassador to the U.N., and Soviet Ambassador Oleg Troyanovsky with bucketfuls of red paint. The protestors’ aim was to accuse the U.S. and…
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Section of sidewalk from outside U.S. Embassy Saigon, South Vietnam. In 1968, when the Embassy was attacked, State Department security officers and U.S. troops skirmished with attackers on the sidewalk which surrounded the Embassy compound’s outer wall. This small section was saved from the site in 2003 as the sidewalk was being…
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Foreign Service Officer Michael Hoyt received the prestigious Secretary’s Award after enduring 111 days in captivity in the Congo in 1964. He was serving as Principal Officer at the U.S. Consulate Stanleyville when he and his staff were taken hostage by the rebel Simbas. They were narrowly rescued in a joint U.S.-Belgian…
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After their release on January 20, 1981, following 444 days held as hostages in Iran, 52 Americans began their long journey home. While en route to Wiesbaden, Germany on a military aircraft, they were given military-issue cold weather parkas to help them keep warm. As the former hostages disembarked from the plane…
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In 1948, President Harry S. Truman sent Edward R. Dudley to Liberia as U.S. Envoy and Minister. Upon elevation of the Mission in Liberia to a full U.S. Embassy in 1949, Dudley was promoted to the rank of Ambassador. With that, Ambassador Dudley became the first black Ambassador in U.S. history. Issued…
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Though the Hanford, Washington nuclear reactor has been disabled since 1987, the site falls under the U.S.-Russian Plutonium Production Reactor Agreement (PPRA) of 1997. The Agreement requires that production of plutonium in both countries for use in nuclear weapons must completely cease, and also calls for reciprocal monitoring of U.S. and Russian…
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The Soviet Union deployed SCUD missiles and launchers to Soviet-bloc countries as part of the military build-up in Eastern Europe during the Cold War. The warheads were kept in the Soviet Union and could be paired quickly with the missiles and launchers in the event of conflict. This nose cone was mounted…
