Texas Tech University

Killing Fields Survivor Sichan Siv Set to Speak at Texas Tech

Randy Rosetta

February 4, 2019

Cambodian native escaped genocide and poverty to climb to role as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.

Sichan Siv
Sichan Siv

WHAT: Lecture by Sichan Siv, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations

WHEN: 5 p.m. Thursday (Feb. 7)

WHERE: Escondido Theater, Student Union Building

EVENT: The Texas Tech University Honors College will host a night with Sichan Siv, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Siv will discuss his personal journey from surviving the Killing Fields of Cambodia to growing into a diplomat and global citizen of the U.S., with focuses on the horrors of genocide, the state of international affairs and the future of diplomacy.

He has chronicled his journey in both the internationally renowned book "Golden Bones: An Extraordinary Journey from Hell in Cambodia to a New Life in America," and a poetry book "Golden Words."

According to AsiaSociety.org, in 2001 after unanimous confirmation by the U.S. Senate, Siv was appointed by President George W. Bush as a U.N. Ambassador and served in that role until 2006.

From 1989-93, Siv served at the White House as Deputy Assistant to President George H.W. Bush and at the State Department as a deputy assistant secretary.

After escaping the Killing Fields of Cambodia in 1976, Siv migrated to the U.S. and settled in Connecticut. He earned a master's degree at Columbia University. His wife, the late Martha Pattillo Siv, was a native of Pampa.

CONTACT: Aliza Wong, associate dean, Honors College, Texas Tech University, (806) 834-3051 or aliza.wong@ttu.edu