Barbara Annette Robbins (July 26, 1943 – March 30, 1965) was an American secretary employed by the

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

. She was killed in a car bombing of the

United States Embassy, Saigon The United States Embassy in Saigon was first established in June 1952, and moved into a new building in 1967 and eventually closed in 1975. The embassy was the scene of a number of significant events of the Vietnam War, most notably the Viet ...

. Robbins was the first female employee to be killed in action in the CIA's history, the first American woman killed in the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

and, as of 2012, the youngest CIA employee to die in action. Robbins was born in

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux Native American tribes, who comprise a large po ...

and raised primarily in

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the ...

, where she received secretarial training at

Colorado State University Colorado State University (Colorado State or CSU) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Fort Collins, Colorado. It is the flagship university of the Colorado State University System. Colorado S ...

from 1961-1963. She joined the CIA soon after graduation, motivated by a desire to participate in efforts to combat

communism Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, ...

. Robbins, who had not previously traveled outside the United States, volunteered for the assignment in Saigon. When asked by her father Buford, a Navy veteran, about her decision, she reportedly told him: "When they he Communistsget to West Colfax Denver neighborhood mister, you'll wish you'd done something." On March 30, 1965, a

car bomb A car bomb, bus bomb, lorry bomb, or truck bomb, also known as a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED), is an improvised explosive device designed to be detonated in an automobile or other vehicles. Car bombs can be roughly divided ...

exploded outside the embassy. Before the explosion, there was a confrontation between the driver and a policeman and Robbins went to the window of her second-story office to see what was happening; she was killed instantly. A Filipino

storekeeper Storekeeper (SK) is an enlisted rating in the United States Coast Guard; until 2009 it was also a United States Navy rating, the most common supply rate in U.S. Navy vs. CS ( culinary specialist) and SH (Ship's Serviceman) and very much equivale ...

serving in the US Navy was killed, along with 19 Vietnamese. The CIA honored Robbins with a star on the Memorial Wall in its headquarters building in

Langley, Virginia Langley is an unincorporated community in the census-designated place of McLean in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. Langley is often used as a metonym for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), as it is home to its headquarters, the Geo ...

. The wall pays tribute to personnel killed while working for the agency. However, for many years the agency omitted Robbins' name from the display's Book of Honor, which lists the names of the slain employees, citing security concerns since Robbins was working under the guise of an employee of the

State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other na ...

. In May 2011, CIA Director

Leon Panetta Leon Edward Panetta (born June 28, 1938) is an American Democratic Party politician who has served in several different public office positions, including Secretary of Defense, CIA Director, White House Chief of Staff, Director of the Office of ...

announced that Robbins' name would be inscribed in the Book of Honor. Robbins was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor First Class by South Vietnamese Foreign Minister Tran Van Do.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Robbins, Barbara 1943 births 1965 deaths CIA personnel of the Vietnam War Colorado State University alumni Deaths by car bomb Vietnam War casualties American women in the Vietnam War