Christi Parsons and Michael A. Memoli/LA Times
Elizabeth Phu’s family came to America much like many other Vietnamese immigrants: by boat and in desperate circumstances. Along with her parents and others, they traversed the sea in a boat and came upon pirates who demanded 10 wedding bands to pull the broken-down boat of Vietnamese refugees to the Malaysian shore.
Elizabeth Phu, an aide to President Obama who works on southeast Asia policy,
came to America as a refugee herself. (Photo: Susan Walsh / Associated Press)
Phu’s father Frank saw no other way to save his wife and toddler daughter, so he collected the rings into a tiny sack, clamped it between his teeth and swam to the pirates’ ship to make the deal. Tugged by the pirates, the passengers made it near the Malaysian island of Pulau Penang, and eventually to a nearby refugee camp run by the government.
Elizabeth Phu, 39, took that tough start and built a career that is nothing short of the American dream. Today she has come back to Malaysia, but not as a refugee. Instead, she is accompanying President Obama on a 10-day, three-country tour of world-leader summits as an advisor and American citizen.
In her years at the White House, Phu has helped Obama to shape policy on southeast Asia, a region crucial to the president’s view of the world in terms of trade and strategic alliances. Phu graduated from Miramonte High School outside Oakland and attended college at UC Berkeley and graduate school at UC San Diego.
For the last three years, she has been detailed to the National Security Council staff at the White House, serving now as director for Southeast Asia and Oceania affairs.
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