Pete Peterson

Career After the Vietnam War, Peterson remained in the Air Force and retired in 1981 as a colonel with 26 years of service. After retirement he established a general contracting firm in Tampa, Florida and later a small computer company in Marianna, Florida called CRT Computers. He served for 5 years on the faculty of Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida.

Congress In 1990, Peterson ran as a Democrat for a seat in the United States House of Representatives in Florida's 2nd congressional district. He defeated Bill Grant, the incumbent congressman who had grown unpopular after switching from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party in the middle of his second term. Peterson won and served three terms from 1991 to 1996.

Jason Altmire, who later became a three-term congressman himself, was a staffer during Peterson’s first campaign and time in Congress.

Ambassador to Vietnam Peterson (left) with U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen (second from left) at a crash excavation site near Hanoi, Vietnam, in 2000 Peterson declined to run for a fourth term (he was succeeded by Allen Boyd) and was asked by President Bill Clinton to become the United States's first post-war ambassador to Vietnam.

Philanthropy and business Since retiring as ambassador, Peterson founded The Alliance for Safe Children, TASC, which aims to lower preventable injuries to children worldwide, and focuses specifically on such issues as drowning in Asia. In addition, he started the company, Peterson International, with his wife, whose aim it is to promote American business in Southeast Asia.

Peterson later was a senior advisor for Albright Stonebridge Group, an international strategic consulting firm.

Personal life Peterson's first wife died in 1995. Two weeks after his installation in Hanoi, he met Vi Le, Australia's senior trade commissioner, born in Vietnam, whom he married. In 2002, he moved to Melbourne, Australia, so they could be closer to her family.

In 2009, Peterson acquired Australian citizenship.