He was at the Paris Peace Accord in 1973. He was the first Vietnamese Ambassador to Australia in the late 1950s and became the Minister for Foreign Affairs of South Vietnam in 1969. In 1973 he became the president of the Senate of South Vietnam. When Saigon fell in 1975, Trần Van Lam was required to sign an undertaking not to take part in any political activities as a condition for his entry into Australia. He moved to Canberra where he and his wife opened a coffee shop. On 6 February 2001, Charles Tran Van Lam died in his Canberra home, aged 88.