John Dale Blacken

John Dale Blacken (August 26, 1930, Everett, Washington[1]-2015) was an American Ambassador who served as Ambassador to Guinea-Bissau.[2]

Biography

Blacken graduated from Washington State University with a B.A. in 1955) after having served in the United States Army from 1950 to 1952. [1]

Career

Before becoming a management analyst in the Office of the Secretary of Agriculture in 1958, Blacken was a salesman with Encyclopædia Britannica in San Francisco. He entered junior officer training at the Foreign Service Institute in 1961.[1]

While ambassador, Blacken knew convicted American killer and hijacker George Wright, who had eluded the FBI for 41 years despite living in West Africa under his own name, on a social basis. Wright escaped from a New Jersey jail “and was wanted in a 1972 hijacking by the radical Black Liberation Army of a U.S. plane to Algeria.” Blacken claimed the FBI never notified the Embassy about the manhunt.[3]

References
  1. "Nomination of John Dale Blacken To Be United States Ambassador to Guinea-Bissau". The American Presidency Project. UC Santa Barbara. Retrieved 21 July 2021.
  2. "John Dale Blacken (1930–2015)". Office of the Historian. Retrieved 21 July 2021.
  3. Grant, Jason (September 30, 2011). "Ambassador had no idea 41-year fugitive was escaped convict during encounters in Guinea-Bissau". The Star-Ledger. Retrieved 22 July 2021.
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