List of ambassadors of the United States to France

Relations between the United States and the French Court of Versailles were established in 1778 with the signing of the Treaty of Amity and Commerce. As a republic, the United States was not entitled to send an ambassador. Instead, relations were maintained at the lower diplomatic rank of Minister. The position was formally known as the Minister Plenipotentiary from the United States of America at the Court of Versailles.

Name		Appointment	Presentation	Termination	Notes
	Benjamin Franklin	September 14, 1778	March 23, 1779	May 17, 1785	Franklin had represented the United States unofficially since December 1776, prior to France recognizing American Independence.
	Thomas Jefferson	March 10, 1785	May 17, 1785	September 26, 1789
	William Short	April 20, 1790	June 14, 1790	May 15, 1792
	Gouverneur Morris	January 12, 1792	June 3, 1792	April 9, 1794	Remained as Minister after the First Republic was proclaimed. Mission terminated when the French government requested his recall.

Name		Appointment	Presentation	Termination	Notes
	James Monroe	May 28, 1794	August 15, 1794	December 9, 1796
	Charles C. Pinckney	September 9, 1796	Not presented	February 5, 1797

Diplomatic relations were broken in 1796 due to French anger at U.S. neutrality in the War of the First Coalition. After the Directory refused to accept Charles Cotesworth Pinckney's credentials, a commission was appointed to negotiate with the French Republic. The members of the commission — Pinckney, John Marshall, and Elbridge Gerry — were all accredited with the rank of Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary.[1] French officials demanded a bribe before they would commence negotiations, scuttling the mission in the XYZ Affair. Hostilities culminated in the outbreak of the Quasi-War between the U.S. and France. Diplomatic relations were restored with the Convention of 1800.

Name		Appointment	Presentation	Termination	Notes
	Robert R. Livingston	October 2, 1801	December 6, 1801	November 18, 1804	Remained as Minister after Napoleon Bonaparte was proclaimed emperor.

James Monroe was accredited Minister Plenipotentiary to the French Republic in 1803 to negotiate the Louisiana Purchase.[2] However, Robert Livingston remained chief of mission.

Since Versailles had been stripped of its furnishings during the French Revolution, Napoleon I returned the French court to its pre-1682 home at the Tuilleries. U.S. ministers to all future French monarchs would be accredited to the Tuilleries. After the Congress of Vienna standardized the system of diplomatic ranks, the United States continued to send a Minister, who was officially credentialed as an Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary.

Name		Appointment	Presentation	Termination	Notes
	John Armstrong	June 30, 1804	November 18, 1804	September 14, 1810
	Joel Barlow	February 27, 1811	November 17, 1811	December 26, 1812	Died in Żarnowiec during the French retreat from Moscow.
	William H. Crawford	April 9, 1813	December 14, 1813 August 16, 1814	April 26, 1815 to April 30, 1815
	Albert Gallatin	February 28, 1815	July 16, 1816	May 16, 1823
	James Brown	December 9, 1823	April 13, 1824	June 28, 1829
	William Cabell Rives	April 18, 1829	October 25, 1829 January 14, 1831	September 27, 1832
	Edward Livingston	May 29, 1833	September 30, 1833	April 29, 1835
	Lewis Cass	October 4, 1836	December 1, 1836	November 12, 1842
	William R. King	April 9, 1844	July 1, 1844	September 15, 1846
	Richard Rush	March 3, 1847	July 31, 1847 April 26, 1848	October 8, 1849	Reaccredited to the Second Republic.

After it became a republic, France continued to exchange ambassadors with other Great Powers. This put an end to the longstanding rule that only Great Power monarchies could exchange ambassadors with each other. As the United States grew in population and economic strength, it followed the French example. In 1893, the United States upgraded its diplomatic relations with the other Great Powers to the ambassadorial level.

Name		Appointment	Presentation	Termination	Notes
	James B. Eustis	April 8, 1893	May 6, 1893	May 24, 1897
	Horace Porter	March 19, 1897	May 26, 1897	May 2, 1905
	Robert S. McCormick	March 8, 1905	May 2, 1905	March 2, 1907
	Henry White	December 19, 1906	March 23, 1907	November 3, 1909
	Robert Bacon	December 21, 1909	December 31, 1909	April 19, 1912
	Myron T. Herrick	February 15, 1912	April 29, 1912	November 28, 1914
	William Graves Sharp	June 19, 1914	December 4, 1914	April 14, 1919
	Hugh Campbell Wallace	February 27, 1919	April 22, 1919	July 5, 1921
	Myron T. Herrick	April 16, 1921	July 15, 1921	March 31, 1929	Died at post.
	Walter Evans Edge	November 21, 1929	December 18, 1929	April 13, 1933
	Jesse I. Straus	March 17, 1933	June 8, 1933	August 5, 1936
	William C. Bullitt Jr.	August 25, 1936	October 13, 1936	July 11, 1940
	William D. Leahy	November 29, 1940	January 8, 1941	May 1, 1942	Departed Vichy France; S. Pinkney Tuck served as interim chargé d'affaires until France severed diplomatic relations with the U.S. on November 8, 1942.