List of ambassadors of the United States to the United Nations

The United States ambassador to the United Nations is the leader of the U.S. delegation, the U.S. Mission to the United Nations. The position is formally known as the permanent representative of the United States of America to the United Nations, with the rank and status of ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary, and representative of the United States of America in the United Nations Security Council.

Permanent Representative of the United States of America to the United Nations
Seal of the Department of State
Incumbent
Linda Thomas-Greenfield
since February 25, 2021
United States Department of State
StyleMadam Ambassador
(informal)
The Honorable
(formal)
Her Excellency
(diplomatic)
Member ofNational Security Council
Cabinet of the United States
Reports toPresident of the United States
United States Secretary of State
SeatUnited Nations Headquarters
New York City, New York, U.S.
AppointerPresident of the United States
with Senate advice and consent
Term lengthNo fixed term
At the pleasure of the President of the United States
FormationDecember 21, 1945 (1945-12-21)
First holderEdward Stettinius Jr.
SalaryExecutive Schedule, Level IV
Websiteusun.usmission.gov

The deputy ambassador assumes the duties of the ambassador in his or her absence. As with all United States ambassadors, the ambassador to the UN and the deputy ambassador are nominated by the president of the United States and confirmed by the Senate. The ambassador serves at the pleasure of the President. The ambassador may be assisted by one or more appointed delegates, often appointed for a specific purpose or issue.

The U.S. permanent representative is charged with representing the United States on the UN Security Council, and during all plenary meetings of the General Assembly, except when a more senior officer of the United States (such as the secretary of state or the president of the United States) is in attendance.

The current ambassador is Linda Thomas-Greenfield, who was nominated by President Joe Biden and confirmed by the Senate on February 23, 2021.

Cabinet status

Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., a leading moderate Republican who lost his seat in the United States Senate to John F. Kennedy in the 1952 elections, was appointed ambassador to the United Nations in 1953 by Dwight D. Eisenhower in gratitude for the defeated senator's role in the new president's defeat of conservative leader Robert A. Taft for the 1952 Republican nomination and subsequent service as his campaign manager in the general election; Eisenhower raised the ambassadorship to Cabinet rank in order to give Lodge direct access to him without having to go through the State Department.[1]

The ambassadorship continued to hold this status throughout the remainder of the Cold War but was removed from Cabinet rank by George H. W. Bush, who had previously held the position himself. It was restored under the Clinton administration. It was not a Cabinet-level position under the George W. Bush administration (from 2001 to 2009),[2][3] but was once again elevated under the Obama administration, and initially retained as such by the Trump administration.[4] However, in December 2018, it was reported by several news organizations that the Trump administration would once again downgrade the position to non-Cabinet rank.[5] The position was again elevated to Cabinet rank in the Biden administration.[6]

Former UN ambassador and national security advisor John R. Bolton has publicly opposed the granting of Cabinet-level status to the office, stating "One, it overstates the role and importance the U.N. should have in U.S. foreign policy, second, you shouldn't have two secretaries in the same department".

List of ambassadors

Status

  Denotes Acting United States Ambassador to the United Nations

The following is a chronological list of those who have held the office:

# Portrait Ambassador Years Served U.S. President
1 Edward Stettinius Jr. January 17, 1946 – June 3, 1946 Harry S. Truman
— Herschel Johnson June 3, 1946 – January 14, 1947
Acting
2 Warren Austin January 14, 1947 – January 22, 1953
Dwight D. Eisenhower
3 Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. January 26, 1953[7] – September 3, 1960
4 James Jeremiah Wadsworth September 8, 1960 – January 21, 1961
John F. Kennedy
5 Adlai Stevenson II January 23, 1961 – July 14, 1965
Lyndon B. Johnson
6 Arthur Goldberg July 28, 1965 – June 24, 1968
7 George Ball June 26, 1968 – September 25, 1968
8 James Russell Wiggins October 7, 1968 – January 20, 1969
9 Charles W. Yost January 23, 1969 – February 25, 1971 Richard Nixon
10 George H. W. Bush March 1, 1971 – January 18, 1973
11 John A. Scali February 20, 1973 – June 29, 1975
Gerald Ford
12 Daniel Patrick Moynihan June 30, 1975 – February 2, 1976
13 William Scranton March 15, 1976 – January 19, 1977
14 Andrew Young January 30, 1977 – September 23, 1979 Jimmy Carter
15 Donald McHenry September 23, 1979 – January 20, 1981
16 Jeane Kirkpatrick February 4, 1981 – April 1, 1985 Ronald Reagan
17 Vernon A. Walters May 22, 1985 – March 15, 1989
George H. W. Bush
18 Thomas R. Pickering March 20, 1989 – May 7, 1992
19 Edward J. Perkins May 12, 1992 – January 27, 1993
Bill Clinton
20 Madeleine Albright January 27, 1993 – January 21, 1997
21 Bill Richardson February 18, 1997 – August 18, 1998
— Peter Burleigh August 18, 1998 – September 7, 1999
Acting
22 Richard Holbrooke September 7, 1999 – January 20, 2001
— James B. Cunningham January 20, 2001 – September 19, 2001
Acting		 George W. Bush
23 John Negroponte September 19, 2001 – July 23, 2004
24 John Danforth July 23, 2004 – January 20, 2005
— Anne W. Patterson January 20, 2005 – August 2, 2005
Acting
25 John Bolton August 2, 2005 – December 31, 2006
— Alejandro Daniel Wolff December 31, 2006 – April 30, 2007
Acting
26 Zalmay Khalilzad April 30, 2007 – January 22, 2009
Barack Obama
27 Susan Rice January 26, 2009 – June 30, 2013
— Rosemary DiCarlo June 30, 2013 – August 5, 2013
Acting
28 Samantha Power August 5, 2013 – January 20, 2017
— Michele J. Sison January 20, 2017 – January 27, 2017
Acting		 Donald Trump
29 Nikki Haley January 27, 2017 – December 31, 2018
— Jonathan Cohen January 1, 2019 – September 12, 2019
Acting
30 Kelly Craft September 12, 2019 – January 20, 2021
— Richard M. Mills Jr. January 20, 2021 – February 25, 2021
Acting		 Joe Biden
31 Linda Thomas-Greenfield February 25, 2021 – present

List of deputy ambassadors

The United States deputy ambassador to the United Nations serves as the second most senior American diplomat before the United Nations General Assembly and the Security Council in New York and carries the diplomatic rank of ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary. In the absence of the ambassador, the deputy serves in his or her place.

  1. Prescott serves as Deputy to the Ambassador to the UN. It is a separate position from the Senate-confirmed role of Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations. The Deputy to the Ambassador assists the U.S. Ambassador to the UN by acting as a liaison in Washington, D.C., managing their Washington office, interacting with Congress and acting as a stand-in for the UN ambassador. The two roles co-exist, as in 2019 when Taryn Frideres was Deputy to the Ambassador at the same time that Jonathan Cohen was Deputy Ambassador to the UN.

†These deputy ambassadors later served as full U.S. ambassador to the United Nations position (see above).

See also

Notes

    References
    1. Hubbard, James P. (2011). The United States and the End of British Colonial Rule in Africa, 1941–1968. Jefferson City, NC: McFarland & Company. p. 172. ISBN 978-0-7864-5952-0.
    2. Kelemen, Michele (December 1, 2008). "U.N. Envoy Nominee Rice Known As Smart, Tough". National Public Radio. Retrieved January 21, 2009. The head of the United Nations Foundation, a Washington-based advocacy group, released a statement praising Rice as well as Obama's decision to make the post of U.N. ambassador a Cabinet-level position once again – as it was during the Clinton years.
    3. Cooper, Helene (November 20, 2008). "Clinton Decision Holding Up Other Obama Choices". New York Times. Retrieved February 9, 2009. Ms. Rice could get the post of United States ambassador to the United Nations, a cabinet-level position under President Clinton. President Bush downgraded the position when he came into office
    4. Walker, Hunter. "President Trump announces his full Cabinet roster." Yahoo News. 2017-02-07. Retrieved 2017-02-08.
    5. Kristen Welker; Geoff Bennett; Daniel Barnes (December 7, 2018). "U.N. ambassador to no longer be Cabinet-level position". NBC News. Retrieved December 7, 2018.
    6. Kirby, Jen (November 23, 2020). "Biden announces veteran diplomat Linda Thomas-Greenfield as UN ambassador pick". Vox.
    7. Chesly Manly (January 27, 1953). "Lodge Asks FBI to Screen All U.S. Aids [sic] on U.N." Chicago Tribune. Chicago Tribune Press Service. Archived from the original on March 19, 2017. Retrieved March 18, 2017.
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