Previous Assistant Secretaries since the position's creation, by recency, are Jendayi E. Frazer, Constance Berry Newman, Walter H. Kansteiner, III, Susan E. Rice, George Moose, Herman Jay Cohen, Chester A. Crocker, Richard M. Moose, William E. Schaufele, Jr., Nathaniel Davis, Donald B. Easum, David D. Newsom, Joseph Palmer II, G. Mennen Williams, and Joseph C. Satterthwaite.
From 2001-2003, he served as the Special Advisor to the Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs at the U.S. State Department where he focused on economic issues and environmental conservation.
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Yamamoto became acting Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs on March 30, 2013, replacing Johnnie Carson.
Also involved in the Israeli and Ethiopian governments’ attempts to facilitate the operation was a group of American diplomats led by Senator Rudy Boschwitz, including Irvin Hicks, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs; Robert Frasure, the Director of the African Affairs at the White House National Security Council; and Robert Houdek the Chargé d'Affaires of the United States Embassy in Addis Ababa.