X-Nico

3 unusual facts about Foreign Service Officer


Barbara M. White

White worked as a Foreign Service Officer, serving in Chile, Portugal, Spain, and Italy before becoming the deputy director of the United States Information Agency.

Eric D. Newsom

As a Foreign Service Officer, he served as Vice Consul in Montevideo, Uruguay; Special Assistant to the United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom; on the staff of the Office of the Secretary of State; Special Assistant to the Director for nuclear policy issues in the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs; and Deputy Director—for six months, Acting Director—of the Office of International Security Policy.

George S. Stuart

Stuart attended Georgetown University and the American University in Washington, D.C. where he studied history, economics, languages and international law while preparing to become a Foreign Service Officer but his academic career was frustrated by dyslexia, a condition not recognized in those days.


Claude A. Buss

Although not formally counted as one of the State Department's "China Hands", he was a U.S. Foreign Service Officer in Peiping and Nanjing prior to the war, and served in multiple U.S. government and policy advisory positions covering East Asia for almost seven decades.

Genta H. Holmes

Genta Hawkins Holmes (born September 3, 1940 in Anadarko, Oklahoma) is an American professor in diplomacy and former American foreign service officer and ambassador.

William J. Dyess

As a Foreign Service Officer, he was posted to Belgrade, Yugoslavia 1961-63; to Copenhagen 1963-65; to Moscow 1966-68; and to Berlin 1968-70.


see also

Alexandra Uteev Johnson

As a Foreign Service Officer she worked as an analyst in the Department of State's Bureau of Intelligence and Research specializing in Soviet relations with Arab countries.

Claude A. Buss

After continuing his studies at the Paris Institute of Political Studies, he became a U.S. Foreign Service officer, serving in the U.S. legation in Beijing from 1927 to 1928 and as vice-consul in Nanjing from 1931 to 1934.

Egyptian Islamic Jihad

At this point, Marc Sageman (a former foreign service officer who was based in Islamabad from 1987 to 1989), says "the EIJ became a free-floating network without any real ties to its original society or to its surrounding society".

Gays and Lesbians in Foreign Affairs Agencies

The second publicly gay U.S. ambassador, and the first publicly gay Foreign Service officer to be appointed as ambassador, was U.S. Ambassador to Romania Michael Guest, who was appointed by President George W. Bush and in 2001 sworn in by Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Howard Kent Walker

Howard Kent Walker (born December 3, 1935) is a US diplomat, Foreign Service officer, former United States Ambassador to Togo, Madagascar, and Comoros.

James Moriarty

James F. Moriarty, United States diplomat and career foreign service officer

Joseph E. Persico

In 1960 Persico joined the United States Information Agency working in Argentina, Brazil, and Washington as a Foreign Service Officer.

Joseph Palmer

Joseph Palmer II (1914–1994), American foreign service officer and ambassador

Leticia Ramos-Shahani

After passing the Philippine Foreign Service Officer (FSO) Examination, she held various high positions such as: she was appointed Ambassador to Australia from 1981 to 1986; Secretary-General of the World Conference on the UN Decade of Women in Nairobi, Kenya in 1985.

Malcolm Templeton

Malcolm Templeton (born 1924) is a former New Zealand Foreign Service officer, who held a number of senior positions, including that of permanent representative to the United Nations, and Deputy Secretary of Foreign Affairs under Secretary Merwyn Norrish.

Pavan Varma

Pavan Verma is a former Indian Foreign Service officer and presently adviser to the Chief Minister of Bihar, Nitish Kumar, with cabinet rank.

Peter Tarnoff

During his career as a Foreign Service Officer, Tarnoff served as Executive Secretary of the Department of State and Special Assistant to Secretaries of State Edmund Muskie and Cyrus Vance (1977–1981); Director, Office of Research and Analysis for Western Europe (1975–76); Special Assistant to Ambassador-at-Large Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. (1967); and Nigerian Analyst in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research (1966–67).

Vogelgesang

Sandra Louise Vogelgesang (b. 1942), a United States Foreign Service officer and U.S. State Department official

Wanda Nesbitt

A career Foreign Service officer, she was appointed United States Ambassador to Namibia on September 24, 2010.

William Bishop

Bradford Bishop (William Bradford Bishop; born 1936), United States Foreign Service officer and fugitive from justice