Ambassador of the United States to Iceland | |
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Seal of the United States Department of State | |
United States ambassador flag | |
Incumbent Carrin Patman since October 6, 2022 | |
Nominator | The President of the United States |
Appointer | The President with Senate advice and consent |
Inaugural holder |
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Formation | August 8, 1941 (1941-08-08) |
Website | is |
Until 1874, Iceland was a dependency of Denmark rather than an independent nation. In 1874, Denmark granted Iceland home rule, which again was expanded in 1904. In 1918, The Act of Union, an agreement between Denmark, recognized Iceland as a fully sovereign state united with Denmark under a common king. Iceland established its own flag and asked that Denmark represent its foreign affairs and defense interests; thus, the United States ambassador to Denmark conducted foreign relations between the United States and Iceland.
The German invasion and occupation of Denmark on April 9, 1940, severed communications between Iceland and Denmark. As a result, on April 10, the Parliament of Iceland elected to take control of their own foreign affairs. The United States thus commissioned Lincoln MacVeagh as its first ambassador to Iceland on August 8, 1941. MacVeagh presented his credentials to the foreign minister of Iceland on September 30, 1941. His title was Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary. The US has maintained continuous diplomatic relations with Iceland since then.
Following a plebiscite, Iceland formally became an independent republic on June 17, 1944.
The current ambassador is Carrin Patman, who presented her credentials to President Guðni Th. Jóhannesson on October 6, 2022.
List of ambassadors
# | Name | Title | Appointment | Presentation of credentials | Termination of mission | Nature of appointment | Nature of termination |
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1 | Lincoln MacVeagh | Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary | 1941-08-08 | 1941-09-30 | 1942-06-27 | Political appointee | Left post |
2 | Leland Burnette Morris | 1942-08-13 | 1942-10-07 | 1944-05-10 | Career FSO | Relinquished charge | |
3 | Louis Goethe Dreyfus, Jr. | 1944-03-21 | 1944-06-14 | 1946-10-21 | Left post | ||
4 | Richard P. Butrick | 1948-02-26 | 1948-04-29 | 1949-08-10 | |||
5 | Edward B. Lawson | 1949-07-22 | 1949-09-22 | 1954-05-29 | |||
6 | John Joseph Muccio | 1954-08-23 | 1954-10-12 | 1955-10-19 | Mission title changed | ||
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary | 1955-10-19 | 1955-11-03 | 1959-12-16 | Left post | |||
7 | Tyler Thompson | 1960-01-27 | 1960-02-19 | 1961-04-16 | |||
8 | James K. Penfield | 1961-04-27 | 1961-05-24 | 1967-03-16 | |||
9 | Karl Fritjof Rolvaag | 1967-04-05 | 1967-05-09 | 1969-03-27 | Political appointee | ||
10 | Luther I. Replogle | 1969-07-08 | 1969-09-12 | 1972-06-15 | |||
11 | Frederick Irving | 1972-09-11 | 1972-10-11 | 1976-04-21 | Career FSO | ||
12 | James J. Blake | 1976-07-01 | 1976-09-08 | 1978-09-29 | |||
13 | Richard A. Ericson, Jr. | 1978-10-12 | 1978-11-21 | 1981-08-15 | |||
14 | Marshall Brement | 1981-07-27 | 1981-09-16 | 1985-08-01 | |||
15 | L. Nicholas Ruwe | 1985-07-12 | 1985-08-21 | 1989-10-07 | Political appointee | ||
16 | Charles Elvan Cobb, Jr. | 1989-10-10 | 1989-11-08 | 1992-01-10 | |||
17 | Sigmund Rogich | 1992-05-11 | 1992-06-04 | 1993-10-14 | |||
18 | Parker W. Borg | 1993-10-08 | 1993-11-24 | 1996-07-13 | Career FSO | ||
19 | Day O. Mount | 1996-06-11 | 1996-09-03 | 1999-08-12 | |||
20 | Barbara J. Griffiths | 1999-08-09 | 1999-09-29 | 2002-07-29 | |||
21 | James Irvin Gadsden | 2002-10-03 | 2002-12-09 | 2005-07-14 | |||
22 | Carol van Voorst | 2006-01-03 | 2006-01-26 | 2009-04-30 | |||
23 | Luis E. Arreaga | 2010-09-10 | 2010-09-20 | 2013-11-23 | |||
24 | Robert C. Barber | 2015-01-02 | 2015-01-28 | 2017-01-20 | Political appointee | ||
25 | Jeffrey Ross Gunter | 2019-05-23 | 2019-07-02 | 2021-01-20 | |||
26 | Carrin Patman | 2022-08-07 | 2022-10-06 | Incumbent |
See also
References
- Jóhannesson, Guðni Thorlacius (2022-10-06). "Today H.E. Carrin Patman presented her credentials as the new US Ambassador to Iceland" (Tweet). Retrieved 2022-10-15 – via Twitter.
- "The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project AMBASSADOR RICHARD A. ERICSON, JR" (PDF). Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training. 1995-03-27. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2024-07-17. Retrieved 2024-07-17.
- This article incorporates public domain material from U.S. Bilateral Relations Fact Sheets. United States Department of State.
Further reading
- "Chiefs of Mission for Iceland". Office of the Historian. United States Department of State. Archived from the original on 2022-05-22. Retrieved 2022-06-10.
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: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)} - "Iceland". United States Department of State. Archived from the original on 2022-06-10. Retrieved 2022-06-10.
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: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - "U.S. Embassy in Iceland". U.S. Embassy in Iceland. Archived from the original on 2022-06-10. Retrieved 2022-06-10.
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