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List of ambassadors of the United States to the United Nations

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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 Mission to the United Nations
StyleMadam Ambassador
(informal)
The Honorable
(formal)
Her Excellency
(diplomatic)
Member ofNational Security Council
Cabinet
Reports toPresident
Secretary of State
Residence50 United Nations Plaza
SeatUnited Nations Headquarters
New York City, New York, U.S.
AppointerPresident
with Senate advice and consent
Term lengthNo fixed term
At the pleasure of the President of the United States
FormationDecember 21, 1945; 79 years ago (1945-12-21)
First holderEdward Stettinius Jr.
SalaryExecutive Schedule, Level IV
Websiteusun.usmission.gov

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.

The deputy ambassador assumes the duties of the ambassador in their absence. As with all United States ambassadors, the ambassador to the UN and the deputy ambassador are both 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.

Despite their title head of external mission, the United States ambassador to the United Nations is also responsible for importing United Nations policies and motions voted in the main organs of the United Nations onto the national territory.

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

After winning the 2024 United States presidential election, Donald Trump announced that he will nominate Elise Stefanik, who is currently serving in the United States House of Representatives to be the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in his second term.

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.

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), but was once again elevated under the Obama administration, and initially retained as such by the Trump administration during the tenure of Nikki Haley. 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. The position was again elevated to Cabinet rank in the Biden administration.

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 Name Start End President
1 Edward Stettinius Jr. January 17, 1946 June 3, 1946 Harry S. Truman
(1945–1953)
— Herschel Johnson
Acting 		June 3, 1946 January 14, 1947
2 Warren Austin January 14, 1947 January 22, 1953
Dwight D. Eisenhower
(1953–1961)
3 Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. January 26, 1953 September 3, 1960
4 James Jeremiah Wadsworth September 8, 1960 January 21, 1961
John F. Kennedy
(1961–1963)
5 Adlai Stevenson II January 23, 1961 July 14, 1965
Lyndon B. Johnson
(1963–1969)
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
(1969–1975)
10 George H. W. Bush March 1, 1971 January 18, 1973
11 John A. Scali February 20, 1973 June 29, 1975
Gerald Ford
(1974–1977)
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
(1977–1981)
15 Donald McHenry September 23, 1979 January 20, 1981
16 Jeane Kirkpatrick February 4, 1981 April 1, 1985 Ronald Reagan
(1981–1989)
17 Vernon A. Walters May 22, 1985 March 15, 1989
George H. W. Bush
(1989–1993)
18 Thomas R. Pickering March 20, 1989 May 7, 1992
19 Edward J. Perkins May 12, 1992 January 27, 1993
Bill Clinton
(1993–2001)
20 Madeleine Albright January 27, 1993 January 21, 1997
21 Bill Richardson February 18, 1997 August 18, 1998
— Peter Burleigh
Acting 		August 18, 1998 September 7, 1999
22 Richard Holbrooke September 7, 1999 January 20, 2001
— James B. Cunningham
Acting 		January 20, 2001 September 19, 2001 George W. Bush
(2001–2009)
23 John Negroponte September 19, 2001 July 23, 2004
24 John Danforth July 23, 2004 January 20, 2005
— Anne W. Patterson
Acting 		January 20, 2005 August 2, 2005
25 John Bolton August 2, 2005 December 31, 2006
— Alejandro Daniel Wolff
Acting 		December 31, 2006 April 30, 2007
26 Zalmay Khalilzad April 30, 2007 January 22, 2009
Barack Obama
(2009–2017)
27 Susan Rice January 26, 2009 June 30, 2013
— Rosemary DiCarlo
Acting 		June 30, 2013 August 5, 2013
28 Samantha Power August 5, 2013 January 20, 2017
— Michele J. Sison
Acting 		January 20, 2017 January 27, 2017 Donald Trump
(2017–2021)
29 Nikki Haley January 27, 2017 December 31, 2018
— Jonathan R. Cohen
Acting 		January 1, 2019 September 12, 2019
30 Kelly Craft September 12, 2019 January 20, 2021
— Richard M. Mills Jr.
Acting 		January 20, 2021 February 25, 2021 Joe Biden
(2021–2025)
31 Linda Thomas-Greenfield February 25, 2021 present

List of deputy ambassadors

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (June 2021)

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 their place.

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

List of deputies to the ambassador

The deputy to the ambassador to the UN 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.

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". The 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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