Ambassadors at Large
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Notice posted on January 12, 2024.
Last
updated March 14, 2024.
From the earliest days of the Republic, Presidents have designated special diplomatic envoys for specific assignments, primarily overseas. The President appointed the first official specifically to bear the title of Ambassador at Large on Mar 12, 1949, under the authority vested in Article II, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution that empowers the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, to appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers, and Consuls. Presidents have usually appointed Ambassadors at Large to deal with specific foreign policy issues which have been frequently, but not always, spelled out in their commissions. Functional designations are noted when they were included in an individual’s commission.
- Philip Caryl Jessup (1949–1953)
- William Averell Harriman (1961)
- Chester Bliss Bowles (1961–1963)
- Llewellyn E. Thompson Jr. (1962–1966)
- William Averell Harriman (1965–1969)
- Ellsworth Bunker (1966–1967)
- Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. (1967–1968)
- George Crews McGhee (1968–1969)
- David Matthew Kennedy (1971–1973)
- Ural Alexis Johnson (1973–1977)
- Ellsworth Bunker (1973–1978)
- Robert James McCloskey (1974–1975)
- Thomas Vincent Learson (1975–1977)
- Elliot Lee Richardson (1977–1980)
- Gerard Coad Smith (1977–1980)
- Arthur Joseph Goldberg (1977–1978)
- Alfred Leroy Atherton Jr. (1978–1979)
- Henry David Owen (1978–1981)
- William Beverly Carter Jr. (1979–1981)
- Dick Clarence Clark (1979)
- Robert C. Krueger (1979–1981)
- Victor Henry Palmieri (1979–1981)
- Daniel James Terra (1981–1989)
- Vernon A. Walters (1981–1985)
- Howard Eugene Douglas (1982–1986)
- Richard Thomas Kennedy (1982–1993)
- Richard B. Stone (1983–1984)
- Harry Walter Shlaudeman (1984–1986)
- Richard Fairbanks (1984–1985)
- Paul Henry Nitze (1986–1989)
- Jonathan Moore (1986–1989)
- L. Paul Bremer III (1986–1989)
- Jewel Stradford Lafontant-Mankarious (1989–1993)
- Henry Allen Holmes Jr. (1989–1993)
- Strobe (Nelson Strobridge) Talbott III (1993–1994)
- Robert L. Gallucci (1994–1996)
- James Franklin Collins (1995–1997)
- David J. Scheffer (1997–2001)
- Stephen R. Sestanovich (1997–2001)
- Robert A. Seiple (1999–2000)
- Michael E. Sheehan (1999–2000)
- Pierre-Richard Prosper (2001–2005)
- Francis Xavier Taylor (2001)
- Francis Xavier Taylor (2001–2004)
- John V. Hanford 3rd (2002–2009)
- John Rippin Miller (2004–2006)
- John Clint Williamson (2006–2009)
- Mark P. Lagon (2007–2009)
- Dell L. Dailey (2007–2009)
- Melanne Verveer (2009–2013)
- Luis C. de Baca (2009–2014)
- Daniel Benjamin (2009–2012)
- Eric Goosby (2009–2013)
- Stephen J. Rapp (2009–2015)
- Suzan Denise Johnson Cook (2011–2013)
- Catherine M. Russell (2013–2017)
- Deborah L. Birx (2014)
- David Nathan Saperstein (2015–2017)
- Susan Coppedge Amato (2015–2017)
- Samuel Dale Brownback (2018)
- John C. Richmond (2018)
- Kelley Eckels Currie (2019)
- Morse H. Tan (2019)
- James L. Malone (Not commissioned; nomination of Mar 8, 1982, was withdrawn before the Senate acted on it. Nominated as Ambassador at Large and Special Representative of the President for the Law of the Sea Conference, and Chief of Delegation.)