Assistant Secretaries of State for Intelligence and Research
NOTE TO READERS
Updates to the Principal Officers and Chiefs of Mission database are currently suspended. For information about the Department’s current and recent leadership, we recommend visiting the Department of State homepage’s Biographies of Senior Officials and List of U.S. Ambassadors.
Notice posted on January 12, 2024.
Last
updated March 14, 2024.
On Oct 10, 1957, the Department of State elevated the position of Special Assistant to the Secretary for Intelligence and Research to that of Director of the Bureau of Intelligence and Research, with rank equivalent to that of an Assistant Secretary of State. Since 1947, the Special Assistant had been in charge of intelligence functions that the Department of State first received after the abolition of the wartime Office of Strategic Services in 1945. An Act of Congress (P.L. 99-93) of Aug 16, 1985, authorized the appointment of an Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research. Prior to this date, the Secretary of State designated all Directors of the Bureau of Intelligence and Research (appointment dates in brackets). Since Aug 1986, all incumbents have served as Assistant Secretaries of State and been commissioned by the President.
- Hugh Smith Cumming Jr. (1957–1961)
- Roger Hilsman Jr. (1961–1963)
- Thomas Lowe Hughes (1963–1969)
- Ray S. Cline (1969–1973)
- William G. Hyland (1974–1975)
- Harold Henry Saunders (1975–1978)
- William Garton Bowdler (1978–1979)
- Ronald Ian Spiers (1980–1981)
- Hugh Montgomery (1981–1985)
- Morton Isaac Abramowitz (1985–1989)
- Douglas P. Mulholland (1989–1993)
- Toby Trister Gati (1993–1997)
- Phyllis Elliott Oakley (1997–1999)
- J. Stapleton Roy (1999–2001)
- Carl W. Ford (2001–2003)
- Thomas Fingar (2004–2005)
- Randall M. Fort (2006–2009)
- Philip S. Goldberg (2010–2013)
- Daniel Bennett Smith (2014–2018)
- Ellen E. McCarthy (2019)