Nomination of John H. Holdridge To Be United States Ambassador to Indonesia

The President today announced his intention to nominate John H. Holdridge to be Ambassador of the United States to the Republic of Indonesia. He would succeed Edward E. Masters.

Mr. Holdridge has been serving as Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs since May of 1981. In 1948 he first joined the State Department and after being detailed to Chinese language training at Harvard and Cornell, he was assigned overseas to Bangkok (1950). His assignment there was followed by tours in Hong Kong (1953) and Singapore (1956) before he returned to Washington as an international relations officer (1958) and, subsequently, as officer in charge of political affairs for China.

He returned to Hong Kong to head the political section in 1962 for 4 years before becoming the Department's Deputy Director and Director for Research and Analysis for East Asia and the Pacific. He received a superior honor award in 1967 for these duties. In April 1968 he was detailed to the National Security Council, where he served as the senior staff member for the Far East.

In 1973 he moved to Beijing as Deputy Chief of Mission of the U.S. Liaison Office. During this tenure he received the Department's Christian Herter award for his reporting and analysis of events in China. In July 1975 he became Ambassador to Singapore, a post he held for 3 years prior to his return to Washington and his duties as the national intelligence officer for East Asia in the National Intelligence Council.

He graduated from the United States Military Academy (B.S., 1945). He is married, has three children, and resides in Bethesda, Md. He was born in New York City on August 24, 1924.