Executive Order 9998—Rules of Precedence Relating to Officers of the Foreign Service and Other Officers of the United States Government

By virtue of the authority vested in me by section 1752 of the Revised Statutes (22 U.S.C. 132), and as President of the United States, and in the interest of the orderly conduct abroad of the foreign-affairs functions of the United States, I hereby prescribe the following rules governing precedence among officers of the Foreign Service and officers or accredited representatives of other Government agencies:

1. In the country to which he is accredited, the chief of the diplomatic mission shall take precedence over all officers or accredited representatives of other Executive departments or establishments.

2. In the absence of the titular head of the mission, the chargé d'affaires ad interim shall take precedence over all officers or accredited representatives of other Executive departments or establishments.

3. At a diplomatic mission the officer who takes charge in the absence of the chief of mission shall always take precedence next in succession to the chief of mission: Provided, That unless the chief of mission is absent, such officer shall, consonant with the last sentence of section 109(a) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1948 (Public Law 472, 80th Congress), and during the continuance in force of such Act, take precedence after the chief of special mission.

4. Military, naval, and air attachés shall take precedence next in succession after the counselors of embassy or legation or, t a post where the Department of State has deemed it unnecessary to assign a counselor, after the senior secretary. Military, naval, and air attachés shall take precedence among themselves according to their respective grades and seniority therein

5. Attaché s who are not officers of the Foreign Service and who are not covered by section 4 shall take precedence with but after military, naval, and air attachés.

6. Officers of the Foreign Service below the rank of counselor shall take precedence among themselves as the Secretary of State may direct; but they shall take precedence after military, naval, and air attachés and attachés who are not officers of the Foreign Service, except when the provisions of section 11 hereof are applicable and such officers of the Foreign Service are also assigned as diplomatic officers.

7. Assistant military, naval, and air attachés shall take precedence next after the lowest ranking second secretary. At a post to which there is no second secretary assigned, assistant military, naval, and air attachés shall take precedence as a group among the officers of the Foreign Serve of rank equivalent to second secretaries as the chief of mission may direct. Assistant military, naval, and air attachés shall take precedence among themselves according to their respective grades and seniority therein.

8. Assistant attachés who are not officers of the Foreign Service and who are not covered by section 7 shall take precedence with but after assistant military, naval, and air attachés.

9. Except as provided herein no extra precedence shall be conferred upon an Army, Naval, Marine, or Air Force officer because of his duties as attaché to a diplomatic mission.

10. At ceremonies and receptions where the members of the mission take individual position, and in the lists furnished foreign governments for inclusion in their diplomatic lists, precedence shall follow the ranking indicated in the preceding sections.

11. At ceremonies and receptions where the personnel of diplomatic missions are present as a body, the chief of mission, or chargé d'affaires ad interim, accompanied by all officers of the Foreign Service included in the diplomatic list, shall be followed next by the military, naval, and air attachés and assistant attachés who are not officers of the Foreign Service, formed as distinct groups in the order determined by their respective grades and seniority.

12. In international conferences at which the American delegates possess plenipotentiary powers, the senior counselor of embassy or legation attached to the delegation shall take precedence immediately after the delegates, unless otherwise instructed by the Secretary of State.

13. In the districts to which they are assigned, consults general shall take precedence with but after brigadier generals in the Army, Air Force, and Marine Corps and commodores in the Navy; consuls shall take precedence with but after colonels in the Army, Air Force, and Marine Corps and captains in the Navy; officers of the Foreign Service commissioned as vice consuls shall take precedence with but after captains in the Army, Air Force, and Marine Corps and lieutenants in the Navy.

14. Officers of the Foreign Service with the title of consul general, consul, or vice consul shall take precedence with respect to medical officers of the Public Health service assigned to duty in American consular offices as follows: consul general before medical director; consul with but after medical director; vice consul with but after senior assistant surgeon: Provided, That this regulation shall not operate to give precedence to any medical officer above that of the consular officer in charge.

15. This order supersedes Executive Orders No. 8356 of March 2, 1940, and No. 8377 of March 18, 1940 (3 CFR Cum. Supp. 624, 632).

HARRY S. TRUMAN

THE WHITE HOUSE,

September 14, 1948