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Nomination of Francis J. Meehan To Be United States Ambassador to the German Democratic Republic

July 17, 1985

The President today announced his intention to nominate Francis J. Meehan, of Virginia, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, Class of Career Minister, to be Ambassador of the United States of America to the German Democratic Republic. He would succeed Rozanne L. Ridgway.

Mr. Meehan began his government career as a clerk at the American Consulate General in Bremen, Federal Republic of Germany, in 1947-1948. He then became an administrative assistant with the Economic Cooperation Administration in Washington, DC, in 1948-1951. In 1951 he went to Frankfurt as an information officer with the U.S. High Commission for Germany and served there until 1952, when he was assigned to the American Consulate General in Hamburg. In 1953 Mr. Meehan served in NATO, Paris, as a political officer. He was there until 1956, when he took Russian language training at the Department of State and Harvard University. He became an intelligence specialist in the Department in 1957 and in 1959 went to the U.S. Embassy in Moscow as political officer. He served there until 1961, when he was assigned to Berlin as political officer. In 1966-1968 Mr. Meehan was watch officer/director of the Department's Operation Center. From there he became deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Budapest, Hungary, in 1968-1972. He then went to the U.S. Embassy in Bonn, Federal Republic of Germany, as political counselor in 1972-1975. In 1975 he went to the U.S. Embassy in Austria as deputy chief of mission and served there until 1977, when he returned to Bonn as deputy chief of mission. He served in Bonn until he became Ambassador to Czechoslovakia in 1979-1980. He was then named Ambassador to Poland in 1980 and served there until he became research professor at Georgetown University. He has continued at Georgetown until the present. From October 1984 to April 1985, he was also a senior foreign policy officer in the Office for Management Operations in the Department.

Mr. Meehan graduated from the University of Glasgow (M.A., 1945) and Harvard University (M.P.A., 1957). He served in the United States Army in 1945-1947. His foreign languages are German, French, Russian, Polish, Czech, and Hungarian. He is married to the former Margaret Kearns, and they have four children. He was born February 14, 1924, in East Orange, NJ.

Ronald Reagan, Nomination of Francis J. Meehan To Be United States Ambassador to the German Democratic Republic Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/259997

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