Nomination of John Dimitri Negroponte To Be an Assistant Secretary of State

The President today announced his intention to nominate John Dimitri Negroponte, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, Class of Minister-Counselor, to be Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs. He would succeed James L. Malone.

Ambassador Negroponte entered the Foreign Service in 1960 and served in Hong Kong as consular officer (1960-1961) and commercial officer (1961-1963). In the Department he was administrative assistant in the Bureau of African Affairs (1963) and studied the Vietnamese language at the Foreign Service Institute (1963-1964). In 1964-1968 he was political officer in Saigon and a member of the Paris peace talks on Vietnam in 1968-1969. He attended Stanford University in 1969-1970 and was a member of the staff at the National Security Council in 1970-1973. In 1973 he studied the Spanish language at the Foreign Service Institute. He was counselor for political affairs in Quito (1973-1975) and consul general in Thessaloniki (1975-1977). In the Department he was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and Fisheries Affairs, with the rank of Ambassador, in 1977-1979. He was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs in 1980-1981. Since 1981 he has been serving as United States Ambassador to Honduras.

He graduated from Yale University (B.A., 1960). His foreign languages are French, Spanish, and Vietnamese. He was born July 21, 1939, in London, England.