Nomination of Nicholas Platt To Be United States Ambassador to the Philippines

The President today announced his intention to nominate Nicholas Platt, of the District of Columbia, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, Class of Career Minister, as Ambassador to the Republic of the Philippines. He would succeed Stephen Warren Bosworth.

Mr. Platt entered the Foreign Service of the United States in 1959. Prior to that, he was a research assistant at the Washington Center for Foreign Policy Research. From 1959 to 1961, he served as vice consul in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. He studied the Chinese language, 1962-1963, at the Foreign Service Institute and in Taichung, Taiwan. In 1964 he was assigned as political officer at the American consulate general in Hong Kong until 1968, when he became China desk officer in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs. From 1969 to 1971, Mr. Platt was chief of the Asian Communist Areas Division of the Bureau of Intelligence and Research. In 1971-1973, he served as Deputy Director, and then Director, of the Secretariat Staff in the Department of State. Mr. Platt was assigned as chief of the political section, U.S. Liaison Office, Peking, China, 1973-1974, and then as deputy chief of the political section at the Embassy in Tokyo, Japan, 1974-1977. He returned to Washington to serve as Director for Japanese Affairs in 1977 and then served as a staff member on the National Security Council at the White House, 1978-1980. From 1980 to 1981, he was Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, International Security Affairs, Department of Defense, and then returned to the Department of State as Deputy Assistant Secretary, International Organization Affairs, 1981-1982. Mr. Platt was appointed Ambassador to the Republic of Zambia in 1982, where he served until 1985, when he was named Special Assistant to the Secretary of State and Executive Secretary of the Department of State.

Mr. Platt graduated from Harvard College (B.A., 1957) and Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (M.A., 1959). He is articulate in Chinese, German, French, and Japanese. Mr. Platt was born March 10, 1936, in New York, NY. He resides in Arlington, VA, with his wife and three sons.