Nomination of William Andreas Brown To Be United States Ambassador to Thailand

The President today announced his intention to nominate William Andreas Brown, of New Hampshire, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, Class of Minister-Counselor, as Ambassador to the Kingdom of Thailand. He would succeed John Gunther Dean.

In 1956 Mr. Brown entered on duty in the Department of State. He served as consular and commercial officer in Hong Kong in 1957-1959. In 1959-1961 he was a language student in Taichung, Taiwan. In 1961-1964 he served as political officer in Singapore, followed by a tour in Kuching, Sarawak, as principal officer until 1965. He then studied the Russian language at the Foreign Service Institute in 1965-1966. From there he went to Moscow as political officer in 1966-1968. In 1968-1970 he was political officer in New Delhi. In 1970 he became Deputy Director, Office of Asian Communist Affairs, and in 1972 went to the National War College. In 1972-1973 he studied Mongolian at Leeds, England. Mr. Brown was detailed to the Environmental Protection Agency, where he served as special assistant to the Administrator in 1974-1976. In 1977 he went to Moscow as political counselor, where he served until 1978 when he departed for Taipei as deputy chief of mission, Charge, and First Acting Director. He became Director of the American Institute, Taiwan, in Tel Aviv, where he served as deputy chief of mission in 1979-1982. In 1982-1983 he was visiting professor at the University of New Hampshire. And from 1983 to the present, he has been Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs.

Mr. Brown was born September 7, 1930, in Winchester, MA. He graduated from Harvard College (B.A., 1952) and Harvard University Graduate School (M.A., 1955; Ph.D., 1963). He served in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1952-1954 and U.S. Marine Corps Reserve in 1954-1960. His foreign languages are Malay, Russian, Mongolian, French, and Japanese. He is married to the former Helen Melpomene Coutchavlis, and they have four children.