| Post: | Permanent Representative of the United States of America to the United Nations |
| Insignia: | US Department of State official seal.svg |
| Insigniasize: | 120 |
| Insigniacaption: | Seal of the Department of State |
| Incumbent: | Linda Thomas-Greenfield |
| Incumbentsince: | February 25, 2021 |
| Department: | United States Mission to the United Nations |
| Style: | Madam Ambassador (informal) The Honorable (formal) Her Excellency (diplomatic) |
| Member Of: | National Security Council Cabinet |
| Reports To: | President Secretary of State |
| Termlength: | No fixed term |
| Termlength Qualified: | At the pleasure of the President of the United States |
| Appointer: | President |
| Appointer Qualified: | with Senate advice and consent |
| Residence: | 50 United Nations Plaza |
| Seat: | United Nations Headquarters New York City, New York, U.S. |
| First: | Edward Stettinius Jr. |
| Salary: | Executive Schedule, Level IV |
The United States ambassador to the United Nations is the leader of the U.S. delegation, the U.S. Mission to the United Nations. The position is formally known as the permanent representative of the United States of America to the United Nations, with the rank and status of ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary, and representative of the United States of America in the United Nations Security Council.
The deputy ambassador assumes the duties of the ambassador in his or her absence. As with all United States ambassadors, the ambassador to the UN and the deputy ambassador are nominated by the president of the United States and confirmed by the Senate. The ambassador serves at the pleasure of the President. The ambassador may be assisted by one or more appointed delegates, often appointed for a specific purpose or issue.
The U.S. permanent representative is charged with representing the United States on the UN Security Council, and during all plenary meetings of the General Assembly, except when a more senior officer of the United States (such as the secretary of state or the president of the United States) is in attendance.
Despite his or her title head of external mission, the United States ambassador to the United Nations is also responsible for importing United Nations policies and motions voted in the main organs of the United Nations onto the national territory.
The current ambassador is Linda Thomas-Greenfield, who was nominated by President Joe Biden and confirmed by the Senate on February 23, 2021.
Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., a leading moderate Republican who lost his seat in the United States Senate to John F. Kennedy in the 1952 elections, was appointed ambassador to the United Nations in 1953 by Dwight D. Eisenhower in gratitude for the defeated senator's role in the new president's defeat of conservative leader Robert A. Taft for the 1952 Republican nomination and subsequent service as his campaign manager in the general election; Eisenhower raised the ambassadorship to Cabinet rank in order to give Lodge direct access to him without having to go through the State Department.[1]
The ambassadorship continued to hold this status throughout the remainder of the Cold War but was removed from Cabinet rank by George H. W. Bush, who had previously held the position himself. It was restored under the Clinton administration. It was not a Cabinet-level position under the George W. Bush administration (from 2001 to 2009),[2] [3] but was once again elevated under the Obama administration, and initially retained as such by the Trump administration during the tenure of Nikki Haley.[4] However, in December 2018, it was reported by several news organizations that the Trump administration would once again downgrade the position to non-Cabinet rank.[5] The position was again elevated to Cabinet rank in the Biden administration.[6]
Former UN ambassador and national security advisor John R. Bolton has publicly opposed the granting of Cabinet-level status to the office, stating "One, it overstates the role and importance the U.N. should have in U.S. foreign policy, second, you shouldn't have two secretaries in the same department".
Status
The following is a chronological list of those who have held the office:
| Portrait | Ambassador | Years Served | U.S. President | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Edward Stettinius Jr. | January 17, 1946 – June 3, 1946 | Harry S. Truman | ||
| — | Herschel Johnson | June 3, 1946 – January 14, 1947 | |||
| 2 | Warren Austin | January 14, 1947 – January 22, 1953 | |||
| Dwight D. Eisenhower | |||||
| 3 | Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. | January 26, 1953[7] – September 3, 1960 | |||
| 4 | James Jeremiah Wadsworth | September 8, 1960 – January 21, 1961 | |||
| John F. Kennedy | |||||
| 5 | Adlai Stevenson II | January 23, 1961 – July 14, 1965 | |||
| Lyndon B. Johnson | |||||
| 6 | Arthur Goldberg | July 28, 1965 – June 24, 1968 | |||
| 7 | George Ball | June 26, 1968 – September 25, 1968 | |||
| 8 | James Russell Wiggins | October 7, 1968 – January 20, 1969 | |||
| 9 | Charles W. Yost | January 23, 1969 – February 25, 1971 | Richard Nixon | ||
| 10 | George H. W. Bush | March 1, 1971 – January 18, 1973 | |||
| 11 | John A. Scali | February 20, 1973 – June 29, 1975 | |||
| Gerald Ford | |||||
| 12 | Daniel Patrick Moynihan | June 30, 1975 – February 2, 1976 | |||
| 13 | William Scranton | March 15, 1976 – January 19, 1977 | |||
| 14 | Andrew Young | January 30, 1977 – September 23, 1979 | Jimmy Carter | ||
| 15 | Donald McHenry | September 23, 1979 – January 20, 1981 | |||
| 16 | Jeane Kirkpatrick | February 4, 1981 – April 1, 1985 | Ronald Reagan | ||
| 17 | Vernon A. Walters | May 22, 1985 – March 15, 1989 | |||
| George H. W. Bush | |||||
| 18 | Thomas R. Pickering | March 20, 1989 – May 7, 1992 | |||
| 19 | Edward J. Perkins | May 12, 1992 – January 27, 1993 | |||
| Bill Clinton | |||||
| 20 | Madeleine Albright | January 27, 1993 – January 21, 1997 | |||
| 21 | Bill Richardson | February 18, 1997 – August 18, 1998 | |||
| — | Peter Burleigh | August 18, 1998 – September 7, 1999 | |||
| 22 | Richard Holbrooke | September 7, 1999 – January 20, 2001 | |||
| — | James B. Cunningham | January 20, 2001 – September 19, 2001 | George W. Bush | ||
| 23 | John Negroponte | September 19, 2001 – July 23, 2004 | |||
| 24 | John Danforth | July 23, 2004 – January 20, 2005 | |||
| — | Anne W. Patterson | January 20, 2005 – August 2, 2005 | |||
| 25 | John Bolton | August 2, 2005 – December 31, 2006 | |||
| — | Alejandro Daniel Wolff | December 31, 2006 – April 30, 2007 | |||
| 26 | Zalmay Khalilzad | April 30, 2007 – January 22, 2009 | |||
| Barack Obama | |||||
| 27 | Susan Rice | January 26, 2009 – June 30, 2013 | |||
| — | Rosemary DiCarlo | June 30, 2013 – August 5, 2013 | |||
| 28 | Samantha Power | August 5, 2013 – January 20, 2017 | |||
| — | Michele J. Sison | January 20, 2017 – January 27, 2017 | Donald Trump | ||
| 29 | Nikki Haley | January 27, 2017 – December 31, 2018 | |||
| — | Jonathan Cohen | January 1, 2019 – September 12, 2019 | |||
| 30 | Kelly Craft | September 12, 2019 – January 20, 2021 | |||
| — | Richard M. Mills Jr. | January 20, 2021 – February 25, 2021 | Joe Biden | ||
| 31 | Linda Thomas-Greenfield | February 25, 2021 – present | |||
The United States deputy ambassador to the United Nations serves as the second most senior American diplomat before the United Nations General Assembly and the Security Council in New York and carries the diplomatic rank of ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary. In the absence of the ambassador, the deputy serves in his or her place.
†These deputy ambassadors later served as full U.S. ambassador to the United Nations position (see above).
The Deputy to the Ambassador to the UN is a separate position from the Senate-confirmed role of Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations. The deputy to the ambassador assists the U.S. ambassador to the UN by acting as a liaison in Washington, D.C., managing their Washington office, interacting with Congress and acting as a stand-in for the UN ambassador. The two roles co-exist, as in 2019 when Taryn Frideres was Deputy to the Ambassador at the same time that Jonathan Cohen was Deputy Ambassador to the UN.