Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs

United States Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs
Seal of the United States Department of State
Flag of an Assistant Secretary of State
Incumbent Michael Kozak (Acting) since January 20, 2025
Reports to	Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs
Nominator	President of the United States
Inaugural holder	Nelson Rockefeller
Formation	1944
Website	Official website

The assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs is the head of the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs within the United States Department of State, the foreign affairs department of the United States federal government. The Assistant Secretary of State guides operation of the U.S. diplomatic establishment in the countries of the Western Hemisphere and advises the Secretary of State and the Under Secretary for Political Affairs.

The Department of State created the position of Assistant Secretary of State for American Republic Affairs during the general reorganization of December 20, 1944, after Congress had authorized an increase in the number of Assistant Secretaries of State from four to six. This reorganization was the first to assign substantive designations to specific Assistant Secretary positions. The position was temporarily discontinued between June 1947 and June 1949, when American Republic Affairs were handled by an Assistant Secretary for Political Affairs. ^[1]

The Department re-established the position in June 1949 after the Commission on Organization of the Executive Branch of Government recommended that certain offices be upgraded to bureau level and after Congress increased the number of Assistant Secretaries of State from six to ten. On October 3, 1949, the Department by administrative action changed the incumbent's designation to Assistant Secretary for Inter-American Affairs. The Department of State had first established a Division of Latin American Affairs in 1909. ^[1]

List of Assistant Secretaries of State for American Republic Affairs, 1944–1947

Image	Name	Assumed office	Left office	President served under
	Nelson Rockefeller	December 20, 1944	August 17, 1945	Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman
	Spruille Braden	October 29, 1945	June 27, 1947	Harry S. Truman

List of Assistant Secretaries of State for Inter-American Affairs, 1949–2000

Image	Name	Assumed office	Left office	President served under
	Edward G. Miller, Jr.	June 28, 1949	December 31, 1952	Harry S. Truman
	John M. Cabot	March 3, 1953	March 1, 1954	Dwight D. Eisenhower
	Henry F. Holland	March 2, 1954	September 13, 1956
	Roy R. Rubottom, Jr.	June 18, 1957	August 27, 1960
	Thomas C. Mann	August 28, 1960	April 20, 1961	Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy
	Wymberley D. Coerr (Acting) [2]	April 20, 1961	July 17, 1961	John F. Kennedy
	Robert F. Woodward	July 17, 1961	March 17, 1962
	Edwin M. Martin	May 18, 1962	January 2, 1964	John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson
	Thomas C. Mann	January 3, 1964	March 17, 1965	Lyndon B. Johnson
	Jack Hood Vaughn	March 22, 1965	February 28, 1966
	Lincoln Gordon	March 9, 1966	June 30, 1967
	Covey T. Oliver	July 1, 1967	December 31, 1968
	Charles A. Meyer	April 2, 1969	March 2, 1973	Richard Nixon
	Jack B. Kubisch	May 29, 1973	September 4, 1974
	William D. Rogers	October 7, 1974	June 18, 1976	Gerald Ford
	Harry W. Shlaudeman	July 22, 1976	March 14, 1977
	Terence Todman	April 1, 1977	June 27, 1978	Jimmy Carter
	Viron P. Vaky	July 21, 1978	November 30, 1979
	William G. Bowdler	January 4, 1980	January 16, 1981
	Thomas O. Enders	June 23, 1981	June 27, 1983	Ronald Reagan
	Langhorne A. Motley	July 12, 1983	July 3, 1985
	Elliott Abrams	July 17, 1985	January 20, 1989
	Bernard W. Aronson	June 16, 1989	July 2, 1993	George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton
	Alexander Watson	July 2, 1993	March 29, 1996	Bill Clinton
	Jeffrey Davidow	August 7, 1996	July 6, 1998 [3]

List of Assistant Secretaries of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, 2000–present

Image	Name	Assumed office	Left office	President served under
	Peter F. Romero	January 4, 2001 [4]	June 4, 2001	Bill Clinton and George W. Bush
	Otto Reich	January 11, 2002	July 22, 2004	George W. Bush
	Roger Noriega	July 31, 2004	October 6, 2005
	Thomas A. Shannon, Jr.	October 17, 2005	November 10, 2009	George W. Bush and Barack Obama
	Arturo Valenzuela	November 10, 2009	July 31, 2011	Barack Obama
	Roberta S. Jacobson	July 31, 2011	March 30, 2012 (acting)
		March 30, 2012	May 5, 2016
	Mari Carmen Aponte (Acting)	May 5, 2016	January 20, 2017
	Francisco "Paco" Palmieri (Acting)	January 20, 2017	October 15, 2018	Donald Trump
	Kimberly Breier	October 15, 2018	August 30, 2019
	Michael Kozak (Acting)	September 13, 2019	January 20, 2021
	Julie J. Chung (Acting)	January 20, 2021	August 3, 2021	Joe Biden
	Ricardo Zúñiga (Acting)	August 3, 2021	September 15, 2021
	Brian A. Nichols	September 15, 2021	December 31, 2024
	Mark A. Wells (Acting)	January 1, 2025	January 20, 2025
	Michael Kozak (Acting)	January 20, 2025	Present	Donald Trump

References

1. "Assistant Secretaries for Western Hemisphere Affairs" . Retrieved September 21, 2007.
2. Pace, Eric (23 October 1996). "Wymberly deR. Coerr, 83, Ex-U.S. Envoy to Uruguay and Ecuador". The New York Times.
3. "Jeffrey S. Davidow - People - Department History - Office of the Historian". history.state.gov.
4. Served as Acting Assistant Secretary from July 7, 1999.