Thomas Winston Simons Jr. (born September 4, 1938) is an American diplomat and academic. He served as ambassador to Poland from 1990 to 1993, and ambassador to Pakistan from 1996 to 1998. [1]
Born in Crosby, Minnesota, Simons is of German, English and Scots-Irish descent. He attended Karachi Grammar School and Sidwell Friends School and is a graduate of Yale and Harvard. [2] Simons escorted Duke Ellington during his tour of the Middle East and Pakistan. [1]
In 1969, he worked as a deputy to the U.S. Ambassador to Poland, Walter Stoessel, and assisted in making connections which eventually resulted in President Richard M. Nixon's historic visit to China. [3]
He taught at Stanford University upon his retirement from the United States Foreign Service, and holds visiting appointments at Harvard and Cornell. Prior to joining the Foreign Service, Simons was an adjunct professor at Brown University.
The American Institute in Taiwan is the de facto embassy of the United States of America in Taiwan. AIT is a wholly owned subsidiary of the federal government of the United States in Taiwan with Congressional oversight. The AIT was officially created as a U.S. government-sponsored nonprofit, private corporation established under the auspices of the U.S. government to serve its interests in Taiwan.
Walter John Stoessel Jr. was an American diplomat.
James Day Hodgson was an American politician. He served as the Secretary of Labor and the Ambassador to Japan.
Nicholas Platt is an American diplomat who served as U.S. Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Pakistan, Philippines, Zambia, and as a high level diplomat in Canada, China, Hong Kong, and Japan. He is the former president of the Asia Society in New York City.
William Everett Schaufele Jr. was an American diplomat and official at the United States Department of State.
The 1972 visit by United States president Richard Nixon to the People's Republic of China was an important strategic and diplomatic overture that marked the culmination of the Nixon administration's establishment of relations between the United States of America and the People's Republic of China after years of American diplomatic policy that favored the Republic of China in Taiwan. The seven-day official visit to three Chinese cities was the first time a U.S. president had visited the PRC; Nixon's arrival in Beijing ended 25 years of no communication or diplomatic ties between the two countries and was the key step in normalizing relations between the U.S. and the PRC. Nixon visited the PRC to gain more leverage over relations with the Soviet Union, following the Sino-Soviet split. The normalization of ties culminated in 1979, when the U.S. established full diplomatic relations with the PRC.
Arthur William Hummel Jr. was a United States diplomat.
John Herbert Holdridge was an American foreign service officer and diplomat, who was best known for having taken part in, and later recounted, Henry A. Kissinger's secret 1971 initiative to restore United States diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China. He also served as U.S. Ambassador to Singapore (1975–1978) and Indonesia (1982–1986).
Robert Hopkins Miller was a career Foreign Service officer and diplotmat.
Morton Isaac Abramowitz is an American diplomat and former U.S. State Department official. Starting his overseas career in Taipei, Taiwan after joining the foreign service, he served as U.S. Ambassador to Thailand and Turkey and as the Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research. He retired from the State Department with the rank of Career Ambassador. He then became president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and founded the International Crisis Group.
William Butts Macomber Jr. was an American diplomat who served in several positions in the United States Department of State. He was the 12th president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Parker Thompson "Pete" Hart was a United States diplomat.
Jack Bloom Kubisch was a United States diplomat.
Richard T. McCormack is an American government official and diplomat. He has served nearly five decades advising policymakers on foreign affairs and global economic developments. He is currently a senior advisor for CSIS in Washington, D.C.
Joseph Simpson Farland served as United States Ambassador to four countries.
Thomas Graham Jr. is a former senior U.S. diplomat. Graham was involved in the negotiation of every single international arms control and non-proliferation agreement from 1970 to 1997. This includes the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaties, the Anti-ballistic missile (ABM) Treaty, Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) Treaty, Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons Treaty (NPT), Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty and Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). In 1993, Ambassador Graham served as acting director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (ACDA) from January to November, 1993 and Acting Deputy Director from November, 1993 to July, 1994. From 1994 through 1997, he was president Bill Clinton's special representative for Arms Control, Non-Proliferation, and Disarmament. Graham successfully led the U.S. government efforts to achieve the permanent extension of the NPT in 1995. Graham also served for 15 years as the general counsel of ACDA. Throughout his career, Thomas Graham has worked with six U.S. Presidents including Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and Bill Clinton. Ambassador Graham worked on the negotiation of the Chemical Weapons Convention and the Biological Weapons Convention and managed the Senate approval of the ratification of the Geneva Protocol banning the use of chemical and biological weapons in war, as well as the Biological Weapons Convention.
Christopher Van Hollen Sr. was an American member of the United States Foreign Service who served as the United States Ambassador to Sri Lanka and the Maldives from 1972 until 1976. He was the father of U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland.
Leonard Carpenter Meeker was an American politician, lawyer and diplomat who served as the U.S. Ambassador to Romania. He was the father of Sarah Meeker Jensen FAIA and Charles Meeker, 34th Mayor of Raleigh, North Carolina.
Alfred Puhan was an American diplomat and presidential adviser. Puhan acted as an advisor to Richard Nixon and Lyndon Johnson, and also served as the U.S. Ambassador to Hungary in the Nixon administration in 1969. He left the post in 1973.