Assistant Secretaries of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs

The Department of State established a Bureau of International Cultural Relations on Jun 1, 1959, and subsequently renamed it the Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs on Apr 17, 1960. The following year, the Department elevated the position of Special Assistant for Coordination of International Educational and Cultural Relations, which headed the Bureau, to the rank of Assistant Secretary of State. The Department had first established a Division of Cultural Relations in 1938. Cultural relations was also part of the responsibilities of the first Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs created in 1944. In 1978 the Bureau was abolished and its functions transferred to the International Communications Agency (subsequently the U.S. Information Agency) under Reorganization Plan No. 2 (91 Stat. 1637). On October 1, 1999, pursuant to the integration of the U.S. Information Agency into the Department of State this position was revived. Secion 2305 of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act for Fiscal Years 1998 and 1999 (112 Stat. 2681-825) increased the number of Assistant Secretaries of State from 20 to 24.