Counselors
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Notice posted on January 12, 2024.
Last
updated March 14, 2024.
The Secretary of State created the position of Counselor for the Department of State in 1909 as part of a general Department reorganization. In 1912, the position became a Presidential appointment (37 Stat. 372). Between 1913 and 1919, the Counselor served as the Department’s second-ranking officer, assuming the role previously exercised by the Assistant Secretary of State. In 1919., the newly-created position of Under Secretary of State subsumed the duties of the Counselor. An Act of Congress, May 18, 1937, re-established the position of Counselor of the Department of State (50 Stat. 169). Between 1961 and 1965, the Counselor also served as the Chairman of the Policy Planning Council. The Counselor, who currently under law holds rank equivalent to an Under Secretary of State (P.L. 98-164; 97 Stat. 1017), serves as an adviser to the Secretary of State. The Counselor’s specific responsibilities have varied over time. This list does not include a Counselor for the Department of State appointed by the Secretary of State in 1909. On April 30, 1994 the title was changed to Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs.
- Chandler Parsons Anderson (1912–1913)
- John Bassett Moore (1913–1914)
- Robert Lansing (1914–1915)
- Frank Lyon Polk (1915–1919)
- Robert Walton Moore (1937–1941)
- Benjamin Victor Cohen (1945–1947)
- Charles Eustis Bohlen (1947–1949)
- George Frost Kennan (1949–1951)
- Charles Eustis Bohlen (1951–1953)
- Douglas MacArthur II (1953–1956)
- George Frederick Reinhardt (1957–1960)
- Theodore Carter Achilles (1960–1961)
- George Crews McGhee (1961)
- Walt Whitman Rostow (1961–1966)
- Robert Richardson Bowie (1966–1968)
- Richard Foote Pedersen (1969–1973)
- Helmut Sonnenfeldt (1974–1977)
- Matthew Nimetz (1977–1980)
- Rozanne Lejeanne Ridgway (1980–1981)
- Robert Carl McFarlane (1981–1982)
- James Lane Buckley (1982)
- Edward J. Derwinski (1983–1987)
- Max M. Kampelman (1987–1989)
- Robert B. Zoellick (1989–1992)
- Timothy Endicott Wirth (1993–1994)
- Wendy R. Sherman (1997–2001)
- Philip D. Zelikow (2005–2007)
- Eliot Asher Cohen (2007–2009)
- Cheryl D. Mills (2009–2013)
- Thomas Alfred Shannon Jr. (2013–2016)
- Kristie Ann Kenney (2016–2017)
- Mary Elizabeth Beams (2017)
- T. Ulrich Brechbuhl (2018)