United States Ambassador to the United Nations

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The United States Ambassador to the United Nations (full title: 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 Security Council of the United Nations, also known as the U.S. Permanent Representative, or "Perm Rep", to the United Nations) is the leader of the United States' delegation to the United Nations. As such, he/she is charged with representing the United States on the UN Security Council, as well as being the representative of the United States in all plenary meetings of the General Assembly except in the rare situation in which a superior officer of the United States such as the U.S. Secretary of State or the President of the United States) is present. Like all United States ambassadors, he must be nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate.

Currently, the permanent Ambassador is Zalmay Khalilzad, having succeeded acting Ambassador Alejandro Daniel Wolff. The previous interim permanent Ambassador, John R. Bolton (selected by recess appointment) resigned in the face of poor confirmation prospects after the 2006 elections returned a Democratic majority.

The following is a list of those who have held the office:

#	Name	Years served	U.N. Secretary(ies)-General	U.S. President(s)
1	Edward R. Stettinius, Jr.	1945–1946	Sir Gladwyn Jebb, Trygve Lie	Harry S. Truman
—	Herschel V. Johnson (acting)	1946–1947	Trygve Lie	Harry S. Truman
2	Warren R. Austin	1947–1953	Trygve Lie, Dag Hammarskjöld	Harry S. Truman
3	Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr.	1953–1960	Dag Hammarskjöld	Dwight D. Eisenhower
4	James J. Wadsworth	1960–1961	Dag Hammarskjöld	Dwight D. Eisenhower
5	Adlai Stevenson	1961–1965	Dag Hammarskjöld, U Thant	John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson
6	Arthur J. Goldberg	1965–1968	U Thant	Lyndon B. Johnson
7	George W. Ball	1968	U Thant	Lyndon B. Johnson
8	James Russell Wiggins	1968–1969	U Thant	Lyndon B. Johnson
9	Charles W. Yost	1969–1971	U Thant	Richard Nixon
10	George H. W. Bush	1971–1973	U Thant, Kurt Waldheim	Richard Nixon
11	John A. Scali	1973–1975	Kurt Waldheim	Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford
12	Daniel Patrick Moynihan	1975–1976	Kurt Waldheim	Gerald Ford
13	William Scranton	1976–1977	Kurt Waldheim	Gerald Ford
14	Andrew Young	1977–1979	Kurt Waldheim	Jimmy Carter
15	Donald McHenry	1979–1981	Kurt Waldheim	Jimmy Carter
16	Jeane Kirkpatrick	1981–1985	Kurt Waldheim, Javier Pérez de Cuéllar	Ronald Reagan
17	Vernon A. Walters	1985–1989	Javier Pérez de Cuéllar	Ronald Reagan
18	Thomas R. Pickering	1989–1992	Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, Boutros Boutros-Ghali	George H. W. Bush
19	Edward J. Perkins	1992–1993	Boutros Boutros-Ghali	George H. W. Bush
20	Madeleine Albright	1993–1997	Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Kofi Annan	Bill Clinton
21	Bill Richardson	1997–1998	Kofi Annan	Bill Clinton
—	Albert Peter Burleigh (acting)	1998–1999	Kofi Annan	Bill Clinton
22	Richard Holbrooke	1999–2001	Kofi Annan	Bill Clinton
—	James B. Cunningham (acting)	2001	Kofi Annan	George W. Bush
23	John D. Negroponte	2001–2004	Kofi Annan	George W. Bush
24	John Danforth	2004–2005	Kofi Annan	George W. Bush
—	Anne W. Patterson (Acting)	2005	Kofi Annan	George W. Bush
25	John R. Bolton	2005–2006	Kofi Annan	George W. Bush
—	Alejandro Daniel Wolff (Acting)	2006–2007	Kofi Annan, Ban Ki-moon	George W. Bush
26	Zalmay Khalilzad	2007–Present	Ban Ki-Moon	George W. Bush