United States Ambassador to India

Ambassador of the United States to India भारत के संयुक्त राज्य अमेरिकी राजदूत
Seal of the United States Department of State
Incumbent Richard Verma since December 19, 2014
Nominator	Barack Obama
Inaugural holder	George R. Merrell as Chargé d'Affaires ad interim
Formation	November 1, 1946
Website	U.S. Embassy - New Delhi

The United States Ambassador to India is the chief diplomatic representative of United States in India. The U.S. Ambassador's office is situtaed at the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi.

U.S. Embassy in New Delhi

Chiefs of Mission to India

U.S. Ambassadors to the Dominion of India (1947-1950)

President George Washington, on November 19, 1792, nominated Benjamin Joy of Newbury Port as the first American Consul to Kolkata and later commissioned Joy to that office on November 21, 1792.^[1]

Name	State	Status	Title	Appointment	Credentials Presented	Termination of Mission	Notes
Henry F. Grady	California	Non-career appointee	Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary	Apr 10, 1947	Jul 1, 1947	Left post, Jun 22, 1948	Accredited also to Nepal; resident at New Delhi.
Loy W. Henderson	Colorado	Foreign Service officer	Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary	Jul 14, 1948	Nov 19, 1948	Re-accredited when India became a republic; presented new credentials Feb 24, 1950	Commissioned during a recess of the Senate; recommissioned after confirmation on Mar 2, 1949. Also accredited to Nepal; resident at New Delhi.

U.S. Ambassadors to the Republic of India (1950-present)

Name	State	Status	Title	Appointment	Credentials Presented	Termination of Mission	Notes
Loy W. Henderson	Colorado	Foreign Service officer	Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary		Feb 24, 1950	Sept 21, 1951	Reaccredited when India became a republic; presented new credentials Feb 24, 1950; left post Sep 21, 1951; commissioned during a recess of the Senate; recommissioned after confirmation on Mar 2, 1949. Also accredited to Nepal; resident at New Delhi.
Chester Bowles	Connecticut	Non-career appointee	Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary	Oct 10, 1951	Nov 1, 1951	Left post, Mar 23, 1953	Also accredited to Nepal; resident at New Delhi.
George V. Allen	North Carolina	Foreign Service officer	Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary	Mar 11, 1953	May 4, 1953	Left post, Nov 30, 1954	Also accredited to Nepal; resident at New Delhi.
John Sherman Cooper	Kentucky	Non-career appointee	Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary	Feb 4, 1955	Apr 9, 1955	Left post, Apr 23, 1956	Also accredited to Nepal; resident at New Delhi.
Ellsworth Bunker	Vermont	Non-career appointee	Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary	Nov 28, 1956	Mar 4, 1957	Left India, Mar 23, 1961	Also accredited to Nepal; resident at New Delhi. Commissioned during a recess of the Senate; recommissioned after confirmation on Jan 25, 1957.
John Kenneth Galbraith	Massachusetts	Non-career appointee	Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary	Mar 29, 1961	Apr 18, 1961	Left post, Jul 12, 1963
Chester Bowles	Connecticut	Non-career appointee	Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary	May 3, 1963	Jul 19, 1963	Left post, Apr 21, 1969
Kenneth B. Keating	New York	Non-career appointee	Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary	May 1, 1969	Jul 2, 1969	Left post, Jul 26, 1972
Daniel P. Moynihan	New York	Non-career appointee	Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary	Feb 8, 1973	Feb 28, 1973	Left post, Jan 7, 1975
William B. Saxbe	Ohio	Non-career appointee	Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary	Feb 3, 1975	Mar 8, 1975	Left post, Nov 20, 1976
Robert F. Goheen	New Jersey	Non-career appointee	Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary	Apr 26, 1977	May 26, 1977	Left post, Dec 10, 1980
Harry G. Barnes, Jr.	Maryland	Foreign Service officer	Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary	Oct 1, 1981	Nov 17, 1981	Left post, Jun 27, 1985
John Gunther Dean	New York	Foreign Service officer	Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary	Aug 2, 1985	Sep 6, 1985	Left post Nov 7, 1988
John R. Hubbard	California	Non-career appointee	Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary	Nov 22, 1988	Dec 27, 1988	Left post Nov 15, 1989	Commissioned during a recess of the Senate.
William Clark, Jr.	District of Columbia	Foreign Service officer	Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary	Oct 10, 1989	Dec 22, 1989	Left post, Jul 2, 1992
Thomas R. Pickering	New Jersey	Foreign Service officer	Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary	Apr 6, 1992	Aug 14, 1992	Left post, Mar 23, 1993	Kenneth Brill served as Chargé d'Affaires ad interim, Mar 1993-Aug 1994.
Frank G. Wisner	District of Columbia	Foreign Service officer	Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary	Jun 9, 1994	Aug 2, 1994	Left post, July 12, 1997
Richard Frank Celeste	Ohio	Non-career appointee	Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary	Nov 10, 1997	Nov 28, 1997	Left post Apr 25, 2001
Robert Blackwill	Kansas	Non-career appointee	Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary	Jul 12, 2001	Sep 14, 2001	Left post Jul 31, 2003
David Campbell Mulford	Illinois	Non-career officer	Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary	Dec 12, 2003	Feb 23, 2004	Left post February 2009
Timothy J. Roemer	Indiana	Non-career appointee	Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary	Jul 23, 2009[2]	Aug 11, 2009	Left post June 30, 2011
Albert Peter Burleigh	California	Foreign Service officer[3]	Chargé d'affaires	June 2011		Left post 2012
Nancy Jo Powell	Iowa	Foreign Service officer	Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary	February 7, 2012	April 19, 2012	March 31, 2014
Kathleen Stephens	Arizona	Foreign Service officer (interim)	Chargé d'affaires	May 22, 2014			Assumed position after resignation of Nancy Jo Powell.
Richard Verma	Pennsylvania	Non-career appointee	Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary	December 19, 2014			First US Ambassador to India of Indian origin.[4]

U.S. diplomatic terms

---

Career FSO
After 1915, The United States Department of State began classifying ambassadors as career Foreign Service Officers (FSOs) for those who have served in the Foreign Service for a specified amount of time.

Political appointee
A person who is not a career foreign service officer, but is appointed by the president (often as a reward to political friends).

Appointed
The date that the ambassador took the oath of office; also known as “commissioning”. It follows confirmation of a presidential appointment by the Senate, or a Congressional-recess appointment by the president. In the case of a recess appointment, the ambassador requires subsequent confirmation by the Senate.

Presented credentials
The date that the ambassador presented his letter of credence to the head of state or appropriate authority of the receiving nation. At this time the ambassador officially becomes the representative of his country. This would normally occur a short time after the ambassador’s arrival on station. The host nation may reject the ambassador by not receiving the ambassador’s letter, but this occurs only rarely.

Terminated mission
Usually the date that the ambassador left the country. In some cases a letter of recall is presented, ending the ambassador’s commission, either as a means of diplomatic protest or because the diplomat is being reassigned elsewhere and replaced by another envoy.

Chargé d'affaires
The person in charge of the business of the embassy when there is no ambassador commissioned to the host country. See chargé d'affaires.

Ad interim
Latin phrase meaning "for the time being", "in the meantime". See ad interim.

See also

• Embassy of India, Washington, D.C.
• India – United States relations
• Indian Ambassador to the United States
• Foreign relations of India
• Ambassadors of the United States

References

1. U.S. Consulate General Kolkata
2. Obama names ambassador nominees
3. http://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/people/burleigh-albert-peter
4. http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/rich-verma-confirmed-as-us-ambassador-to-india/article1-1294981.aspx

• United States Department of State: Background notes on India
•  This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Department of State (Background Notes).

Sources

• Brands, H. W. Inside the Cold War: Loy Henderson and the Rise of the American Empire 1918-1961 (1991) pp 196–230; Loy Henderson was US Ambassador, 1948–51

Primary sources

• Bowles, Chester (1969). A View from New Delhi: Selected Speeches and Writings, 1963-1969. Yale U.P., US ambassador 1951-53 and 1963–69
• Galbraith, John K. Ambassador's journal: a personal account of the Kennedy years (1969) online, he was US ambassador to India 1961-63
• U.S. Department of State. Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS), many volumes of primary sources; the complete texts of these large books are all online. See Guide to FRUS. For example, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume XI, South Asia Crisis, 1971 was published in 2005 and is online here. The most recent volumes are Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume E–7, Documents on South Asia, 1969–1972 (2005) online here and Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume E–8, Documents on South Asia, 1973–1976 (2007) online here. Included are the most important cables sent by the ambassador to Washington.

External links

• United States Department of State: Chiefs of Mission for India
• United States Department of State: India
• United States Embassy in New Delhi
• U.S. Embassy India on Twitter