Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs

United States Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs
Seal of the United States Department of State
Flag of an Assistant Secretary of State
Incumbent Sean O'Neill Acting  since January 20, 2025
Reports to	Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs
Nominator	President of the United States
Inaugural holder	William Walton Butterworth
Formation	1949
Website	Official website

The assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs is the head of the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs within the United States Department of State. The assistant secretary guides operation of the U.S. diplomatic establishment in the countries of the Asia-Pacific region and advises the secretary of state and the under secretary for political affairs on matters relating to the area.

The Department of State established the position of assistant secretary of state for Far Eastern affairs in 1949, after the Commission on Organization of the Executive Branch of Government recommended that certain offices be upgraded to bureau level and after Congress increased the number of Assistant Secretaries of State from six to ten. On November 1, 1966, the department by administrative action changed the incumbent's designation to assistant secretary for East Asian and Pacific affairs. The Division of Far Eastern Affairs, established in 1908, was the first geographical division to be established in the Department of State.[1]

List of assistant secretaries of state for Far Eastern affairs, 1949–1966

#	Image	Name	Assumed office	Left office	President served under
1		William Walton Butterworth[2]	September 29, 1949	July 4, 1950	Harry S. Truman
2		Dean Rusk	March 28, 1950	December 9, 1951	Harry S. Truman
3		John Moore Allison	February 1, 1952	April 7, 1953	Harry S. Truman
4		Walter S. Robertson	April 8, 1953	June 30, 1959	Dwight D. Eisenhower
5		J. Graham Parsons	July 1, 1959	March 30, 1961	Dwight D. Eisenhower
6		Walter P. McConaughy	April 24, 1961	December 3, 1961	John F. Kennedy
7		W. Averell Harriman	December 4, 1961[3]	April 3, 1963	John F. Kennedy
8		Roger Hilsman	May 9, 1963	March 15, 1964	John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson

List of assistant secretaries of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, 1966–present

#	Image	Name	Assumed office	Left office	President served under
9		William Bundy	March 16, 1964	May 4, 1969	Lyndon B. Johnson
10		Marshall Green	May 5, 1969	May 10, 1973	Richard Nixon
-		G. McMurtrie Godley	[4]		Richard Nixon
11		Robert S. Ingersoll	January 8, 1974	July 9, 1974	Richard Nixon
12		Philip Habib	September 27, 1974	June 30, 1976	Gerald Ford
13		Arthur W. Hummel, Jr.	July 12, 1976	March 14, 1977	Gerald Ford
14		Richard Holbrooke	March 31, 1977	January 13, 1981	Jimmy Carter
15		John H. Holdridge	May 28, 1981	December 9, 1982[5]	Ronald Reagan
16		Paul Wolfowitz	December 22, 1982	March 12, 1986	Ronald Reagan
17		Gaston J. Sigur, Jr.	March 12, 1986	February 21, 1989	Ronald Reagan
-		Richard Armitage	[6]		George H. W. Bush
18		Richard H. Solomon	June 23, 1989	July 10, 1992	George H. W. Bush
19		William Clark, Jr.	July 10, 1992	April 23, 1993	George H. W. Bush
20		Winston Lord	April 23, 1993	February 18, 1997	Bill Clinton
21		Stanley O. Roth	August 5, 1997	January 20, 2001	Bill Clinton
22		James A. Kelly	May 1, 2001	January 31, 2005	George W. Bush
-		Evans J.R. Revere (acting)	February 1, 2005	April 8, 2005[7]	George W. Bush
23		Christopher R. Hill	April 8, 2005	April 21, 2009	George W. Bush and Barack Obama
24		Kurt M. Campbell	June 2, 2009	February 8, 2013	Barack Obama
25		Daniel R. Russel	July 12, 2013	March 8, 2017	Barack Obama and Donald Trump
-		Susan Thornton (acting)	March 9, 2017	July 7, 2018[8]	Donald Trump
-		W. Patrick Murphy (acting)	July 2018	June 2019	Donald Trump
26		David R. Stilwell	June 20, 2019	January 20, 2021	Donald Trump
-		Sung Kim (acting)	January 20, 2021	June 4, 2021[9]	Joe Biden
-		Kin W. Moy (acting)	June 15, 2021	September 24, 2021	Joe Biden
27		Daniel Kritenbrink	September 24, 2021[10]	January 20, 2025	Joe Biden

References

1. "Assistant Secretaries of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs". Retrieved September 21, 2007.
2. Butterworth was initially appointed as "Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs." On March 20, 1950, his title was changed to "Assistant Secretary of State for Japanese Affairs."
3. Initially commissioned during a recess of the Senate. He was later confirmed and re-commissioned on March 5, 1962.
4. Godley was never commissioned and President Nixon withdrew his nomination before the Senate acted upon it.
5. "John Herbert Holdridge - People - Department History - Office of the Historian".
6. Nomination withdrawn.
7. "BIOGRAPHY: Revere, Evans J.R. Acting Assistant Secretary, Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs". U. S. Department of State. February 28, 2005. Archived from the original on August 27, 2005. Retrieved August 27, 2005.
8. Griffiths, Brent D. (June 30, 2018). "Career diplomat Thornton to leave State Department". POLITICO.
9. Sung Kim, Acting Assistant Secretary, Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, U.S. Department of State, archived from the original on June 18, 2021
10. "Daniel J. Kritenbrink". United States Department of State. Retrieved September 28, 2021.