Ambassador of the United States to Burma | |
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Seal of the United States Department of State
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Style | Ambassador |
Residence | Rangoon, Burma |
Nominator | The President of the United States |
Inaugural holder |
J. Klahr Huddle as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary |
Formation | October 17, 1947 |
Website | burma |
This is a list of Ambassadors of the United States to Burma. In 1989 the military government of Burma changed the name of the nation to Myanmar, but the United States government—and all other Western governments—do not accept the name and still refer to the country as Burma in official usage.
Burma became a province of India in 1886 under the British Raj. The country was occupied by Japan during World War II but after the war, again came under control of Britain. In 1946 Britain began negotiations with the Burmese to establish independence for the nation, and reached a final agreement on January 27, 1947. A transitional government was established and Burma became fully independent on January 4, 1948.
The United States recognized Burma and established the Embassy of the United States, Rangoon on September 19, 1947, with Earl L. Packer as Chargé d'Affaires ad interim.
After 1990 the United States appointed no ambassador to Burma in protest against the policies of the military regime. A chargé d'affaires became the head of mission until 2012.
On January 13, 2012, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced that "at the direction of President Obama, we will start the process of exchanging ambassadors with Burma. We will identify a candidate to serve as U.S. Ambassador to represent the United States Government and our broader efforts to strengthen and deepen our ties with both the people and the government." On June 29, 2012, the U.S. Senate confirmed Derek Mitchell as the new U.S. Ambassador to Burma.
U.S. diplomatic terms