United States Ambassador to Guinea-Bissau

Ambassador of the United States to Guinea-Bissau
Seal of the United States Department of State
Incumbent James P. Zumwalt since March 10, 2015
Nominator	The President of the United States
Inaugural holder	Dean Curran as Chargé d'Affaires ad interim
Formation	June 30, 1976
Website	U.S. Embassy - Dakar

The United States Ambassador to Guinea-Bissau is the official representative of the President of the United States to the head of state of Guinea-Bissau. The U.S. Ambassador to Senegal is concurrently commissioned to Senegal and Guinea-Bissau.

Until 1974, Guinea-Bissau had been a colony of the Portuguese Empire as Portuguese Guinea. After a period of revolutionary warfare, Guinea-Bissau unilaterally declared its independence on September 24, 1973. Following the April 1974 Carnation Revolution in Portugal, it granted independence to Guinea-Bissau on September 10, 1974. The United States recognized the Republic of Guinea-Bissau on the same day. The U.S. Embassy Bissau was established on June 30, 1976, with Dean Curran as Chargé d'Affaires ad interim.

The first three ambassadors to Guinea-Bissau were concurrently commissioned to Cape Verde while resident in Bissau. From 1983 until 1998, U.S. ambassadors were solely commissioned to Guinea-Bissau. In 1998 the U.S. embassy in Bissau was closed, and there has been no U.S. embassy in Bissau since then. Since 2002, the U.S. ambassador to Senegal has also been commissioned as the ambassador to Guinea-Bissau, while resident in Dakar.

U.S. diplomatic terms

Note: Barbara C. Maslak served as Chargé d'Affaires ad interim, Jan 1985-Aug 1986.