Nomination of Burton Levin To Be United States Ambassador to Burma

The President today announced his intention to nominate Burton Levin, of Maryland, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, Class of Minister-Counselor, to be Ambassador of the United States of America to the Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma. He would succeed Daniel Anthony O'Donohue.

Mr. Levin entered the Foreign Service in 1954 and first served as a consular and economic officer at the U.S. Embassy in Taipei, Taiwan, 1954-1956. He returned to Washington in 1956 and served as a researcher in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research. From 1958 to 1959, he studied Chinese at the Foreign Service Institute School in Taichung, Taiwan. From there, in 1960, he became political officer at the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, and political officer in the East Asian Bureau of the State Department, 1963-1964. Mr. Levin took Chinese area training at Harvard University, 1964-1965, and was then assigned as political officer at the American consulate general in Hong Kong, 1965-1969. From there he went to the U.S. Embassy in Taipei as political officer, 1969-1973, when he became a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institute at Stanford University. From July to September 1974, he worked as a congressional liaison in the East Asian Bureau, before becoming Director of the Republic of China desk, 1974-1977. In 1977 Mr. Levin was assigned to Hong Kong as deputy principal officer, where he served until 1978, when he became deputy chief of mission at the U.S Embassy in Bangkok, Thailand. Since 1981 he has been consul general in Hong Kong.

He graduated from Brooklyn College (B.A., 1952) and Columbia University (M.I.A., 1954). Mr. Levin is fluent in Chinese (Mandarin). He is married and has two children. Mr. Levin was born September 28, 1930, in New York City.