Nomination of David M. Abshire To Be United States Permanent Representative on the Council of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization

The President today announced his intention to nominate David M. Abshire to be the United States Permanent Representative on the Council of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, with the rank of Ambassador. He would succeed W. Tapley Bennett, Jr.

Dr. Abshire is president of the Georgetown University Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), which he helped found in 1962. He presently serves as a member of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board and of the Long Range Planning Advisory Board for the Chief of Naval Operations. Previously Dr. Abshire was Chairman of the U.S. Board for International Broadcasting in 1974-1977; Assistant Secretary of State for Congressional Relations in 1970-1973; executive director, Center for Strategic and International Studies, in 1962-1970; and director of special projects, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, in 1960-1962.

In 1978-1981 he was director and vice chairman of the Board of Youth for Understanding, the largest international teenage exchange program. Dr. Abshire is a former member of the Board of Advisors of the Naval War College (1975-1977) and was a member of the Congressional Committee on the Organization of the Government for the Conduct of Foreign Policy in 1974-1976.

Dr. Abshire is a member of the Trilateral Commission and of the Council on Foreign Relations. He serves on the board of the National Park Foundation. He is a director of the Tinker Foundation of New York and of the Atlantic Council of the United States. Dr. Abshire is founder and coeditor of The Washington Quarterly: A Journal of Strategic and International Studies. He is the author of a number of books, including "The South Rejects a Prophet"; "International Broadcasting: A New Dimension of Western Diplomacy"; and "Foreign Policy Makers: President vs. Congress."

He graduated from the United States Military Academy (B.S., 1951) and Georgetown University (Ph.D., 1959). He is married, has five children, and resides in Alexandria, Va. He was born April 11, 1926, in Chattanooga, Tenn.