Nomination of William Lacy Swing To Be United States Ambassador to Liberia

The President today announced his intention to nominate William Lacy Swing, of North Carolina, to be Ambassador to the Republic of Liberia, vice Robert P. Smith, resigned.

In 1961 Mr. Swing was a schoolteacher in Germany, and in 1961-63 he was associate director, Council on Religion in Independent Schools (New York). He entered the Foreign Service in 1963, attending consular and African area studies at the Foreign Service Institute. He was Vice Consul in Port Elizabeth in 1964-66. In 1966-67 he was international economist in the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs in the Department, and in 1968-72 he was head of visa section then chief of consular section in Hamburg. In the Department he was desk officer for the Federal Republic of Germany in 1972-74. He was Deputy Chief of Mission in Banqui in 1974-76. He attended the Harvard University Center for International Affairs in 1976-77. In the Department he was Alternate Director of the Office of Central African Affairs in 1977-79. Since 1979 he has been Ambassador to the People's Republic of the Congo.

Mr. Swing graduated from Catawba College and Yale University. In 1961 he attended postgraduate studies at Tuebingen University in Germany. Mr. Swing has one child and resides in Lexington, N.C. He was born September 11, 1934, in Lexington, N.C.