United States Ambassador to Egypt Nomination of Alfred L. Atherton, Jr.

The President today announced that he will nominate Alfred L. Atherton, Jr., of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States to the Arab Republic of Egypt. He would succeed Hermann F. Eilts, who is retiring from the Foreign Service.

Atherton is currently Ambassador at Large at the State Department.

He was born November 22, 1921, in Pittsburgh, Pa. He received a B.S. in 1944 and an M.A. in 1947 from Harvard University. He served in the U.S. Army from 1943 to 1945.

Atherton joined the Foreign Service in 1947, and served in Stuttgart, Bonn, Damascus, and Aleppo. From 1959 to 1961, he was Iraq-Jordan desk officer, then Officer in Charge for Cyprus, in the Bureau of Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs at the State Department.

In 1961-62 Atherton took advanced economic studies at the University of California at Berkeley. From 1962 to 1965, he was economic officer in Calcutta, and from 1965 to 1966, he was Deputy Director of the Office of Near Eastern Affairs at the State Department.

In 1966 and 1967, Atherton was Country Director for Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. From 1967 to 1970, he was Country Director for Israel and Arab-Israel Affairs.

From 1970 to 1974, Atherton was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs. From 1974 to 1978, he was Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs. Since 1978 he has been Ambassador at Large.