Nomination of John Dale Blacken To Be United States Ambassador to Guinea-Bissau

The President today announced his intention to nominate John Dale Blacken, of Washington, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, Class of Minister-Counselor, to be Ambassador to the Republic of Guinea-Bissau. He will succeed Wesley William Egan, Jr.

Mr. Blacken was a salesman with Encyclopaedia Britannica in San Francisco from 1956 to 1958. In 1958 he became a management analyst in the Office of the Secretary of Agriculture. He served there until 1961 when he entered junior officer training at the Foreign Service Institute and was assigned as third secretary from 1961 to 1963 at the U.S. Embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. He returned to the Department in 1964 and became cultural affairs officer in the Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs until 1967. In 1967 he took Portuguese language training at the Foreign Service Language School in Rio de Janeiro and was later that year assigned as political officer at the U.S. consulate general in Sao Paulo, Brazil. From 1970 to 1971, Mr. Blacken was John Quincy Adams lecturer at the University of Massachusetts, a departmental training assignment. In 1971 he became the Panama desk officer until 1973 when he was assigned as political counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Panama. From 1976 to 1978, he served as deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Georgetown, Guyana. He then served from 1978 to 1980 as deputy political counselor at the United States Mission to the United Nations in New York City. He returned to the Department in 1980 as Director of the Office of Central American Affairs. From 1981 to 1984, Mr. Blacken was deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Santo Domingo. In 1984 he became Deputy Coordinator in the Office of Public Diplomacy for Latin America and the Caribbean, where he has continued to serve to the present time. Mr. Blacken's foreign languages are Portuguese, Spanish, and German.

Mr. Blacken graduated from Washington State University (B.A., 1955). He served in the United States Army from 1950 to 1952. He was born August 26, 1930, in Everett, WA.