Nomination of William Lacy Swing To Be United States Ambassador to South Africa

The President today announced his intention to nominate William Lacy Swing to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Republic of South Africa. He would succeed Edward Joseph Perkins.

Mr. Swing entered the Foreign Service in 1963, attending consular and African area studies at the Foreign Service Institute. He was vice consul in Port Elizabeth, 1964 - 1966. He then became an international economist in the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs in the Department, 1966 - 1967. From 1968 to 1972, he was posted as head of the visa section, then chief of the consular section in Hamburg, Germany. He returned to Washington, DC, in 1972 and served as a desk officer for the Federal Republic of Germany until 1974. From 1974 to 1976, he was deputy chief of mission in Bangui. He attended the Harvard University Center for International Affairs from 1976 to 1977, and in 1977 he was assigned as Alternate Director of the Office of Central African Affairs in the Department of State. From 1979 to 1981, Mr. Swing was Ambassador to the People's Republic of the Congo. He served as Ambassador to the Republic of Liberia, 1981 - 1985. From 1985 to 1987, he was the Director, Office of Foreign Service Career Development and Assignments in the Bureau of Personnel. Since 1987 Mr. Swing has been the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Personnel.

Mr. Swing graduated from Catawba College (B.A., 1956) and Yale University (M. Div., 1960). He was born September 11, 1934, in Lexington, NC. Mr. Swing has one child and resides in Washington, DC.