Thomas Reeve Pickering (born November 5, 1931) is a former American diplomat. Among his many appointments, he served asU.S. ambassador to the United Nations from 1989 to 1992.
Born inOrange, New Jersey, Pickering is the son of Hamilton Reeve Pickering and Sarah Chasteney Pickering. Raised inRutherford, New Jersey, he graduated fromRutherford High School.[1][2]
He enrolled atBowdoin College inBrunswick, Maine in 1949 with plans to join the ministry[3] and graduated cum laude in 1953 with high honors in history and is a member ofTheta Delta Chi andPhi Beta Kappa. He then earned a master's degree from theFletcher School of Law and Diplomacy atTufts University inMedford, Massachusetts. Upon graduation from Tufts, he was awarded aFulbright Fellowship and attended theUniversity of Melbourne inAustralia where he received a second master's degree in 1956. In addition to the honorary doctorate-in-laws degree that Bowdoin awarded him in 1984, Pickering has been the recipient of 12 honorary degrees.[4]
Before joining theState Department, Pickering served on active duty in theUnited States Navy from 1956 to 1959,[5] and later served in the Naval Reserve where he reached the rank ofLieutenant Commander.[6]
Pickering's four-decade-long career inForeign Service included ambassadorships inRussia (1993–1996);India (1992–1993); to theUnited Nations (1989–1992);Israel (1985–1988);El Salvador (1983–1985);Nigeria (1981–1983); andJordan (1974–1978). Additionally, he served asUnder Secretary of State for Political Affairs from 1997 to 2000. He holds the rank ofCareer Ambassador, the highest in the U.S. Foreign Service.[7][8]
Early in his career, he was assigned to the U.S. embassy inTanzania and later was special assistant to secretaries of stateWilliam P. Rogers andHenry Kissinger. When Pickering served asUnited States Ambassador to Jordan in the mid-1970s,King Hussein declared him "the best American ambassador I've dealt with."[9] From 1978 to 1981, he served as Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs. He then spent time as theUnited States Ambassador to Nigeria.
PresidentRonald Reagan replaced the ambassador toEl Salvador,Deane R. Hinton, and put Pickering in his place.[10]
Pickering's time asUnited States Ambassador to El Salvador was particularly eventful. Only a year after having been appointed ambassador in 1984, Pickering was the subject of assassination threats from right-wing Salvadoran politicians.[9] The same year, Republican senatorJesse Helms ofNorth Carolina urged that Pickering be dismissed, arguing that he helped manipulate the country's elections.[11] In both cases, PresidentRonald Reagan offered Pickering his full support and he secured him a job asUnited States Ambassador to Israel after his appointment in El Salvador. It was later noted when Pickering was nominated as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations that he played a minor role in theIran–Contra affair while ambassador to El Salvador.[12]
As ambassador to Israel, Pickering led the United States' criticism of an Israeli policy that expelled Palestinians accused of instilling uprising.[13] Pickering stressed to Israeli prime ministerYitzhak Shamir that the United States considered the actions illegal and unhelpful for peace efforts.[14]
PresidentGeorge H. W. Bush's appointment of Pickering asUnited States Ambassador to the United Nations was approved almost unanimously in theUnited States Senate in 1989 with no dissensions and only one abstention.[15] Pickering played a critical role as Ambassador during theFirst Gulf War, when he helped lead theUnited Nations Security Council's response toIraq's invasion ofKuwait.[16]
Bush's decision to move Pickering from theUnited Nations to become theUnited States Ambassador to India was highly criticized given Pickering's successful tenure. TheNew York Times declared that Pickering was "arguably the best-ever U.S. representative to that body"[17] and that the move was made simply because he overshadowed Secretary of StateJames A. Baker during thePersian Gulf Crisis.[18]
Pickering's last ambassadorial appointment was made by PresidentBill Clinton who designated himUnited States Ambassador to Russia.
In December 1994, while serving as U.S. Ambassador to Russia, he wrote that "hostility to earlyNATO expansion is almost universally felt across the domestic political spectrum here."[19] Although the quote would erroneously be described as coming fromWilliam J. Burns,[20][21][22] who was serving as counselor for political affairs at the U.S. Embassy inMoscow at the time, Burns did not claim ownership of the cable, only saying, in hismemoir, that "we reported [it] just afterthe Budapest outburst."[23]
Following the resignation of Secretary of StateWarren Christopher in 1996, Pickering was reportedly a top contender for the post, but was ultimately passed over in favor of then-UN AmbassadorMadeleine Albright.[24]
From 1997 to 2001, Pickering served asUnder Secretary of State for Political Affairs, the number-three position at theState Department. When Albright appointed him to the post,Time magazine declared him the "five star general of the diplomatic corps".[25] In 1998, he was a special envoy to Nigeria and was meeting with imprisoned leaderM. K. O. Abiola on the day of his release. In a BBC interview made at the time, Pickering recounted how during the meeting Abiola became ill, and died soon after.[26]
Following his retirement from the Foreign Service in 2001, Pickering served as Senior Vice President for International Relations atBoeing until 2006. Currently[when?], he is serving as an independent board member at the world's biggest pipe company,OAO TMK, in Moscow. At present[when?], he is affiliated with theInternational Crisis Group and currently serves as its Co-Chair,[27] and oversees their international actions as co-chair. In addition, he is Chairman of the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, Chairman of the Board of Advisers of the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy,[28] Chairman of theAmerican Academy of Diplomacy, Chairman of theRostropovich-Vishnevskaya Foundation,[29] and a member of the Board of Advisors of theNational Bureau of Asian Research and theGlobal Panel Foundation based in Berlin, Prague and Sydney.[30]
Following his retirement, the U.S. Department of State Foreign Affairs Fellowship Program was renamed theThomas R. Pickering Foreign Affairs Fellowship Program to honor Pickering. Fellowships are funded by theU.S. Department of State and administered byThe Washington Center for Internships and Academic Seminars.[31] In May 2004, Bowdoin awarded Pickering the Bowdoin Prize, the highest award that the College bestows upon its graduates.[32]
Pickering serves on the board of directors forCRDF Global and theAmerican Iranian Council, an organization devoted to the normalization of relations between Iran and America.[33] He is currently a member of theConstitution Project's bipartisan Liberty and Security Committee.[34] He is also a member of theCouncil on Foreign Relations and theHenry L. Stimson Center board of directors as well as the advisory board ofEurasia Group, the political risk consultancy firm, andAmerica Abroad Media.[35] He serves on the Guiding Coalition of the nonpartisanProject on National Security Reform.Pickering also serves as an advisory board member for thePartnership for a Secure America.
Pickering also serves as Co-Chairman of the International Economic Alliance (IEA),[36] where he actively hosts and partakes in international forums attended by notable corporate leaders, ambassadors, and senior government officials from member nations of the Alliance.
Pickering is a member of theGlobal Leadership Foundation, an organization that works to support democratic leadership, prevent and resolve conflict through mediation, and promote good governance. He is also a board member of theNational Iranian American Council (NIAC).[37]
In 2012, along with formerChairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff AdmiralMichael Mullen, Pickering helped lead a State-Department-sponsored panel investigating theAttack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi.[38]
In 2014, Pickering gave the keynote speech at the Student Conference on U.S. Affairs atWest Point,New York, addressing the unique challenges that disaster preparedness poses to United States foreign policy planning.[39]
Pickering lives inFairfax County, Virginia. His wife, the former Alice Jean Stover, whom he married in 1955, died in 2011. The couple had two children, Timothy and Margaret.[40]
Pickering is fluent in French, Spanish, and Swahili, and has a working knowledge of Russian, Hebrew, and Arabic.[41]
In 2002, Pickering was presented the Lifetime Contributions to American Diplomacy Award by theAmerican Foreign Service Association.
In May 2015, Pickering received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree fromBrandeis University. He addressed the graduates as the commencement speaker.[42]
Career diplomat and ambassador Thomas H. Pickering and presidential speechwriter Peggy Noonan are among those honored as part of this tradition.
| Government offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Executive Secretary of the Department of State 1973–1974 | Succeeded by |
| Diplomatic posts | ||
| Preceded by | United States Ambassador to Jordan 1974–1978 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | United States Ambassador to Nigeria 1981–1983 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | United States Ambassador to El Salvador 1983–1985 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | United States Ambassador to Israel 1985–1988 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | United States Ambassador to the United Nations 1989–1992 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | United States Ambassador to India 1992–1993 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | United States Ambassador to Russia 1993–1996 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs 1978–1981 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs 1997–2000 | Succeeded by |
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| Russian Federation (1991–present) | |
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