Tom Schieffer - Ambassador of The United States To Australia

Ambassador of The United States To Australia

In April 2001, President Bush asked Tom Schieffer to become the Ambassador of the United States to Australia. He accepted and presented his credentials in Canberra on August 23, 2001 as the 22nd representative of the U.S. president, 63 years after the first, Clarence E. Gauss, a professional diplomat from Connecticut, presented his credentials to Australia's governor-general of the time, Lord Gowrie, on January 12, 1940. The two previous Ambassadors had been career officers with long-term diplomatic expertise, both former Directors-General of the U.S. Foreign Service, although it has been noted that Australian governments sometimes value a U.S. Ambassador's personal links to the President currently in office.

Returning to America to attend the first summit between Prime Minister John Howard and President Bush on September 10, 2001, Schieffer was in Washington on September 11, 2001 when the awful events of the day unfolded. Returning to Australia on September 12 with the Prime Minister on board Air Force Two, Schieffer and the White House worked with the Prime Minister and the Australian government to invoke the ANZUS treaty for the first time in its 50 year history so that Australia could come to the aid of the United States as a result of the terrorists' attack. Subsequently, Schieffer attended five more summits with the President and Australian Prime Minister in the next three and a half years as Australia raised its hand to help America in Afghanistan and Iraq.

During his tenure in Canberra, he coordinated closely with the Government of Australia on efforts to fight global terrorism and helped to deepen cooperation on rebuilding efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq.

During Schieffer's tenure in Australia, the United States also negotiated a Free-Trade Agreement with Australia and significantly deepened the intelligence ties between the two countries. In his report to the State Department, the Inspector General said that Tom Schieffer had exhibited extraordinary leadership and organizational skills in leading the American Embassy in Canberra. The Inspector General said he had examined 83 embassies around the world and had found none that would compare. Later the State Department recognized the business plan for the Embassy organized by Schieffer as one of the three best in the world. After Bush's victory in the November 2004 presidential election, Schieffer announced that he would not serve another term in Canberra. He returned to the United States at the end of 2004, although he did not formally resign as Ambassador until April 1, 2005.

Based upon his work in Australia, then-Secretary of State Colin Powell and Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage recommended to President Bush that Ambassador Schieffer be moved to Japan to replace the retiring former Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker as Ambassador.