Ambassadorship
Cain was nominated by President Bush as U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Denmark on June 30, 2005. He was a major fundraiser for the 2004 Bush-Cheney campaign. Following confirmation by the U.S. Senate on July 29, Ambassador Cain took the oath of office in the Old House Chamber of the State Capitol in Raleigh, North Carolina on August 10, 2005. He and his family arrived in Denmark on August 14, 2005 and departed Denmark on January 23, 2009.
During his three and a half years in Denmark, Ambassador Cain worked to ensure that Denmark remained committed to active engagement on the global stage. As Ambassador, Cain oversaw the 13 agencies of the American government that comprised the 150-person US Embassy in Copenhagen. His efforts focused on areas of national security, counter-terrorism, alternative energy and energy security, commerce and investment, and promotion of shared values.
Cain was a strong believer in public diplomacy, getting out of the Embassy and “Selling America”. His efforts included a 37-day, 1,500 mile “Rediscovery Tour” of Denmark by bicycle, and the publication in December 2008 of a book The American: On Diplomacy, Democracy and Denmark. Ambassador Cain focused on three primary topics in his public messages: the values of entrepreneurship and innovation among young people, cultural diversity, and private philanthropy. On January 16, 2009, for his contributions to American and Danish relations, Ambassador Cain was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of the Dannebrog by Her Majesty Queen Margrethe II - the highest honor bestowed upon a foreigner who is not a Head of State.
In December, 2010, Cain called for the death penalty for Bradley Manning, the U.S. soldier alleged to have supplied Wikileaks with diplomatic cables and Iraq war logs. Mr. Cain was quoted in one of the released diplomatic cables as having sought to prevent the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten from reprinting a series of controversial Muhammad cartoons in 2006.
Cain and his wife have two children.
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