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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release June 17, 1998

                          PRESIDENT CLINTON 
                       NAMES KENT M. WIEDEMANN 
           AS U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE KINGDOM OF CAMBODIA

The President today announced his intent to nominate Kent M. Wiedemann to be U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Cambodia.

Mr. Kent M. Wiedemann, of San Mateo, California, is a Career Member of the Senior Foreign Service, Class of Minister-Counselor. Prior to his Foreign Service career, Mr. Wiedemann served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Micronesia, and was a Manager for supervisory training at Hewlett Packard Company working in both California and Europe. With the Department of State since the 1970's, Mr. Weidemann was first assigned as Economic and Consular Officer at the U.S. Consulate in Poznan, Poland, and then as International Relations Officer in the Inter-American Affairs Bureau on foreign aid and human rights issues. Mr. Wiedemann served in Beijing following Chinese (Mandarin) language training. He was transferred to the U.S. Consulate General in Shanghai to direct political and economic reporting. He was awarded a one-year position as Senior Fellow and Diplomat-in-Residence in the International Affairs Program at the East-West Center in Honolulu, and was reassigned to the U.S. Embassy in Beijing as Counselor for Economic Affairs. Mr. Wiedemann was Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Singapore before returning to the Department of State to be Director of the Office of Chinese and Mongolian Affairs. He was honored with a one-year Senior Seminar in International and Domestic Affairs and was later Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv, Israel. His career also includes Senior Policy positions in Washington, successively serving as Senior Director for Asian Affairs and Special Assistant to the President at the National Security Council, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs (Asia), and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs. Most recently, he was Charge d'Affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Rangoon, Burma.

Mr. Wiedemann earned a B.A. in History at San Jose State University in l967, and an M.A. in International Relations at the University of Oregon in l973. He speaks Chinese, Polish, German, and Trukese (Micronesia).

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