THE WHITE HOUSE

                     Office of the Press Secretary
                   (Xian, People's Republic of China)
________________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release                                      June 25, 1998

                           PRESIDENT CLINTON 
            NAMES RICHARD E. HECKLINGER AS U.S. AMBASSADOR 
                       TO THE KINGDOM OF THAILAND

The President today announced his intent to nominate Richard E. Hecklinger to be U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Thailand.

Mr. Richard E. Hecklinger, of Alexandria, Virginia, a Career Member of the Senior Foreign Service, joined the U.S. Foreign Service in 1967. After assignments in the Office of Soviet Union Affairs and as Vice Consul in Stuttgart, Germany, he returned to the Department of State to serve on the Executive Secretariat staff and then as a Deputy Office Director in the Bureau of Public Affairs. He then began a series of assignments dealing with international economic policy issues, including Director of an energy office in the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs, acting Deputy Assistant Secretary at the Department of Energy, Economic Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in The Hague, Executive Assistant to the Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs, Deputy Chief of Mission in the U.S. Mission to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Economic and Business Affairs. He also served as Special Advisor to the Under Secretary for Political Affairs, Deputy Assistant Secretary for European and Canadian Affairs, and Senior Inspector in the Office of the Inspector General. Presently, he is a Senior Advisor to the Under Secretary for Economic, Business and Agricultural Affairs.

Mr. Hecklinger received a B.A. from St. Lawrence University in 1965, an M.A. from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in 1967, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1974.

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