Richard Boucher: “Telling America’s Story”

Ambassador Richard A. Boucher, the former spokesman for U.S. Secretaries of State Madeleine Albright, Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice discussed his career at the USC Center on Public Diplomacy in conjunction with the Pacific Council on International Policy.

Click here to listen to Mr. Boucher's lecture (1h 33m, 21MB .mp3)

(l-r): USC Master's in Public Diplomacy Chair Professor Nicholas Cull, Richard Boucher, USC Center on Public Diplomacy Director Joshua Fouts.

Ambassador Boucher, a 28-year veteran of the State Department, served as the U.S. Senior Official for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum and was twice Chief of Mission at U.S. diplomatic posts overseas. From October 1993 to June 1996 he served as Ambassador to Cyprus, and from 1996 to 1999 he headed the U.S. Consulate General in Hong Kong as the Consul General.

Since joining the Foreign Service in 1977, Boucher served in Taiwan, Guangzhou, the State Department's Economic Bureau, and on the China Desk. He returned to China from 1984 to 1986 as Deputy Principal Officer at the U.S. Consulate General in Shanghai, and then went back to Washington in July 1986, where he served in the State Department's Operations Center and as the Deputy Director of the Office of European Security and Political Affairs.

Boucher is a senior Foreign Service Officer with the rank of Career Minister and is also currently the longest-serving Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs in the Department of State’s history.

Fluent in Chinese and French, Ambassador Richard Boucher, 54, obtained his Bachelor's degree in 1973 at Tufts University in English and French literature and did graduate work in economics at the prestigious George Washington University.