Profile: Thomas R. Pickering

Thomas R. Pickering, the U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS, is a veteran of 31 years in the U.S. Foreign Service. He has served as U.S. ambassador to El Salvador, Jordan, Israel and Nigeria. Pickering was the target of at least three assassination plots while ambassador to El Salvador. Pickering was born Nov. 5, 1931, in Orange, N.J. He received a bachelor’s degree from Bowdoin College and master’s degrees from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and Melbourne University in Australia. He speaks French, Spanish, Arabic and Swahili.