1. John Negroponte was born in London on July 21,1939, to Greek parents Dimitrios Negrepontis of the John Negroponte family and Catherine Coumantaros.
26 Facts About John Negroponte
1. 2.
John Negroponte's father was a shipping magnate and alpine skier who competed in the 1936 Winter Olympics.
3.
John Negroponte attended the Allen-Stevenson School and The Buckley School and graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy in 1956 and Yale University in 1960.
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John Negroponte served at eight different Foreign Service posts in Asia, Europe and Latin America, and he held important positions at the State Department and the White House.
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Ironically, this was to be the beginning of John Negroponte's long distinguished career as an ambassador.
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From 1985 to 1987, John Negroponte held the position of Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs.
7.
From 1981 to 1985, John Negroponte was the US ambassador to Honduras.
8.
Substantial evidence subsequently emerged to support the contention that John Negroponte knew serious violations of human rights were being committed by the Honduran government, but despite this he did not recommend ending US military aid to Honduras.
9.
The cables reveal that John Negroponte repeatedly urged reform of the Honduran criminal code and justice system to replace arbitrary measures taken by the Honduran government after events such as the destruction of the nation's main power plant at Tegucigalpa and the abduction of the entire business establishment of San Pedro Sula, Honduras' second largest city, in 1982.
10.
The documents, cables that John Negroponte sent to Washington while serving as ambassador to Honduras, indicated that he played a more active role than previously known in managing US efforts against the leftist Sandinista government next door in Nicaragua.
11.
The cables show that Mr Negroponte worked closely with William J Casey, then director of central intelligence, on the Reagan administration's anti-Communist offensive in Central America.
12.
John Negroponte helped word a secret 1983 presidential "finding" authorizing support for the Contras, as the Nicaraguan rebels were known, and met regularly with Honduran military officials to win and retain their backing for the covert action.
13.
John Negroponte was opposed to early drafts of peace settlements on the ground that they would have left undisturbed what he described as an enormous threat presented by expansion of the Nicaraguan armed forces with Soviet and Cuban aid.
14.
John Negroponte officiated at the block-long, fortified embassy where he liberalized visa practices.
15.
President George W Bush appointed Negroponte to be US ambassador to the United Nations in February 2001, and after substantial opposition from Senate Democrats the nomination was ratified by the Senate on September 15,2001, four days after the September 11,2001 attacks on the United States.
16.
John Negroponte had warned the Bush administration about the adverse consequences of intervening in Iraq.
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John Negroponte was confirmed by the United States Senate on May 6,2004, by a vote of 95 to 3, and was sworn in on June 23,2004, replacing L Paul Bremer as the US's highest ranking American civilian in Iraq.
18.
John Negroponte advised the Bush administration that security had to precede reconstruction in Iraq, organized a peaceful election, and gave advice, equally unwelcome to Secretary Rumsfeld and Democrats in Congress, that a five-year commitment would be required.
19.
Ambassador John Negroponte has served bravely and with distinction in Iraq and at the United Nations during a time of turmoil and uncertainty.
20.
John Negroponte brings a record of proven leadership and strong management.
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Furthermore, the President's Daily Brief, the highly classified report given to the President each morning by John Negroponte, once prepared solely by the Central Intelligence Agency, is compiled from intelligence agencies across the government.
22.
The rumors became official on January 5,2007, when John Negroponte announced his resignation as DNI and move to the State Department to serve as Deputy Secretary of State.
23.
John Negroponte served in that position until the end of the Bush administration on January 20,2009.
24.
Ambassador John Negroponte joined McLarty Associates, an international strategic advisory firm headquartered in Washington, DC, in 2009.
25.
John Negroponte is the elder brother of Nicholas Negroponte, founder of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab and of the One Laptop per Child project.
26.
John Negroponte's brother Michel is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker, and his other brother, George Negroponte, is an artist and was president of the Drawing Center of New York City from 2002 to 2007.