Dan Kritenbrink
Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs
Assumed office
September 24, 2021
PresidentJoe Biden
Preceded byKin W. Moy (acting)
United States Ambassador to Vietnam
In office
November 6, 2017 – April 15, 2021
PresidentDonald Trump
Joe Biden
Preceded byTed Osius
Succeeded byMarc Knapper
Personal details
EducationUniversity of Nebraska, Kearney (BA)
University of Virginia (MA)

Daniel Joseph Kritenbrink[1] is an American diplomat who has served as the assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs since September 2021.[2] He previously served as the United States ambassador to Vietnam from 2017 to 2021.[3]

Education

Kritenbrink attended Ashland-Greenwood High School, Nebraska, before he earned a bachelor of arts degree in political science from the University of Nebraska at Kearney and a master of arts from the University of Virginia.[4]

Career

Kritenbrink has been a member of the United States Foreign Service since 1994 and has held senior leadership positions at the Department of State and United States National Security Council.[5]

He completed multiple overseas tours in Beijing, Tokyo, Sapporo, and Kuwait City. His Washington assignments have included staff assistant to the assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs and director of the Office of Chinese and Mongolian Affairs at the Department of State. He then served as deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing from 2013 to 2015, and senior director for Asian affairs at the National Security Council from 2015 to 2017.[2]

United States ambassador to Vietnam

Daniel Kritenbrink speaks to journalists at the American Center in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam on 22 June 2020.

A career member of the Senior Foreign Service, Kritenbrink was nominated by President Donald Trump to become the U.S. ambassador to Vietnam on July 27, 2017.[6] Prior to his nomination, he served as senior advisor for North Korea policy at the United States Department of State.[7] He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on October 26, 2017, and presented his credentials to Vietnamese President Trần Đại Quang on November 6, 2017.[3]

Kritenbrink told Vietnamese media shortly after taking office that representing the U.S. in an "important country" like Vietnam was "a dream come true".[8] His ambassadorship is marked by warming relations between the United States and Vietnam, with him being regarded by Vietnamese state media as "the ambassador of the firsts" for his work to advance reconciliation between the former foes.[9]

During his tenure, two U.S. aircraft carriers visited Vietnam. The USS Carl Vinson made a port call off Đà Nẵng on 5 March 2018, becoming the first U.S. aircraft carrier to dock in the country since the Vietnam War ended in 1975.[10][11] Two years later, the USS Theodore Roosevelt and its escorts completed a five-day visit to Đà Nẵng on 9 March 2020.[12]

On 27 August 2019, Kritenbrink became the first U.S. ambassador to visit a cemetery of North Vietnamese soldiers killed in the war when he visited the Trường Sơn Cemetery in Đông Hà, Quảng Trị where more than 10,000 fallen PAVN soldiers are laid to rest.[13]

On June 22, 2020, on the campus of Fulbright University Vietnam, Kritenbrink presented a two year $5 million USAID grant to support them with their international accreditation within the following five years.[14]

In February 2021, Kritenbrink made global headlines for an original rap and music video he recorded ahead of Tết celebrations in Vietnam.[15][16]

Assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs

On March 26, 2021, President Joe Biden nominated Kritenbrink to be assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs.[17] The Senate's Senate Foreign Relations Committee held hearings on his nomination on June 15, 2021. The committee reported his nomination favorably to the Senate floor on June 24, 2021.[18] Kritenbrink was confirmed by the Senate on September 23, 2021, by a vote of 72–14.[19]

Personal life

Kritenbrink speaks Chinese and Japanese.[7] He and his wife Nami are the parents of two children.[20]

References

  1. ↑ "PN1085 — Foreign Service". Congress.gov. February 11, 2016. Archived from the original on July 3, 2018. Retrieved 3 July 2018.
  2. 1 2 "Daniel J. Kritenbrink". United States Department of State. Retrieved 2021-09-28.
  3. 1 2 "Ambassador Dan Kritenbrink". U.S. Department of State. Archived from the original on March 3, 2020. Retrieved November 9, 2017.
  4. ↑ "U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam: Who Is Dan Kritenbrink?". AllGov. Retrieved 2021-11-11.
  5. ↑ "The Leaderboard: Daniel J. Kritenbrink". Center for Strategic & International Studies. June 8, 2015. Archived from the original on April 27, 2019. Retrieved 14 August 2017.
  6. ↑ "PN832 — Daniel J. Kritenbrink — Department of State". Congress.gov. Archived from the original on February 13, 2019. Retrieved 14 August 2017.
  7. 1 2 "President Donald J. Trump Announces Intent to Nominate Personnel to Key Administration Posts". The White House. July 26, 2017. Archived from the original on December 10, 2017. Retrieved 14 August 2017.Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  8. ↑ "Exclusive interview: US ambassador on cooperation, trade, aircraft carrier visit to Vietnam". Tuoi Tre News. 2017-11-20. Retrieved 2021-07-30.
  9. ↑ "Vietnam, US share aligned interests, vision: Ambassador Kritenbrink". Tuoi Tre News. 2021-01-21. Retrieved 2021-07-30.
  10. ↑ "A U.S. Aircraft Carrier Anchors Off Vietnam For The First Time Since The War". NPR. 2018-03-05. Retrieved 2021-07-30.
  11. ↑ "Aircraft Carrier USS Carl Vinson Makes Vietnam Port Call". U.S. Department of Defense. 2018-03-05. Retrieved 2021-07-30.
  12. ↑ "U.S. says completes second aircraft carrier visit to Vietnam". Reuters. 2020-03-11. Retrieved 2021-07-30.
  13. ↑ "US ambassador pays historic visit to cemetery of Vietnam soldiers killed in war". Tuoi Tre News. 2019-08-27. Retrieved 2021-07-30.
  14. ↑ "Ambassador Daniel J. Kritenbrink Launches New USAID Grant to Fulbright University Vietnam (FUV) | Program Update | Vietnam | U.S. Agency for International Development". www.usaid.gov. 2020-06-29. Retrieved 2021-11-22.
  15. ↑ "'Boy from Hanoi': US ambassador to Vietnam releases his own lunar new year rap". The Guardian. 2021-02-09. Retrieved 2021-02-11.
  16. ↑ US Ambassador to Vietnam releases a rap video - CNN Video, 10 February 2021, retrieved 2021-02-11
  17. ↑ "President Biden Announces his Intent to Nominate Key Members for the Department of State". The White House. March 26, 2021.
  18. ↑ "PN494 - Nomination of Daniel J. Kritenbrink for Department of State, 117th Congress (2021-2022)". www.congress.gov. 2021-09-23. Retrieved 2021-09-28.
  19. ↑ "On the Nomination (Confirmation: Daniel J. Kritenbrink, of Virginia, to be an Assistant Secretary of State (East Asian and Pacific Affairs))". US Senate. Retrieved 13 March 2022.
  20. ↑ "Confirmation Hearing Statement of Daniel J. Kritenbrink, Nominee to be U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam". U.S. Embassy & Consulate in Vietnam. 2017-09-28. Archived from the original on 2023-05-05. Retrieved 2021-11-26.
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