- Tom Schieffer
Infobox US Ambassador
name=John Thomas Schieffer
image_width=
order=
ambassador_from=United States
country= Japan
term_start=2005
term_end=
predecessor=Howard Baker
successor=
president=George W. Bush
order3=
country3= Australia
term_start3=2001
term_end3=2005
president3=George W. Bush
predecessor3=Edward Gnehm
successor3=Robert McCallum, Jr.
birth_date= birth date and age|1947|10|04
birth_place=Fort Worth, Texas
death_date=
death_place=
party=
spouse=
profession=
religion=
footnotes=John Thomas "Tom" Schieffer (born
October 4 ,1947 ) is the currentUnited States Ambassador to Japan , and served as U.S. Ambassador to Australia from 2001 to 2005. Schieffer is a friend and former business partner of PresidentGeorge W. Bush . His only brother isCBS News reporter and host ofFace the Nation Bob Schieffer .Early life and Education
Schieffer was born to John E. Schieffer and Gladys Payne Schieffer on October 4, 1947 in
Fort Worth, Texas . His father was the managing partner of a construction company. His mother stayed home to rear the children.He grew up in Fort Worth attending public schools, and graduated from
Arlington Heights High School in 1966. Schieffer attended theUniversity of Texas at Austin where he majored in government and minored in history, receiving a B.A. degree in 1970 and a masters degree in international relations in 1972. While still in college he worked in the offices of State SenatorDon Kennard and GovernorJohn Connally .Early career
In 1972, at age 25, he was elected as a Democrat to the
Texas House of Representatives , where he served three terms before being defeated in 1978.Schieffer was admitted to the bar in 1979 and became a corporate lawyer in Fort Worth, specializing in the oil and gas industry. At this time he belonged to the conservative wing of the Texas Democratic Party associated with Connally and Senator
Lloyd Bentsen . He was the Fort Worth area co-ordinator for Democratic GovernorMark White 's election campaigns.Involvement in Dallas - Ft. Worth Area
Schieffer’s civic and charitable interests have focused on politics, education and youth activities. He was the Tarrant County Coordinator for Governor Mark White, the Finance Chairman for Congressman
Pete Geren and active for many years in the campaigns of Senator Lloyd Bentsen. In 1987, he was appointed to the Board of Trustees of the Tarrant County Junior College, a publicly elected Board and was elected without opposition in 1988. Over the years, Schieffer has served on numerous charitable and civic Boards and has received numerous civic and humanitarian awards.In 1989, Schieffer became a partner of
George W. Bush andEdward W. Rose in Ballpark Development, the company that bought the Texas Rangers baseball club. He invested US$1.4 million in the venture, and was responsible for the operations of the company as well as the building of The Ballpark inArlington, Texas . By the time Bush was elected RepublicanGovernor of Texas in 1994, Schieffer was identified as a political supporter.The partnership sold the team in June 1998, with all the partners realizing very large profits, but Schieffer stayed on until April 1999, when he resigned to become a consultant. He then formed the J. Thomas Schieffer Management Company, which he headed until he was nominated as U.S. Ambassador to Australia by the incoming Bush Administration in 2001. He also served on the boards of the Penrose Foundation, the Dallas County Community College Foundation, the Dallas 2012 Olympic Committee, the Tarrant County College Foundation and the Winston School. He was also a member of the executive committee of the Dallas Chamber of Commerce where he co-chaired the Legislative Affairs Committee.
Ambassador in Canberra
Schieffer presented his credentials in
Canberra onAugust 23 ,2001 as the 22nd representative of the US president, 63 years after the first,Clarence E. Gauss , a professional diplomat fromConnecticut , presented his credentials to Australia's governor-general of the time,Lord Gowrie , onJanuary 12, 1940 . The two previous Ambassadors had been career officers with long-term diplomatic expertise, both former Directors-General of the U.S. Foreign Service, although it has been noted that Australian governments sometimes value a U.S. Ambassador's personal links to the President of the day.Within weeks of Schieffer's arrival in Canberra the
September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States made him a prominent figure in Australia. On the day of the attacks he was inWashington, D.C. , accompanying visiting Australian Prime MinisterJohn Howard . In Australia he made frequent media appearances and spoke at memorial services and other meetings condemning the attacks. In the immediate aftermath of the attacks he commanded bipartisan respect among Australian politicians.During 2002 and 2003, however, Schieffer came under increasing criticism for his closeness to the conservative Howard government, which was a prominent ally of the Bush administration before and during the U.S.-led
2003 invasion of Iraq .Schieffer's relations with the opposition
Australian Labor Party deteriorated after the November 2001 election, whenSimon Crean replaced the pro-AmericanKim Beazley as leader. The Ambassador's relations were even more strained withMark Latham , who replaced Crean as Labor leader in December 2003. Latham had previously described Bush as incompetent and dangerous, and his pledge in March 2004 to withdraw Australian troops from Iraq, should his party come to power, ensured that his relations with Schieffer remained cool. Schieffer responded that such a policy would encourage terrorist attacks such as the Madrid bombings, further straining his relations with the opposition. In Latham's 2005 book "The Latham Diaries ", Latham mentions that some in the ALP assigned Shieffer the derogatory nickname of "Sheiffer brains". Schieffer directed Embassy staff to publicize the circumstantial evidence surrounding suspected weapons of mass destruction in Iraq on the Embassy's Internet site leading up to the March 2003 invasion of Iraq. He was viewed by Embassy staff and by the Australian public following U.S. policy as a stalwart supporter of the invasion of Iraq.After Bush's victory in the November 2004 presidential election, Schieffer announced that he would not serve another term in Canberra. He returned to the United States at the end of 2004, although he did not formally resign as Ambassador until
April 1 ,2005 .Ambassador in Tokyo
The White House announced in January 2005 President Bush's intention to nominate Schieffer as US ambassador to
Japan . He was confirmed by the Senate, and began serving as Ambassador inTokyo onApril 1 . With the favorable relations between US and Japan, he coped with theBSE beef import problem, reorganization of US military bases in Japan, and other issues.On March 16, 2006 he visited Niigata City with the families of victims of
North Korean abductions of Japanese .Family
Schieffer is married and has one son, Paul Robert (a 2007 graduate of St. John's College, Annapolis).
ources
* [http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/biog/44295.htm Department of State]
* [http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=John_Thomas_Schieffer Source Watch]
* [http://www.opensecrets.org/bush/ambassadors/schieffer.asp Embassy Row]
* [http://www.americanambassadors.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Members.view&memberid=197 Council of American Ambassadors]
* [http://www.australianpolitics.com/words/daily/archives/00000194.shtml Australian Politics.com]
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