Who Are All the US Secretaries of State? (2024)

The secretary of state is the head of the Department of State in the executive branch of the federal government of the United States. This department deals with all foreign affairs and relations for the nation. The secretary of state is appointed by the President of the United States with the advice and consent of the US Senate. The secretary of state's main duty is to carry out American diplomacy and foreign policy.

Origins of the Office

On January 13, 1781, the Second Continental Congress originally created the office of Secretary of Foreign Affairs as the head of the Department of Foreign Affairs. On September 15, 1781, President George Washington signed a law renaming the Department and Secretary of Foreign Affairs to the Department and Secretary of State. British in origin, the role of "secretary of state" was the senior adviser to the King of England.

The secretary of state is one of the highest offices in the United States government that can be held by someone who is not a natural-born U.S. citizen. To date, only two naturalized citizens have served as secretary of state. Henry Kissinger was born in Germany, while Madeleine Albright was born in Czechoslovakia. As a result of their foreign births, both were excluded from the line of presidential succession.

Presidential Succession

As the highest-ranking member of the president’s cabinet, the secretary of state is fourth in the line of presidential succession after the vice president, the speaker of the House of Representatives, and the president pro tempore of the Senate. Though none have assumed the office through succession, six former secretaries of state have gone on to be elected president. These were: Thomas Jefferson (in 1800); James Madison (in 1808); James Monroe (in 1816); John Quincy Adams (in 1824); Martin Van Buren (in 1836); and James Buchanan (in 1856). Other former secretaries of state, including Henry Clay, William Seward, James Blaine, William Jennings Bryan, John Kerry, and Hillary Clinton have run unsuccessfully for president, either before or after completing their terms of office as secretary of state.

The current secretary of state is Mike Pompeo of Kansas. Pompeo was nominated by President Donald Trump in March 2018, to replace Rex Tillerson of Texas, who had served as secretary of state since February 1, 2017. Mr. Pompeo was confirmed by the Senate on April 26, 2018, in a 57–42 vote.

Duties of the Secretary of State

Since the position was first created, the duties of the secretary of state have become more complex as the global geopolitical realm has changed. These duties include advising the president on foreign affairs and immigration policy, negotiating and terminating treaties with foreign countries, issuing passports, overseeing the Department of State and the Office of Foreign Services, and ensuring that the lives and property of American citizens living or traveling in foreign countries are protected to the greatest extent possible. The secretary of state also advises the president on the appointment and removal of U.S. ambassadors and diplomats, and when necessary, represents the United States in international conferences, organizations, and agencies.

Secretaries of state also have some domestic duties that have carried over from 1789. Ranging from rather esoteric to quite substantive, these include custody and protection of the Great Seal of the United States and the preparation of certain presidential proclamations. The secretary of state is also entrusted with preserving the journals and papers of the 1774 Continental Congress including the original copies of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.

More importantly, the secretary of state represents the welfare of the American people in the process of extraditing fugitives to or from the United States.

Another rarely used but momentous duty of the secretary of state involves the resignation of sitting presidents or vice presidents. Under federal law, the resignation of a president or of a vice president only becomes effective after it has been declared in a written statement hand-delivered to the office of the secretary of state. In this capacity, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger received and formalized the resignations of Vice President Spiro Agnew in 1973 and of President Richard Nixon in 1974.

Due to their direct involvement in foreign affairs, the secretaries of state have historically been required to travel abroad extensively. The record for the most foreign countries visited in a secretary of state’s tenure belongs to Hillary Clinton, who visited 112 countries during her four years as President Barack Obama’s secretary of state. Second place in the travel category belongs to Secretary Madeleine Albright who visited 96 countries between 1997 and 2001. The record for most air miles traveled in a secretary's tenure belongs to Secretary John Kerry who flew 1,417,576 miles. Secretary Condoleezza Rice logged 1,059,247 miles, while Secretary Hillary Clinton’s 956,733 miles in the air ranks third.

Qualifications of the Secretary of State

While the Constitution specifies no qualifications for the position of secretary of state, founding father John Adams summed them up when he told the delegates of the Continental Congress, “What are the Qualifications of a Secretary of State? He ought to be a Man of universal Reading in Laws, Governments, History. Our whole terrestrial Universe ought to be summarily comprehended in his Mind.”

The following table lists U.S. secretary of state, the president by whom they were appointed, their home state, and the year in which they were appointed.

Secretary of State Chart