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Okay, can , Buchanan, Clayton, Marcy, Black, Fish, Evarts, Frelinghuhysen, Bayard, Olney, Bacon, and Knox (and Kellogg), really be said meaningfully to have served under Polk, Taylor, Fillmore, Buchanan, Lincoln, Hayes, Garfield, Cleveland, Harrison, McKinley, Taft, and Wilson (and Hoover)? They all served for a couple of days under the new president before the new secretary of state was confirmed. Should this really count? Doesn't it confuse more than it explicates? john k 11:57, 20 Jul 2004 (UTC)
Just want to note: according to the Department of State, Colin Powell's term of appointment ended on January 26, 2005. This means that Richard Armitage was not the Acting Secretary and I will therefore remove him momentarily.
— DLJessup 00:23, 29 Jan 2005 (UTC)
Anonymous user 69.132.143.252 made the following suggestion on the article's main page at 02:48, 16 November 2005 (UTC). I have moved it here, where it is more appropriate:
We need to add the list of Secretaries of State who have run and/or won the United States' Presidency: Please ADD/EDIT the following information in editing... Former Secretary of State/Candidate (Years Sec of State) (PARTY) Election Year (PARTY NOMINATION: YES/NO?) Elected President: Yes/No?
Example below:
| Thomas Jefferson | March 22, 1790 – December 31, 1793 | Democrat-Republican, | Election of 1820, | Party Nomination: YES, | Elected President: YES
— DLJessup ( talk) 00:02, 17 November 2005 (UTC)
Can someone explain James Monroe's two terms as Secretary of State? Weren't they just one term? Or did he resign, was reappointed, or something like that?— Mark Adler (markles) 03:12, 28 February 2006 (UTC)
If secretary of state was formed in July 27, 1789, shouldn't John Jay act as secretary from this date? -- 164.127.214.244 ( talk) 09:09, 29 June 2015 (UTC)
John Jay was elected secretary of Foreign Affairs in 1785 by the Continental Congress, and served until Thomas Jefferson came back from France in 1790. During this time, he was technically Secretary of State from the moment the name was changed until Jefferson took the oath of office (assuming that he had to). Shouldn't he be there as either number one or number zero? Ericl 19:34, 15 January 2007 (UTC)
Regarding Thomas Jefferson: he should not be shown as Secretary from 1789: he did not arrive in the capital and take the oath of office until late March 1790. That should be his first date, not 1789. Walter Stahr f did 0==Infobox== Pardon I don't want to participate in an edit war, but I will be reverting an edit to restore the infobox without a photo of the current Secretary. On the Wikipedia list of the positions in the United States Cabinet only the departments of State and Education (incidentally both currently with Secretaries who are females), and the Attorney General had photos of the Secretary, which I tried to fix (sorry did not get to the Attorney General yet but you get the idea). You're welcome to revert my edit again but I guess I would like to know your rationale? Ideally an infobox for all of these would elminate the table which is pretty hard for me to edit. But until one exists or is located I guess replacing an even handed table with an oddball table in which a photo dominates, but only for two Cabinet members, looks peculiar. Other thoughts, corrections and ideas most welcome. - Susanlesch 04:09, 11 November 2007 (UTC)
A few months ago, there was a dispute on United States Speaker of the House of Representatives over the inclusion of a photo of the incumbent or of the seal in the lead. An agreement came in the form of this infobox which contained an image of both the seal and the incumbent. The infobox you want to include is already found at United States Department of State and is redundant and improper to be placed here since this article is about an office and not a department. The infobox has stood for months on this article, Speaker of the House, President pro tempore of the Senate, President of the United States, and Vice President of the United States. No challenges nor arguments have been made against this infobox in favor of the one you want to include since it is expressively only about the department. For example, the inclusion of the name of the Undersecretary is not really necessary for this article about the Secretary.-- Southern Texas 04:41, 11 November 2007 (UTC)
Most of them are very short articles which don't have much of a lead and nobody has really shown any interest in them. However United States Secretary of Energy is a featured list because a certain editor did show an interest in that particular article.-- Southern Texas 05:13, 11 November 2007 (UTC)
I suppose, since the article is about an office.-- Southern Texas 18:40, 11 November 2007 (UTC)
I merged the list of acting secretaries into the list of secretaries. It makes no sense to have a separate list of acting secretaries as this was no separate office with a lineage but filled by those holding other positions (though right now it not always clear which one) and occuring after gaps of sometimes many years. In particular, it is absurd to count e.g. Frank Pol as the 24th acting secretary. The only separate lists that make sense are those listing the various offices e.g. "Assistant Secretary of State". These already exist. I added a footnote stating what regular office the acting secretary held, if that information was avaiable on WP. Str1977 (talk) 08:48, 24 May 2008 (UTC)
The link to the page on James A Hamilton, acting Secretary of State under Jackson, is incorrect. It leads you to this page on a James Hamilton born in 1876, which is physically impossible because Jackson was president in the 1830s. The link should lead you to the son of Alexander Hamilton, who was born in the late 1700s (I was looking for this because I found it ironic that James Hamilton opposed the National Bank charter that his father created). Is there even a link to him, because if there isn't the link should be deleted. Could someone look into this? --- Writergeek7 —Preceding unsigned comment added by Writergeek7 ( talk • contribs) 01:17, 3 June 2008 (UTC)
Could we move that section to List of Secretaries of State of the United States (in keeping with List of Presidents of the United States and List of Vice Presidents of the United States)? It would just make things easier for readers, I would say, if every list of people who have occupied an important US governmental post were to have its own page, named in a consistent fashion. It Is Me Here ( talk) 13:48, 5 September 2008 (UTC)
Are they Democratic / Federalist, or something else? That table needs a key, I think. It Is Me Here ( talk) 14:10, 5 September 2008 (UTC)
Until Hillary Clinton is formally announced by President-elect Obama, we need to keep her off the list. Saberwolf116 ( talk) 23:58, 30 November 2008 (UTC)
Well, she was officially announced today, so she should be on the list. Hihellowhatsup ( talk) 22:58, 1 December 2008 (UTC)
Acting secretary of state 1/20-21 is William J. Burns http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/21/us/politics/21capitol.html http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/biog/105574.htm —Preceding unsigned comment added by 169.252.4.21 ( talk) 09:17, 21 January 2009 (UTC)
Clinton was acting secretary of state the moment Obama was inaugurated, she isn't in the line of succession but she is in full legal terms the Secretary of State 92.237.92.253 ( talk) 22:00, 21 January 2009 (UTC)
Crap just lost all that I wrote, Burns can't have been acting Sec of State unless he had been approved to a position in the state department by the Senate, as Clinton's hearings started pre 20th January I can only assume that she had resigned, I don't know on that point, if she hadn't then whoever was the most senior, not political, staff member would have taken over from Rice until Clinton resigned her Senate seat at that point she became Acting Sec of State until confirmed which she was, if she resigned on confirmation which for me is constitutionally difficult as the Senate can't confirm her whilst still a Senator its constitutionally impossible, then she became Sec of State on resignation. Benny45boy ( talk) 22:26, 21 January 2009 (UTC) I stand corrected, I did not realise Burns was a career appointment by Rice and thus was not required to resigned at midday 20th January; apologies to all concerned a little mouse happy. However, my argument still stands in relation to her confirmation, it is the same issue that arises when the Speaker becomes President as to become President he must resign his seat and position which renders him ineligible to stand. Benny45boy ( talk) 22:29, 21 January 2009 (UTC)
In my opinion, the images of acting secretaries - at least those who served very little time in the role, like William Joseph Burns - hurts the flow of the list. I went ahead and removed Burns' photo, and I think it flows better that way, as he was only acting Secretary of State for a day. -- Evildevil ( talk) 21:34, 31 January 2009 (UTC)
I was born in the U. S. in 1953.
Of course in school, we learned mathmatics, geography, history, science, primary and secondary languages, etc. Since I was a citizen of the U. S., I learned U. S. History
While the U. S. is a relatively young country, we do have many citizens who were instrumental in forming our young country. But in our world there were many more notables who were insturmental in forming our world, such as: Gentius, Bolivar, Ivan, Rama, Shaka and many others.
As am American, I think of the good that came out of World War II was the Marhsal Plan, which helped Europe recover from the war. So Secretary of State George Marshal was the good guy. I am thankful that our 49th state Alaska was "Sewards Folley",
The U. S. has had many good ambassadors.
But, I never really understood the value of service to the world of the position of the office of Secretary of State (SOS) until Hillary clinton was appointed Secretary of State of the U. S.
Citizens of the U. S. have always been charitable and wanted peace and prosperity for all. <any are notable SOS's, the notables are;
Jay, Jefferson, Marshalls, Clay, Everett, Sherman, Hay, Knox, Bryan, Lansing, Stimson, Hull, Marshall, Dulles, Kissinger, Vance, Haig, Shultz, Powell, Rice
Rusk was our black angel to Vietnam, Christopher was our cripler in world economy, Albright made us a joke in Eastern Europe.
During the U. S. involvemnet in Eastern Europe, the leaders and people thought Albright was a fool. She went over there and expected the leaders to bow to her. Instead, they told jokes about her.
In 2009, the political carpet-bagger Hillary Clinton was appointed the SOS.
Her name should never be inscribed alongside Jay, Kissinger, Sherman, Marshall or many of hte other really great ambassadors of the U. S.
She is just a sloth until a real SOS is appointed.
The One and Only Worldwise Dave Shaver 08:13, 23 August 2009 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jaxdave ( talk • contribs)
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Don't panic; a discussion will now take place over on Commons about whether to remove the file. This gives you an opportunity to contest the deletion, although please review Commons guidelines before doing so.
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This list was, until about a year ago, accurate in listing the states from which each secretary of state was commissioned, as confirmed (mostly) on the State Department website (which used to be clearer, but has now decided to be somewhat less clear as the result of a website redesign - I assume the older, clearer version can still be found using the wayback machine, though). At some point last year, an anonymous user changed a bunch of these states on grounds that aren't completely clear - sometimes to birth state, as for Dean Rusk, Al Haig, Larry Eagleburger and Condoleezza Rice, sometimes to a state the person had earlier or later been associated with, as with George Shultz, sometimes on grounds I'm not clear on at all, as for Henry Kissinger. I think we ought to stick with the state on their commission - there are reliable sources for what that state is, and it's the state that is officially associated with their tenure as Secretary of State ("the president nominates Lawrence S. Eagleburger, of Florida, for the position of Secretary of State," and so forth). I think they should all be correct now. If any of these gets changed, that change should be reverted. john k ( talk) 02:08, 14 July 2012 (UTC)
Not every Acting Secretary of State was the Deputy Secretary of State. This article needs corrections. GoodDay ( talk) 10:36, 2 February 2013 (UTC)
Problem solved. GoodDay ( talk) 11:25, 2 February 2013 (UTC)
Please correct me if I'm wrong but is it not appropriate to include persons who are not sitting Secretary of State (read: nominees) since they have not been confirmed by the Senate and are not yet holding office? It has been my experience on Wikipedia that in articles like this the inclusion of nominees or person(s)-elect are not official added until they are officially sworn into office. I decided to hold off on removing or editing the article to avoid an edit war or conflicts until I get some feedback. YborCityJohn ( talk) 18:14, 9 January 2017 (UTC)
I would like to see a brief explanation somewhere in-line in the main article explaining why there are so many Acting Secretaries who served only one day or just a few days. E.g. why were there four different Secretaries of State on 20 January 1993? Bhami ( talk) 03:14, 16 January 2017 (UTC)
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What's with the "List of Secretaries of State by time in office"? What does "rank" column mean and who is doing the ranking? Sounds all very POV to me, especially since nothing else in the article addresses this rating. Move for immediate removal of this essentially meaningless and unreferenced number Nickrz ( talk) 21:11, 13 March 2018 (UTC)
I think the table should change, by adding the portraits to the left of the name instead of above. Many other secretary tables have this format. Aricmfergie ( talk) —Preceding undated comment added 04:22, 7 May 2020 (UTC)
Should Blinken currently be on the list? Setting aside the whole election controversy, he's still just a nominee until confirmed by the Senate. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 73.172.28.63 ( talk) 18:57, 23 November 2020 (UTC)
At May 3 1980 there should be Richard Newell Cooper. Check out Office of the Historian page about Secretaries and acting secretaries of State:
![]() | This article is written in American English, which has its own spelling conventions (color, defense, traveled) and some terms that are used in it may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus. |
![]() | This article is rated List-class on Wikipedia's
content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Okay, can , Buchanan, Clayton, Marcy, Black, Fish, Evarts, Frelinghuhysen, Bayard, Olney, Bacon, and Knox (and Kellogg), really be said meaningfully to have served under Polk, Taylor, Fillmore, Buchanan, Lincoln, Hayes, Garfield, Cleveland, Harrison, McKinley, Taft, and Wilson (and Hoover)? They all served for a couple of days under the new president before the new secretary of state was confirmed. Should this really count? Doesn't it confuse more than it explicates? john k 11:57, 20 Jul 2004 (UTC)
Just want to note: according to the Department of State, Colin Powell's term of appointment ended on January 26, 2005. This means that Richard Armitage was not the Acting Secretary and I will therefore remove him momentarily.
— DLJessup 00:23, 29 Jan 2005 (UTC)
Anonymous user 69.132.143.252 made the following suggestion on the article's main page at 02:48, 16 November 2005 (UTC). I have moved it here, where it is more appropriate:
We need to add the list of Secretaries of State who have run and/or won the United States' Presidency: Please ADD/EDIT the following information in editing... Former Secretary of State/Candidate (Years Sec of State) (PARTY) Election Year (PARTY NOMINATION: YES/NO?) Elected President: Yes/No?
Example below:
| Thomas Jefferson | March 22, 1790 – December 31, 1793 | Democrat-Republican, | Election of 1820, | Party Nomination: YES, | Elected President: YES
— DLJessup ( talk) 00:02, 17 November 2005 (UTC)
Can someone explain James Monroe's two terms as Secretary of State? Weren't they just one term? Or did he resign, was reappointed, or something like that?— Mark Adler (markles) 03:12, 28 February 2006 (UTC)
If secretary of state was formed in July 27, 1789, shouldn't John Jay act as secretary from this date? -- 164.127.214.244 ( talk) 09:09, 29 June 2015 (UTC)
John Jay was elected secretary of Foreign Affairs in 1785 by the Continental Congress, and served until Thomas Jefferson came back from France in 1790. During this time, he was technically Secretary of State from the moment the name was changed until Jefferson took the oath of office (assuming that he had to). Shouldn't he be there as either number one or number zero? Ericl 19:34, 15 January 2007 (UTC)
Regarding Thomas Jefferson: he should not be shown as Secretary from 1789: he did not arrive in the capital and take the oath of office until late March 1790. That should be his first date, not 1789. Walter Stahr f did 0==Infobox== Pardon I don't want to participate in an edit war, but I will be reverting an edit to restore the infobox without a photo of the current Secretary. On the Wikipedia list of the positions in the United States Cabinet only the departments of State and Education (incidentally both currently with Secretaries who are females), and the Attorney General had photos of the Secretary, which I tried to fix (sorry did not get to the Attorney General yet but you get the idea). You're welcome to revert my edit again but I guess I would like to know your rationale? Ideally an infobox for all of these would elminate the table which is pretty hard for me to edit. But until one exists or is located I guess replacing an even handed table with an oddball table in which a photo dominates, but only for two Cabinet members, looks peculiar. Other thoughts, corrections and ideas most welcome. - Susanlesch 04:09, 11 November 2007 (UTC)
A few months ago, there was a dispute on United States Speaker of the House of Representatives over the inclusion of a photo of the incumbent or of the seal in the lead. An agreement came in the form of this infobox which contained an image of both the seal and the incumbent. The infobox you want to include is already found at United States Department of State and is redundant and improper to be placed here since this article is about an office and not a department. The infobox has stood for months on this article, Speaker of the House, President pro tempore of the Senate, President of the United States, and Vice President of the United States. No challenges nor arguments have been made against this infobox in favor of the one you want to include since it is expressively only about the department. For example, the inclusion of the name of the Undersecretary is not really necessary for this article about the Secretary.-- Southern Texas 04:41, 11 November 2007 (UTC)
Most of them are very short articles which don't have much of a lead and nobody has really shown any interest in them. However United States Secretary of Energy is a featured list because a certain editor did show an interest in that particular article.-- Southern Texas 05:13, 11 November 2007 (UTC)
I suppose, since the article is about an office.-- Southern Texas 18:40, 11 November 2007 (UTC)
I merged the list of acting secretaries into the list of secretaries. It makes no sense to have a separate list of acting secretaries as this was no separate office with a lineage but filled by those holding other positions (though right now it not always clear which one) and occuring after gaps of sometimes many years. In particular, it is absurd to count e.g. Frank Pol as the 24th acting secretary. The only separate lists that make sense are those listing the various offices e.g. "Assistant Secretary of State". These already exist. I added a footnote stating what regular office the acting secretary held, if that information was avaiable on WP. Str1977 (talk) 08:48, 24 May 2008 (UTC)
The link to the page on James A Hamilton, acting Secretary of State under Jackson, is incorrect. It leads you to this page on a James Hamilton born in 1876, which is physically impossible because Jackson was president in the 1830s. The link should lead you to the son of Alexander Hamilton, who was born in the late 1700s (I was looking for this because I found it ironic that James Hamilton opposed the National Bank charter that his father created). Is there even a link to him, because if there isn't the link should be deleted. Could someone look into this? --- Writergeek7 —Preceding unsigned comment added by Writergeek7 ( talk • contribs) 01:17, 3 June 2008 (UTC)
Could we move that section to List of Secretaries of State of the United States (in keeping with List of Presidents of the United States and List of Vice Presidents of the United States)? It would just make things easier for readers, I would say, if every list of people who have occupied an important US governmental post were to have its own page, named in a consistent fashion. It Is Me Here ( talk) 13:48, 5 September 2008 (UTC)
Are they Democratic / Federalist, or something else? That table needs a key, I think. It Is Me Here ( talk) 14:10, 5 September 2008 (UTC)
Until Hillary Clinton is formally announced by President-elect Obama, we need to keep her off the list. Saberwolf116 ( talk) 23:58, 30 November 2008 (UTC)
Well, she was officially announced today, so she should be on the list. Hihellowhatsup ( talk) 22:58, 1 December 2008 (UTC)
Acting secretary of state 1/20-21 is William J. Burns http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/21/us/politics/21capitol.html http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/biog/105574.htm —Preceding unsigned comment added by 169.252.4.21 ( talk) 09:17, 21 January 2009 (UTC)
Clinton was acting secretary of state the moment Obama was inaugurated, she isn't in the line of succession but she is in full legal terms the Secretary of State 92.237.92.253 ( talk) 22:00, 21 January 2009 (UTC)
Crap just lost all that I wrote, Burns can't have been acting Sec of State unless he had been approved to a position in the state department by the Senate, as Clinton's hearings started pre 20th January I can only assume that she had resigned, I don't know on that point, if she hadn't then whoever was the most senior, not political, staff member would have taken over from Rice until Clinton resigned her Senate seat at that point she became Acting Sec of State until confirmed which she was, if she resigned on confirmation which for me is constitutionally difficult as the Senate can't confirm her whilst still a Senator its constitutionally impossible, then she became Sec of State on resignation. Benny45boy ( talk) 22:26, 21 January 2009 (UTC) I stand corrected, I did not realise Burns was a career appointment by Rice and thus was not required to resigned at midday 20th January; apologies to all concerned a little mouse happy. However, my argument still stands in relation to her confirmation, it is the same issue that arises when the Speaker becomes President as to become President he must resign his seat and position which renders him ineligible to stand. Benny45boy ( talk) 22:29, 21 January 2009 (UTC)
In my opinion, the images of acting secretaries - at least those who served very little time in the role, like William Joseph Burns - hurts the flow of the list. I went ahead and removed Burns' photo, and I think it flows better that way, as he was only acting Secretary of State for a day. -- Evildevil ( talk) 21:34, 31 January 2009 (UTC)
I was born in the U. S. in 1953.
Of course in school, we learned mathmatics, geography, history, science, primary and secondary languages, etc. Since I was a citizen of the U. S., I learned U. S. History
While the U. S. is a relatively young country, we do have many citizens who were instrumental in forming our young country. But in our world there were many more notables who were insturmental in forming our world, such as: Gentius, Bolivar, Ivan, Rama, Shaka and many others.
As am American, I think of the good that came out of World War II was the Marhsal Plan, which helped Europe recover from the war. So Secretary of State George Marshal was the good guy. I am thankful that our 49th state Alaska was "Sewards Folley",
The U. S. has had many good ambassadors.
But, I never really understood the value of service to the world of the position of the office of Secretary of State (SOS) until Hillary clinton was appointed Secretary of State of the U. S.
Citizens of the U. S. have always been charitable and wanted peace and prosperity for all. <any are notable SOS's, the notables are;
Jay, Jefferson, Marshalls, Clay, Everett, Sherman, Hay, Knox, Bryan, Lansing, Stimson, Hull, Marshall, Dulles, Kissinger, Vance, Haig, Shultz, Powell, Rice
Rusk was our black angel to Vietnam, Christopher was our cripler in world economy, Albright made us a joke in Eastern Europe.
During the U. S. involvemnet in Eastern Europe, the leaders and people thought Albright was a fool. She went over there and expected the leaders to bow to her. Instead, they told jokes about her.
In 2009, the political carpet-bagger Hillary Clinton was appointed the SOS.
Her name should never be inscribed alongside Jay, Kissinger, Sherman, Marshall or many of hte other really great ambassadors of the U. S.
She is just a sloth until a real SOS is appointed.
The One and Only Worldwise Dave Shaver 08:13, 23 August 2009 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jaxdave ( talk • contribs)
![]() |
An image used in this article,
File:Image-Warren Christopher.jpg, has been nominated for deletion at
Wikimedia Commons in the following category: Deletion requests March 2012
Don't panic; a discussion will now take place over on Commons about whether to remove the file. This gives you an opportunity to contest the deletion, although please review Commons guidelines before doing so.
To take part in any discussion, or to review a more detailed deletion rationale please visit the relevant image page (File:Image-Warren Christopher.jpg) This is Bot placed notification, another user has nominated/tagged the image -- CommonsNotificationBot ( talk) 18:51, 26 April 2012 (UTC) |
This list was, until about a year ago, accurate in listing the states from which each secretary of state was commissioned, as confirmed (mostly) on the State Department website (which used to be clearer, but has now decided to be somewhat less clear as the result of a website redesign - I assume the older, clearer version can still be found using the wayback machine, though). At some point last year, an anonymous user changed a bunch of these states on grounds that aren't completely clear - sometimes to birth state, as for Dean Rusk, Al Haig, Larry Eagleburger and Condoleezza Rice, sometimes to a state the person had earlier or later been associated with, as with George Shultz, sometimes on grounds I'm not clear on at all, as for Henry Kissinger. I think we ought to stick with the state on their commission - there are reliable sources for what that state is, and it's the state that is officially associated with their tenure as Secretary of State ("the president nominates Lawrence S. Eagleburger, of Florida, for the position of Secretary of State," and so forth). I think they should all be correct now. If any of these gets changed, that change should be reverted. john k ( talk) 02:08, 14 July 2012 (UTC)
Not every Acting Secretary of State was the Deputy Secretary of State. This article needs corrections. GoodDay ( talk) 10:36, 2 February 2013 (UTC)
Problem solved. GoodDay ( talk) 11:25, 2 February 2013 (UTC)
Please correct me if I'm wrong but is it not appropriate to include persons who are not sitting Secretary of State (read: nominees) since they have not been confirmed by the Senate and are not yet holding office? It has been my experience on Wikipedia that in articles like this the inclusion of nominees or person(s)-elect are not official added until they are officially sworn into office. I decided to hold off on removing or editing the article to avoid an edit war or conflicts until I get some feedback. YborCityJohn ( talk) 18:14, 9 January 2017 (UTC)
I would like to see a brief explanation somewhere in-line in the main article explaining why there are so many Acting Secretaries who served only one day or just a few days. E.g. why were there four different Secretaries of State on 20 January 1993? Bhami ( talk) 03:14, 16 January 2017 (UTC)
Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just modified one external link on List of Secretaries of State of the United States. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
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What's with the "List of Secretaries of State by time in office"? What does "rank" column mean and who is doing the ranking? Sounds all very POV to me, especially since nothing else in the article addresses this rating. Move for immediate removal of this essentially meaningless and unreferenced number Nickrz ( talk) 21:11, 13 March 2018 (UTC)
I think the table should change, by adding the portraits to the left of the name instead of above. Many other secretary tables have this format. Aricmfergie ( talk) —Preceding undated comment added 04:22, 7 May 2020 (UTC)
Should Blinken currently be on the list? Setting aside the whole election controversy, he's still just a nominee until confirmed by the Senate. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 73.172.28.63 ( talk) 18:57, 23 November 2020 (UTC)
At May 3 1980 there should be Richard Newell Cooper. Check out Office of the Historian page about Secretaries and acting secretaries of State: