Michael W. Marine
Ambassador
US Embassy (Vietnam)
A career Foreign Service Officer with the personal rank of Minister Counselor, Michael W. Marine was nominated as Ambassador to Vietnam by President George W. Bush on March 31, 2004 and confirmed by the Senate on May 6, 2004. He took up his duties in Vietnam on September 10, 2004.
Mr. Marine was Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM) at the United States Embassy in Beijing from September 2000 to June 2004. He was DCM in Nairobi, Kenya from August 1997 to June 2000. In the wake of the devastating August 1998 terrorist attack on Embassy Nairobi, he served as Charge d’Affaires, a.i. (CDA) there, from May 1999 until September 1999. He was Minister Counselor for Consular Affairs (MCCA) at Embassy Moscow from 1995-1997 and MCCA at Embassy Bonn from 1994-1995. From 1991 to January 1993, he was DCM at Embassy Suva, Fiji. From February 1993 until April 1994, he served as CDA at Embassy Suva. From 1985 until 1991, Mr. Marine served in a series of jobs at the Department of State in Washington, D.C. He was Director of the Office of Fraud Prevention Programs in the Bureau of Consular Affairs, Deputy Director of the Bureau of East Asia and the Pacific’s Office of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia Affairs, and Special Assistant in the Bureau of Consular Affairs.
Born in New York, New York in 1947, Mr. Marine enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1967 and completed his service with the rank of Captain in 1971. Mr. Marine received a BA in Chinese history, summa cum laude, from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1974 and entered the Foreign Service in 1975. His initial postings were as a consular officer in Martinique, London, and Guangzhou (1979-1981), and as a political officer in Hong Kong (1982-1985). His foreign languages are French, Chinese (Mandarin) and German. He received the State Department’s Superior Honor Award in 1981, 1990, 1993, 1999, 2001 and 2002.
Mr. Marine and his wife, Carmella, have two adopted daughters, Jessica and Margaret.
