United States Deputy Secretary of State

The deputy secretary of state of the United States is the principal deputy to the secretary of state. If the secretary of state resigns or dies, the deputy secretary of state becomes acting secretary of state until the president nominates and the Senate confirms a replacement. The position was created in 1972. Prior to July 13, 1972, the under secretary of state had been the second ranking officer of the Department of State.

United States Deputy Secretary of State
Seal of the Department of State
Flag of the deputy secretary of state
Incumbent Christopher Landau since March 25, 2025
Department of State
Reports to	The U.S. secretary of state
Seat	Washington, D.C.
Appointer	The president with Senate advice and consent
Term length	No fixed term
Formation	July 13, 1972
First holder	John N. Irwin II
Salary	Executive Schedule, Level 2
Website	state.gov/d

The State Department is the only federal cabinet-level agency to have two co-equal deputy secretaries. The second deputy secretary of state, the deputy secretary of state for management and resources, serves as the "first assistant" for the purposes of the Vacancies Reform Act, but both deputy secretaries have full delegated authority to act for the secretary, if not otherwise prohibited by law.

Certain deputy secretaries of state went on to become appointed as the secretary of state, such as Lawrence Eagleburger in 1992,^[1] Warren Christopher in 1993,^[2] and Antony Blinken in 2021.^[3]

List of deputy secretaries of state

#	Portrait	Name	Term began	Term ended	President(s) served under
1		John N. Irwin II	July 13, 1972	February 1, 1973	Richard Nixon
2		Kenneth Rush	February 2, 1973	May 29, 1974
3		Robert S. Ingersoll	July 10, 1974	March 31, 1976
					Gerald Ford
4		Charles W. Robinson	April 9, 1976	January 20, 1977
5		Warren Christopher	February 26, 1977	January 16, 1981	Jimmy Carter
6		William P. Clark Jr.	February 25, 1981	February 9, 1982	Ronald Reagan
7		Walter J. Stoessel Jr.	February 11, 1982	September 22, 1982
8		Kenneth W. Dam	September 23, 1982	June 15, 1985
9		John C. Whitehead	July 9, 1985	January 20, 1989
10		Lawrence Eagleburger	January 20, 1989	December 8, 1992	George H. W. Bush
11		Clifton R. Wharton Jr.	January 27, 1993	November 8, 1993	Bill Clinton
12		Strobe Talbott	February 22, 1994	January 19, 2001
13		Richard Armitage	March 26, 2001	February 22, 2005	George W. Bush
14		Robert Zoellick	February 22, 2005	July 7, 2006
15		John Negroponte	February 13, 2007	January 28, 2009
16		James Steinberg	January 28, 2009	July 28, 2011	Barack Obama
17		William J. Burns	July 28, 2011	November 3, 2014
–		Wendy Sherman Acting	November 3, 2014	January 9, 2015
18		Antony Blinken	January 9, 2015	January 20, 2017
–		Thomas A. Shannon Jr. Acting	February 1, 2017	May 24, 2017	Donald Trump
19		John J. Sullivan	May 24, 2017	December 20, 2019
20		Stephen Biegun	December 21, 2019	January 20, 2021
–		Daniel Bennett Smith Acting	January 26, 2021	April 14, 2021	Joe Biden
21		Wendy Sherman	April 14, 2021	July 28, 2023
–		Victoria Nuland Acting	July 29, 2023	February 12, 2024
22		Kurt M. Campbell	February 12, 2024	January 20, 2025
23		Christopher Landau	March 25, 2025	Incumbent	Donald Trump