Bismarck Myrick



Bismarck Myrick (born 1940 in Portsmouth, Virginia) is a former U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Liberia (1999–2002) and Lesotho (1995–1998). He is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service and a decorated Vietnam War hero.

The government of Lesotho awarded him the Most Meritorious Order of Mohlomi, its highest honor to a non-citizen, for his work in promoting democracy. He also served as Principal Officer in Cape Town, South Africa from 1993 to 1995, and as Principal Officer in Durban, South Africa from 1990 to 1993, where he helped manage U.S. policies during that nation's transformation from apartheid to non-racial democracy. During his military career, Myrick also served in Ethiopia from 1975 to 1979 as an Army foreign area officer.

He joined the Foreign Service in 1980 and was assigned as Desk Officer for Somalia in the Office of East African Affairs. From 1982 to 1984, he served as Political Officer at Monrovia in Liberia. He returned to Washington, D.C. to serve from 1985 to 1987 as Action Officer in the Office of Strategic Nuclear Policy, Bureau of Politico-Military Affairs. He was Chairman (1986–87) of the Interagency Nuclear Testing Arms Control Working Group and served on the U.S. Delegation to the Geneva Nuclear Testing talks. Myrick served as Deputy Director for policy planning and coordination in the Bureau of Inter-American Affairs from 1987 to 1989. In 1989, he was awarded a Una Chapman Cox Fellowship and conducted research on a project entitled "Change in the Horn of Africa and Implications for U.S. Foreign Policy in the 1990s." He holds the Department of State's Superior Honor Award and four Meritorious Honor Awards.

While serving as the ambassador to Liberia, Myrick became the center of a potential international incident: after alleging that Myrick had interfered in domestic political issues, ruling National Patriotic Party chairman Cyril Allen urged the government to arrest Myrick. Disputes erupted among NPP partisans, as some opposed the statement of their party boss and called for an increased separation between their party and the government.

Ambassador Myrick began his military career as an army private. He performed military police duties in Okinawa and Germany before his first assignment as an infantry officer in South Korea. He was an infantry company commander in Vietnam from 1968 to 1969. His military decorations include the Silver Star, the Purple Heart, and four Bronze Stars for heroism in combat. He was inducted into the U.S. Army Hall of Fame at Fort Benning, Georgia in 1996.

A native of Portsmouth, Virginia, Myrick earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Tampa and a master's degree from Syracuse University. He currently teaches political science at Old Dominion University.