In 2005, Boucher became the longest-serving
assistant secretary of state for public affairs in the
U.S. Department of State's history. He began his most recent tenure as spokesman for the State Department in May 2000 under Secretary
Madeleine Albright and continued as spokesman throughout the tenure of Secretary
Colin Powell and for Secretary
Condoleezza Rice until June 2005. He had previously served as the department's deputy spokesman under Secretary Baker, starting in 1989, and became the spokesman for Secretary Eagleburger in August 1992 and for Secretary Christopher until June 1993. Boucher’s early career focused on economic affairs, China and Europe. From October 1993 to June 1996 he served as ambassador to
Cyprus, and from 1996 to 1999 he headed the
U.S. Consulate General in Hong Kong as the consul general. He led U.S. efforts as the U.S. senior official for
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) from July 1999 to April 2000.
Mahinda Rajapakse After joining the
Foreign Service in 1977, Boucher received Mandarin training at the
Foreign Service Institute's Chinese Language School in
Taichung,
Taiwan, before transferring to the Embassy chancery in
Taipei in 1978 (the diplomatic ties between Taipei and Washington severed on the same year, thus ending the operation of embassy in 1979). He then served at the
Consulate General in Guangzhou from 1979 to 1980. After that he went back to Washington D.C. to serve in the State Department's Economic Bureau, and on the China Desk. He returned to China from 1984 to 1986 as deputy principal officer at the
U.S. Consulate General in Shanghai, and then went back to Washington in July 1986, where he served in the State Department's Operations Center and as the deputy director of the
Office of European Security and Political Affairs. He served as a contractor of the
USAID, and served as a
Peace Corps volunteer in
Senegal, from 1973 to 1975. Boucher was a Foreign Service officer with the personal rank of
career ambassador, the highest rank obtainable by a Foreign Service officer, and was also the longest-serving assistant secretary for public affairs in the
Department of State’s history. In 2020, Boucher, along with over 130 other former Republican national security officials, signed a statement that asserted that U.S. President
Donald Trump was unfit to serve another term, and "To that end, we are firmly convinced that it is in the best interest of our nation that Vice President Joe Biden be elected as the next President of the United States, and we will vote for him." ==Education==