JACKSON - Mike L. Retzer, a Greenville businessman with strong ties to the Mississippi and national Republican parties, has been nominated by President Bush to be ambassador to Tanzania, the East African nation where the U.S. embassy was bombed in 1998.
The White House made the announcement Tuesday, and the nomination must be confirmed by the Senate.
Retzer, 59, served two terms (1978-82, 1996-2001) as chairman of the Mississippi Republican Party. He is presently national committeeman and treasurer of the Republican National Committee. In 2000, he was southern regional coordinator for the George W. Bush campaign in Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana and Tennessee.
Retzer told The Associated Press that he was contacted by the White House for the ambassadorship. Once confirmed, Retzer said he expected to be at the post by late summer or early fall.
"I'd had some interest in Africa, having visited Tanzania a couple of times. It looked to me to be a challenging assignment that would be a good one to undertake," he said.
Retzer would be the first Mississippian named to an ambassadorship since 2001, when telecommunications pioneer John N. Palmer was appointed ambassador to Portugal.
Palmer left the post in September 2004. In 1994, President Clinton appointed former Gov. Ray Mabus as ambassador to Saudi Arabia. Mabus held that post until April 1996.
Retzer, chairman of Retzer Resources Inc. whose holdings include several McDonald's restaurants, would succeed Michael S. Owen, who has been Charge d'Affaires ad Interim since the departure of Ambassador Robert V. Royall on November 21, 2003.
Retzer said Africa is a continent with many problems, but there are U.S. interests and business there.
East Africa has seen a spate of terror attacks, including the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. "The war on terror, you might say, started there," Retzer said.
He said he's not concerned about volatile conditions in Tanzania and called it "a beautiful country."
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