Wissenswertes

A nominee for the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize.

Appointed in 2005 as US Ambassador to the United Nations and served 16 months.

Senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

Fox News contributor.

The son of a fireman, he grew up in the working-class neighborhood of Yale Heights and won a scholarship to the McDonogh School in Ownings Mills, MD, graduating in 1966. He also ran the school's Students for Goldwater campaign in 1964. He then attended Yale University, where he shared classes with his friend Clarence Thomas, and was a contemporary of Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton at Yale Law School. He was a member of the Yale Political Union and he earned a B.A. summa cum laude in 1970 and a J.D. in 1974.

Supported the Vietnam War and enlisted in the Maryland Army National Guard, but did not serve in Vietnam.

Father of Jennifer Sarah Bolton.

His wife, Gretchen Smith Bolton, has degrees from Wellesley College and New York University and lives in Bethesda, MD, with her husband.

Is a Republican and a member of the Lutheran Church.

Was US Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs (1989-93) and Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security (2001-05).

Was Assistant US Attorney General (1985-88).

His first brush with politics occurred in 1964 when, at age 15, he handed out leaflets for then Republican Party nominee for president of the United States, Barry Goldwater. He was a White House summer intern for Vice President Spiro Agnew in 1972 during the Richard Nixon administration.