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Ambassador Ron Johnson

Ambassador Johnson’s broad range of experience spans over five decades of government service in positions of increasing responsibility, with leadership and substantive engagement on a wide range of issues including diplomacy, national security, intelligence, counter-terrorism, insurgency, threat mitigation, conflict resolution, and human rights.

Serving as Ambassador to the Republic of El Salvador from 2019 to 2021, Ambassador Johnson’s previous experience and his personable “hands-on” style of diplomacy and statesmanship advanced U.S. national priorities in measurable and historic ways.

His persistent engagement with U.S and Salvadoran law enforcement and security entities, affected the arrests of hundreds of gang members, and enabled criminal extraditions to both countries.  Violent crime and extortion rates (leading causes of illegal immigration) dropped to their lowest numbers in recorded history.  Cooperation on Counter-Narcotics increased significantly.  El Salvador became a transit country that drug traffickers went hundreds of miles out of their way to avoid.  Concurrently, overall illegal immigration to the U.S. dropped by 85% with Salvadorans accounting for less than 6% of the encounters at the U.S. Southwest border, and with no migrant caravans originating from or transiting through El Salvador.

When COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic, Ambassador Johnson’s personal involvement enabled U.S. citizens to fly back to the U.S. aboard chartered flights.  His embassy led the world in this global effort with over 18,000 citizens repatriated back to the U.S. over a 6-month period.

Prior to his ambassadorial appointment, Johnson served for more than twenty years as an Operations Officer with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).  There, he led sensitive operations on a global scale, including multiple deployments to the war zones in Afghanistan and Iraq.  He went on to lead the Agency’s Air, Ground, and maritime, paramilitary departments and was in charge of all Agency parachute operations.  He later served as Advisor to the Commander of the U.S. Southern Command, where he managed interagency collaboration between the eighteen organizations of the Intelligence Community and provided strategic geo-political advice.  He also served as CIA’s Science & Technology Liaison to the U.S. Special Operations Command.

Prior to his career with CIA, Ambassador Johnson served for over twenty years in the U.S. Army, with both peacetime and combat experience.  He initially enlisted in the Army National Guard, attended Officers Candidate School, and served in the 20^th Special Forces Group (SFG) prior to entering active duty with the 7^th SFG.  In the 7^th SFG he served multiple tours as one of the 55 U.S. military advisors during the Civil War in El Salvador.   He later served at the Special Warfare Center and School (SWCS), the Army Special Operations Command (USASOC), the U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) and on the Department of the Army Staff.  He retired in 1998 as a Green Beret Colonel.

Ambassador Johnson has a Master’s in the Science of Strategic Intelligence (MSSI) from the National Intelligence University, and a Bachelor of Science from the University of the State of New York.  He is the recipient of numerous awards including the State Department’s Sue M. Cobb Award for Exemplary Diplomatic Service, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Distinguished Civilian Service Award, the military’s Legion of Merit, and the Combat Infantry Badge.  He was selected as a Special Forces Distinguished Member of the Regiment.  He is the only U.S. diplomat to be presented El Salvador’s two Highest Awards:  The Grand Order of Francisco Morazan, and the Grand Order of Jose Matias Delgado.

The Ambassador has lived overseas for over twelve years and traveled extensively.  He speaks, reads and writes Spanish.  He is married to Alina Arias Johnson, formerly of Cuba.  They have four grown children.  The youngest son served in a light infantry unit in Iraq.  The Ambassador is proud to say he is the third of four generations of Johnsons to serve the U.S. in combat.

Military Education – Highlights

Select Professional Memberships and Achievements

National Clandestine Service Leadership Certificate

Office of Strategic Services (OSS) Society, Honorary Chair

Special Forces Association (Lifetime Member)

Special Forces Distinguished Member of the Regiment