John Peter Condon

John P. Condon (born August 6, 1920) is an American diplomat. Condon was the first US Ambassador to Tuvalu.^[1]

John Peter Condon was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Both of his parents were Greek immigrants.^[2] Condon lived in Greece with his mother and brother from 1926 until 1945 when his family was repatriated with a loan from the State Department. He was educated at the University of Chicago, Columbia University, and the University of Athens.^[3] He received his doctorate of law from the University of Athens and a masters in sociology from Columbia.

Condon worked at the Greek American Chamber of Commerce in New York from 1948 to 1950 before working for the Unemployment Compensation Office as a state civil servant for a year.^[2] He was then appointed to the Corps of Engineers in the US Army as a labor relations officer.^[3] The Corps were assigned to build secret bases in Morocco amid fears that the Soviet Union would invade Europe during the Korean War.^[2] In this position, he worked closely with Mahjoub Ben Seddik from Moroccan Workers' Union. While in Casablanca, Condon married Nancy Fleischman. After leaving Casablanca, Condon worked as an international labor officer with the US Air Force.^[3]

Condon joined the Department of State as a Foreign Service Officer (FSO) in 1961.^[4] In his early career as an FSO, Condon served tours as labor officers in Tunis, Algiers, Saigon, and Beirut. When he started his tour in Algiers, it was in the wake of the independence of Algeria from France. It was a regional position, so Condon was the labor attache for Tunisia, Algeria, and Libya.^[2] His tour in Beirut was also regional, covering Syria, Bahrain, Qatar, Yemen, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia. Condon's time in Saigon was shortly after the assassination of Ngo Dinh Diem during the Vietnam War, which complicated his work.^[2] From 1970 to 1977, Condon served as the labor attache at the embassy in Paris.^[3] He also taught at the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, starting in 1977.

Condon spoke English, Greek, French, German, and Arabic.^[2] He learned Arabic in 1966 in preparation for his tour in the Middle East.^[5]

Condon served as US Ambassador to Fiji, Tonga, and Tuvalu concurrently.^[6] He resided in Suva during his time as ambassador and was the first resident ambassador in Fiji.^[2][7] He was also the US representative on the South Pacific Commission during his tenure.^[8] Condon's appointment to the ambassador post in Tuvalu came only a year after the United States recognized the independent country of Tuvalu in 1978.^[9] The embassy's consular district was the largest in the Foreign Service at the time, covering Fiji, Tonga, Tuvalu, New Hebrides, French Polynesia, Kiribati, and New Caledonia.^[10]

Condon was optimistic about interracial and interethnic cooperation upon leaving Fiji, but this proved to be an unstable conclusion as 1987 saw two military coups due to indigenous and Indo-Fijian tension.^[2][11]

Condon retired in November 1980.^[2] He won many awards during his time in the State Department, including the Meritorious and Superior Honor Awards.^[3] He also received a decoration for exceptional civilian service from the Air Force, the Cross of the Knight of Social Merit from the President of the French Republic, and the Gallantry Cross from the President of South Vietnam.