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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, February 4, 1992                   TAG: 9202040172
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

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PICKERING TO GET BOOT AS UN AMBASSADOR

President Bush will replace Thomas Pickering as ambassador to the United Nations this spring, despite the envoy's reputation as one of the most effective American diplomats ever to serve there, government sources said Monday.

The 60-year-old Pickering will be reassigned as ambassador to India and replaced by Edward Perkins, now the State Department's director-general (chief personnel officer).

While the change of assignment will be described by the White House and State Department as a routine transfer in the Foreign Service, most insiders believe that Pickering irritated Secretary of State James Baker because of the amount of attention he attracted at the United Nations. - Los Angeles Times

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