约翰·福布斯·克里在2月4日作为国务卿首次步入国务院时，受到国务院数百名雇员的热烈欢迎。

约翰·福布斯·克里（John Forbes Kerry）在2月4日作为国务卿首次走进国务院时，受到国务院数百名雇员的热烈欢迎。

2月1日，在希拉里·罗德姆·克林顿（Hillary Rodham Clinton）卸任生效几分钟后，克里由最高法院（Supreme Court）大法官埃林娜·卡根（Elena Kagan）宣誓成为第68任国务卿。

克里生长在一个外交官家庭，曾担任美国参议员28年，深入参与美国外交事务。他在过去四年里一直担任参议院对外关系委员会（Senate Foreign Relations Committee）主席，是一个多世纪以来担任国务卿这一美国最高外交官职务的第一位在任参议院对外关系委员会主席。

克里在欢迎仪式上指出，1945年哈里·杜鲁门（Harry Truman）总统就职一年后曾经说过，美国的外交政策原则“牢牢植根于正义和公正”。

上图所示为克里向欢迎他的国务院雇员展示他11岁时的第一本外交护照，当时他的父亲是美国外交官。

John Forbes Kerry receives a warm welcome from hundreds of State Department employees February 4 as he enters the department for the first time as secretary of state.

John Forbes Kerry received a warm welcome from hundreds of State Department employees February 4 as he entered the department for the first time as secretary of state.

Kerry was sworn in as the 68th secretary of state by Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan February 1, replacing Hillary Rodham Clinton, whose resignation became effective minutes earlier.

The son of a diplomat, Kerry served 28 years as a member of the U.S. Senate deeply engaged in American diplomacy. As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for the last four years, he is the first sitting Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman to become America’s top diplomat in more than a century.

During his welcome, Kerry pointed out that President Harry Truman, a year after he took office in 1945, commented that American foreign policy principles are “firmly rooted in righteousness and justice.”

Above, Kerry shows welcoming State Department employees his first diplomatic passport that he got when he was 11 years old and his father was in the U.S. Foreign Service.