The Secretary of State (the position is more commonly called
"Foreign Minister" in other countries) is actually the highest
ranking, non-elected person in the U.S. government. He or she
sits fourth in the order of presidential succession after the
Vice President, Speaker of the House, and President pro tempore
of the Senate. The first Secretary of State was Thomas
Jefferson, and the list of subsequent secretaries includes a
Who's Who of American history: - James Madison - John Quincy
Adams - Daniel Webster - James Buchanan - William Jennings Bryan
- John Foster Dulles - Henry Kissinger The secretary sits at the
top of a huge foreign affairs bureaucracy. The "organization
chart" for the U.S. State Department gives a feel for the broad
areas covered by this one agency. Everything from negotiating
arms control agreements to approving passports to coordinating
the global fight against AIDS is tackled here. This page from
the State Department Web site gives a detailed summary of all
the different activities under