Congratulations to Ambassador Otto Reich:

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 17, 2012

Ambassador Otto Reich to receive The Fund for American Studies 2012 Walter Judd Freedom Award

The Fund for American Studies (TFAS) will honor Ambassador Otto Reich with its 2012 Walter Judd Freedom Award during a ceremony at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C. on July 17, 2012. Reich is a co-recipient with Mary Anastasia O'Grady, an editorial board member and columnist with the Wall Street Journal.

The Walter Judd Freedom Award is presented annually by The Fund for American Studies to recognize individuals who have advanced the cause of freedom in the United States and abroad, are devoted to the preservation and expansion of freedom, influential in world and national affairs, and are outspoken voices against tyranny and oppression, while embodying the characteristics of self-sacrifice and patriotism.

One of the founders of The Fund for American Studies, Walter Henry Judd (1898-1994) was one of the leading statesmen and orators of the 20th century. He began his career as a medical missionary in China and was elected to Congress from Minnesota in 1942, where he served for 20 years. He was recognized as a leading expert in Asian affairs and advised every president from Truman to Reagan. President Reagan conferred the Presidential Medal of Freedom upon Judd in 1981.

Ambassador Reich is the former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs and Special Envoy for Western Hemisphere Initiatives in the National Security Council under the George W. Bush Administration, and U.S. Ambassador to Venezuela under the Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush Administrations.

Reich also served President Reagan as Assistant Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (1981 to 1983) and as Special Advisor to Secretary of State George P. Shultz (1983 to 1986). President George H. W. Bush twice named him as the Deputy U.S. Representative to the U.N. Human Rights Commission, in Geneva, in 1991 and 1992.

Reich is President of Otto Reich and Associates, LLC, an international business consultancy based in Washington, DC, and President of the Americas Forum, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting freedom and prosperity in Latin America.

Past recipients of the award include President Ronald Reagan, Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick, Chinese dissident and Human Rights defender Harry Wu, William F. Buckley, Ambassador John Bolton, and former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who was last year's recipient.