Ambassador Negroponte on Iraq's Future

June 23, 2004 -- U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte is famous among diplomats for quiet determination.

In Vietnam, he learned Vietnamese; in Honduras, he learned Spanish.

Negroponte, 65, will head the largest U.S. embassy in the world, with about 1,700 staff, including 1,000 Americans, after the handover of political power by the U.S.-led coalition on June 30.

Where L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. civil administrator in Iraq, stood astride in combat boots, Negroponte will walk softly working under the radar directing the world's largest embassy.

Negroponte came out of retirement three years ago, and will officially take the oath and face the unknown of possibilities in one of the most perilous assignments in the world.

Negroponte said he took the important and dangerous post because the president asked him to and because he felt it was his responsibility.

"I'm a career foreign service officer," Negroponte said in an exclusive interview with ABC News' Diane Sawyer. "I thought that it was my duty to take on this job."

Meanwhile, Negroponte said it wasn't a decision he came to completely on his own. He says his family has been involved every step of the way.

"We talked it through, talked it through quite a while with, particularly with my wife," he said.

His wife, Diana Negroponte, a history professor, will stay behind with their five children, which they adopted during his service in Honduras. At first, she said she was frightened by the idea of his new position. But after considering the options, Diana said she knew it was the right thing for her husband to do.

"I thought it was the craziest idea that had ever come after Santa Claus," Diana Negroponte said. "Gradually I came to see that somebody had to represent the United States and that if John Negroponte was ready to serve our country, I was going to support him fully."

Negroponte says he knows his five children will have a rough time with his absence.