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.