Richard Armitage (government official)

Richard Lee Armitage (born April 26, 1945) is an American former diplomat and government official.

A graduate of the United States Naval Academy, Armitage served as a U.S. Navy officer in three combat tours of duty in the Vietnam War as a riverine warfare advisor.

After leaving active duty, he served in a number of civil-service roles under Republican administrations.

He worked as an aide to Senator Bob Dole before serving in various posts in the Defense Department and State Department.

The letter, which was transmitted by James "Bo" Gritz, accused Armitage of organizing heroin smuggling from the Golden Triangle in the 1960s and 70s.

Upon returning to the United States with this information, a key witness was held by the CIA in Oklahoma for a period of time.

Armitage rebutted the charges from Sheehan and Khun Sa, observing that at dates he was said to be in Thailand, he was living in Washington D.C., working as an assistant to Senator Robert Dole.

He graduated from St. Pius X Catholic High School, in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1963.

In 1967, he graduated from the United States Naval Academy.

He served on a destroyer stationed off the coast of Vietnam during the Vietnam War before volunteering to serve what would eventually become three combat tours with the riverine/advisory forces for the Republic of Vietnam Navy.

According to Captain Kiem Do, a Republic of Vietnam Navy officer who served with him in Vietnam, Armitage "seemed drawn like a moth to flame to the hotspots of the naval war: bedding down on the ground with Vietnamese commandos, sharing their rations and hot sauce, telling jokes in flawless Vietnamese".

Instead of a Naval uniform, Armitage often dressed in native garb.

He adopted a Vietnamese pseudonym, "Tran Phu", which loosely translated meant "rich Navy guy".

Several associates who fought alongside Armitage and other politicians (including Ted Shackley) have since claimed that Armitage was associated with the CIA's clandestine Phoenix Program.

Armitage has denied a role in Phoenix and has stated that at most, CIA officers would occasionally ask him for intelligence reports.

In 1973, Armitage left active duty and joined the Defense Attaché Office, Saigon.

Immediately prior to the fall of Saigon, he organized and led the removal of South Vietnamese naval assets and personnel from the country and out of the hands of the approaching North Vietnamese.

Armitage told South Vietnamese naval officers to take their ships to a designated place in the ocean where they would be rescued by U.S. forces and their ships destroyed.

When Armitage arrived at the designated location he found 30 South Vietnamese Navy ships and dozens of fishing boats and cargo ships with as many as 30,000 Vietnamese refugees.

With transportation options limited for removing the floating city, Armitage, aboard the destroyer escort USS Kirk, personally decided to lead the flotilla of ships over 1000 miles to shelter in Subic Bay, Philippines.

This went against the wishes of both the Philippine and American governments.

Nevertheless, Armitage personally arranged for food and water to be delivered by the U.S. Defense Department before negotiating with both governments for permission to dock in Subic Bay.

Armitage is the recipient of several military decorations, including a Bronze Star with Combat V, Navy Commendation Medal with Combat V and Navy Achievement Medal with Combat V.

Armitage served as an aide to Republican Senator Bob Dole.

During the Reagan administration, Armitage was deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia and Pacific affairs (1981–1983) and assistant secretary of defense for International security affairs (1983–1989).

He served in the George H. W. Bush administration in various diplomatic posts, including presidential special negotiator for the Philippines Military Bases Agreement, special mediator for water in the Middle East, special emissary to King Hussein of Jordan during the Persian Gulf War, and director of U.S. aid to the post-Soviet states.

During the Reagan administration, he served from 1981 to 1983 as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Security Affairs for East Asia and the Pacific and became Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs on June 9, 1983, serving in that position for the next eight and a half years.

In 1986, Armitage was named in an affidavit filed in a civil lawsuit by the Christic Institute as part of a conspiracy responsible for the La Penca bombing, and a number of other covert operations.

The affidavit, by Christic's lead attorney Daniel Sheehan, alleged that Armitage was involved with heroin smuggling from southeast Asia to fund covert activities in South America.

He and Ted Shackley were reported to be directly responsible for the Iran Contra Scandal.

Similar charges were made in a 1987 letter from the Burmese warlord Khun Sa to the U.S. Justice Department.

In 1988, the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida dismissed the Christic suit, after finding it to be frivolous and ordered the Institute to pay $955,000 in attorneys fees and $79,500 in court costs.

Armitage was nominated by President George H. W. Bush in April 1989 to serve as Secretary of the Army under Defense Secretary Dick Cheney, but the nomination was withdrawn the following month at Armitage's request, who cited a desire to spent more time with his large family.

During the Persian Gulf War, Bush appointed Armitage as a special emissary to King Hussein of Jordan.

From March 1992 to May 1993, Armitage was posted to Europe to lead U.S. foreign aid efforts to the newly independent post-Soviet states, and held the personal rank of ambassador.

After leaving the government, Armitage joined the private sector as director of US data aggregation firm ChoicePoint.

He then worked in the private sector before joining the George W. Bush administration as deputy secretary of state, holding the post from March 2001 to February 2005.

Armitage's tenure at the State Department under Secretary Colin Powell became overshadowed by the Plame affair.

Armitage acknowledged in 2006 that he leaked Valerie Plame Wilson's identity as a CIA operative to columnist Robert Novak, who revealed her identity in a July 2003 column; Armitage claimed that the leak was inadvertent, said that this was a "terrible error on my part," and issued an apology.

Armitage was born in Boston, the son of Ruth H. and Leo Holmes Armitage.