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User:The7thMarxBrother/John H. Richardson (CIA)

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John H. Richardson (CIA) (1913 to June 1st of 1998) spent most of his working career with the CIA.

Early Life

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In 1913, John H. Richardson was born in Rangoon, Burma while his father was working in the country as an oil engineer.[1] Upon leaving Burma, John Richardson's family took him to Whittier, California where he would be raised.[2] After high school, he will then graduate with a B.A. (English) and M.A. (English) from the University of California's Main Campus at Berkeley, California.[3] After receiving this M.A., John H. Richardson did further study at the Sorbonne in Paris, France, at an unknown school in Berlin, Germany and then finally at the University of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois.[4]

In 1950, John H. Richardson would marry Eleanore Koch; they will have two children.[5]

World War Two And A Career

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When the USA entered World War Two, John H. Richardson joined the U.S. Army; his educational background earned him a posting with the army's Counter-Intelligence Corps where he would serve in the European Theater against Adolph Hitler with time in North Africa, Italy and then Austria.[6]

After World War Two, his U.S. Army experience earned him a job with the newly formed Central Intelligence Agency in 1947; that year, he became the CIA's Chief of Station Austria in Vienna, Austria.[7] After this assignment, he was assigned to CIA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. where he made Chief of the CIA's South-East Europe Division.[8] While leading the South-East Europe Division, he oversaw what is elsewhere on Wikipedia known as the Albanian Subversion; indeed, he terminated Operation Fiend.[9]

Reassigned from CIA Headquarters, John H. Richardson would return to the field and get away from his nation's capital. Here he served as CIA Chief of Station Greece in Athens, Greece, CIA Chief of Station Philippines in Manila, Philippines and then as CIA Chief of Station Vietnam in Saigon, Vietnam.[10]

In June of 1962, John Richardson started his two year term in Vietnam at a time when the Kennedy Administration was questioning its policy on Vietnam, and in particular its association with the then President of South Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Diem. According to former New York Times Correspondent to Vietnam, Neil Sheehan, John H. Richardson "was a decent and intelligent man who had the virtue of being able to change his mind ... (Richardson) had to work with, get close to, and influence Ngo Dinh Nhu, a brother of President Ngo Dinh Diem, and a kind of eminence grise of the regime".[11]

Then in October of 1963, days before the Ngo Dinh Diem Administration is ousted from power in a coup, John H. Richardson Sr was transferred out of Vietnam.[12] What led to this transfer was that the newly appointed 5th U.S. Ambassador to the State of Vietnam, Henry Cabot Lodge Jr, arrives and begins calling for the removal of Ngo Dinh Diem and Ngo Dinh Nhu; Richardson disagrees with Lodge's position. During his feud with Richardson, Lodge reveals Richardson's name to a reporter, Richard Starnes, and Lodge publicly branded Richardson to Starnes as an agent of the CIA.[13] The Richard Starnes scoop would appear in the Washington Daily News under the headline Arrogant CIA Disobeys Orders.[14] After this public outing, the next article on John H. Richardson Sr would appear under the headline CIA Chief Recalled and so John H. Richardson Sr was not only 'outed' but also now recalled to CIA HQ in Langley, Virginia.[15]

On June 1st of 1998, John H. Richardson died from lung cancer at his home in Zapopan, Mexico.[16] His obituary in the New York Times was silent on his career after being 'outed' in Vietnam and then recalled to CIA HQ.[17]

However, the public 'outing' of John H. Richardson Sr appears to not have ended his career with the CIA. The CIA had recently made public on its website two documents, a first on November 17th of 2016 and a second on December 21st of 2016, a September 14, 1966, document written 'to', as well as a April 1, 1969, document written 'by' a CIA 'Director of Training' named 'John Richardson' likely the same person, although his is a common name.[18][19]

After the death of his CIA father, John H. Richardson Sr in 1998, his son John H. Richardson Jr wrote a book on him entitled My Father The Spy, An Investigative Memoir which was published in 2005.[20]

References

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  1. ^ http://www.nytimes.com/1998/06/14/us/john-h-richardson-84-cia-station-chief-in-saigon-in-early-60s.html
  2. ^ http://www.nytimes.com/1998/06/14/us/john-h-richardson-84-cia-station-chief-in-saigon-in-early-60s.html
  3. ^ http://www.nytimes.com/1998/06/14/us/john-h-richardson-84-cia-station-chief-in-saigon-in-early-60s.html
  4. ^ http://www.nytimes.com/1998/06/14/us/john-h-richardson-84-cia-station-chief-in-saigon-in-early-60s.html
  5. ^ http://www.nytimes.com/1998/06/14/us/john-h-richardson-84-cia-station-chief-in-saigon-in-early-60s.html
  6. ^ http://www.nytimes.com/1998/06/14/us/john-h-richardson-84-cia-station-chief-in-saigon-in-early-60s.html
  7. ^ http://www.nytimes.com/1998/06/14/us/john-h-richardson-84-cia-station-chief-in-saigon-in-early-60s.html
  8. ^ http://www.nytimes.com/1998/06/14/us/john-h-richardson-84-cia-station-chief-in-saigon-in-early-60s.html
  9. ^ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albanian_Subversion
  10. ^ http://www.nytimes.com/1998/06/14/us/john-h-richardson-84-cia-station-chief-in-saigon-in-early-60s.html
  11. ^ http://www.nytimes.com/1998/06/14/us/john-h-richardson-84-cia-station-chief-in-saigon-in-early-60s.html
  12. ^ http://www.nytimes.com/1998/06/14/us/john-h-richardson-84-cia-station-chief-in-saigon-in-early-60s.html
  13. ^ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Central_Intelligence_Agency
  14. ^ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/17/AR2005081702119.html
  15. ^ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/17/AR2005081702119.html
  16. ^ http://www.nytimes.com/1998/06/14/us/john-h-richardson-84-cia-station-chief-in-saigon-in-early-60s.html
  17. ^ http://www.nytimes.com/1998/06/14/us/john-h-richardson-84-cia-station-chief-in-saigon-in-early-60s.html
  18. ^ https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP78-06367A000100160015-7.pdf
  19. ^ https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP73-00402R000100330014-3.pdf
  20. ^ http://johnhrichardson.com/books/
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Category:1913 births Category:1998 deaths Category:People from Yangon Category:People from Whittier, California Category:University of California alumni Category:University of California, Berkeley alumni Category:American military personnel of World War II Category:People of the Office of Strategic Services Category:American spies Category:Cold War spies Category:People of the Central Intelligence Agency

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