Richard James Kerr (born October 4, 1935) was Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency from 1989 to 1992. He was born in

Fort Smith, Arkansas Fort Smith is the third-largest city in Arkansas and one of the two county seats of Sebastian County. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 89,142. It is the principal city of the Fort Smith, Arkansas–Oklahoma Metropolitan Statistical Are ...

. He received a B.A. in history from the

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a public research university in Eugene, Oregon. Founded in 1876, the institution is well known for its strong ties to the sports apparel and marketing firm Nike, Inc, and its co-founder, billion ...

and started graduate work there too. Kerr had a 32-year career with the CIA which included involvement in the retaliatory bombing raids against

Libya Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Suda ...

in 1986 and culminated with key roles in managing U.S. intelligence related to the near nuclear stand-off between

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

and

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

in 1990 and the attempted coup against

Boris Yeltsin Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin ( rus, Борис Николаевич Ельцин, p=bɐˈrʲis nʲɪkɐˈla(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈjelʲtsɨn, a=Ru-Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin.ogg; 1 February 1931 – 23 April 2007) was a Soviet and Russian politician wh ...

in August, 1991. In 1991, Kerr was presented with the Presidential Citizens Medal by President George H. W. Bush. From 1996 to 2002, "Dick" Kerr also served on the Board of Directors for the

Aegis Research Corporation The aegis ( ; grc, αἰγίς ''aigís''), as stated in the ''Iliad'', is a device carried by Athena and Zeus, variously interpreted as an animal skin or a shield and sometimes featuring the head of a Gorgon. There may be a connection with a d ...

of Rosslyn and later Falls Church, Virginia.Billigmeier, Scott & Glabus, Ed, ''From World War II to Desert Storm, Perspectives on Military Intelligence'', Officer Review magazine, June 1998, 2-5. He continues to serve on corporate boards and is a compliance observer of the 1998

Belfast Agreement The Good Friday Agreement (GFA), or Belfast Agreement ( ga, Comhaontú Aoine an Chéasta or ; Ulster-Scots: or ), is a pair of agreements signed on 10 April 1998 that ended most of the violence of The Troubles, a political conflict in No ...

References

Sources

Congressional Record
Deputy Directors of the Central Intelligence Agency 1935 births Living people Presidential Citizens Medal recipients Recipients of the Distinguished Intelligence Medal {{US-gov-bio-stub