Leamon Hunt
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Leamon R. Hunt (October 7, 1927 – February 15, 1984) was a
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
diplomat who became the first Director General of the international peacekeeping force,
Multinational Force and Observers The Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) is an international peacekeeping force overseeing the terms of the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel. The MFO generally operates in and around the Sinai peninsula, ensuring free navigation through ...
(MFO). He was assassinated by members of the
Red Brigades The Red Brigades ( , often abbreviated BR) were an Italian far-left Marxist–Leninist militant group. It was responsible for numerous violent incidents during Italy's Years of Lead, including the kidnapping and murder of Aldo Moro in 1978, ...
in 1984.


Career

Hunt served in several diplomatic posts in his career. He was the Deputy Chief of Mission for the US embassy in
Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...
and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Operations before his nomination as the first Director General of the MFO in July 1981. As part of his duties, Hunt appointed Norwegian
Lieutenant General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the battlefield, who was norma ...
Fredrik V. Bull-Hansen to be the first Force Commander of the MFO. Hunt then established a temporary headquarters in
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and began designing the infrastructure for the group in Sinai. He also defined the hierarchical and logistical structures of the organization.


Assassination

On February 15, 1984, at 6:45 p.m., Hunt arrived at his gated home in Rome.While some news reports originally claimed that Hunt was assassinated at a traffic light near his house, this was found to be false when multiple witnesses claimed that the attack had taken place at Hunt's house. As he was waiting for the gate to open, three gunmen emerged from a
Fiat 128 The Fiat 128 is a transverse front-engine, front wheel drive small family car manufactured and marketed by Fiat from 1969 to 1985 as a two- or four-door sedan, three- or five-door station wagon as well as two- or three-door coupé. The 128 runn ...
across the street and opened fire on Hunt's
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armored
limousine A limousine ( or ), or limo () for short, is a large, chauffeur-driven luxury vehicle with a partition between the driver compartment and the passenger compartment which can be operated mechanically by hand or by a button electronically. A luxu ...
with automatic weapons. While none of the rounds fired at the limousine penetrated, one gunman jumped on the trunk and fired into the upper edge of the rear window. One of the 7.65mm rounds broke through the rubber and metal window frame and struck Hunt in the skull. He was taken to a local hospital in Rome, where he died an hour later.


Aftermath

Initially, the attack was claimed by both the Red Brigades and the
Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Factions The Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Factions – LARF ( , ''Al Fasael al-Musallaha al-Thawriyya al-Lubnaniyya'') was a small Marxist-Leninist urban guerrilla group which played an active role in the Lebanese Civil War between 1979 and 1988. Ori ...
(LARF). A caller, claiming to be from the Red Brigades, called a
Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...
radio station shortly after the assassination, saying, "This is the Communist Party. We must claim the attempt on General Hunt, the guarantor of the Camp David agreements. The imperialist forces must leave Lebanon. Italy must leave
NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...
. No to the installations of missiles at
Comiso Comiso () is a ''comune'' of the Province of Ragusa, Sicily, Southern Italy. As of 2017, its population was 29,857. History In the past Comiso has been incorrectly identified with the ancient Greek colony of Casmene in Magna Graecia. Under the B ...
." Evidence from the scene revealed the Red Brigades to have committed the assassination.
Kenneth Dam Kenneth Willard Dam (August 10, 1932 – May 31, 2022) was an American politician and academic who served as Deputy Secretary of the Treasury (the second highest official in the United States Department of the Treasury) from 2001 to 2004, where ...
,
Deputy Secretary of State The deputy secretary of state of the United States is the principal deputy to the secretary of state. If the secretary of state resigns or dies, the deputy secretary of state becomes acting secretary of state until the president nominates and the ...
, spoke on behalf of Secretary of State
George Shultz George Pratt Shultz ( ; December 13, 1920February 6, 2021) was an American economist, businessman, diplomat and statesman. He served in various positions under two different Republican presidents and is one of the only two persons to have held f ...
. Dam said, "Ray Hunt died in the cause of peace. It is a cruel irony that, like many others who devoted their lives to the highest aspirations of mankind, he was the victim of evil terrorism which haunts our world today. The full and successful life of service which Ray Hunt led, and the sacrifice he made, should inspire us to rededicate ourselves to building a more peaceful world in which hatred and violence have no place." President
Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He was a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party a ...
also commented on Hunt's death, saying that he represented "the best in America". Hunt was flown from Rome to Andrews Field for the funeral, and was interred at a church in Alexandria on February 21.


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Further reading

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hunt, Leamon 1984 deaths Assassinated American diplomats 1927 births People from Johnston County, Oklahoma Deaths related to the Years of Lead (Italy) American people murdered abroad 1984 murders in Italy People murdered in Lazio