Richard Monroe Miles (born January 8, 1937) is an American diplomat.

Life

Richard Miles was born in

Little Rock, Arkansas Little Rock is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Arkansas, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The city's population was 202,591 as of the 2020 census. The six-county Central Arkan ...

, on January 8, 1937. He grew up in rural and small-town Indiana and attended Bloomington High School."Ambassador Richard M. Miles"
Interviewed by: Charles Stuart Kennedy, Initial interview date: February 2, 2007, The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project. He left high school and joined the

Marine Corps Marines (or naval infantry) are military personnel generally trained to operate on both land and sea, with a particular focus on amphibious warfare. Historically, the main tasks undertaken by marines have included raiding ashore (often in supp ...

in December 1954. He was in a

Marine Detachment A Marine Detachment, or MarDet, was a unit of United States Marines permanently embarked on large warships including cruisers, battleships, and aircraft carriers, typically consisting of anywhere 35 and 85 men. They were a regular component of a s ...

on the

USS Lexington (CV-16) USS ''Lexington'' (CV/CVA/CVS/CVT/AVT-16) is an built during World War II for the United States Navy. Originally intended to be named ''Cabot'', the new aircraft carrier was renamed while under construction to commemorate the recently lost , b ...

and a guard company at

Naval Auxiliary Air Station Edenton Northeastern Regional Airport is a public use airport in Chowan County, North Carolina, United States. It is owned by the town of Edenton and located three nautical miles (6 km) southeast of its central business district. This airport is inclu ...

, North Carolina. He was discharged from the Marines in December 1957. He then obtained degrees from

Bakersfield Junior College Bakersfield College (BC) is a public community college in Bakersfield, California. BC serves about 31,000 students each semester or 46,500 annually, and offers associate degrees, certificate programs, and is one of fifteen California Community C ...

, the

University of California at Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkele ...

and

Indiana University Bloomington Indiana University Bloomington (IU Bloomington, Indiana University, IU, IUB, or Indiana) is a public university, public research university in Bloomington, Indiana, United States. It is the flagship university, flagship campus of Indiana Univer ...

. He is also a graduate of the U.S. Army Russian Institute,

Garmisch-Partenkirchen Garmisch-Partenkirchen (; ) is an Northern Limestone Alps, Alpine mountain resort, ski town in Bavaria, southern Germany. It is the seat of government of the Garmisch-Partenkirchen (district), district of Garmisch-Partenkirchen (abbreviated ...

, Germany. Miles worked for the South Carolina

Voter Education Project Voter Education Project (VEP) raised and distributed foundation funds to civil rights organizations for voter education and registration work in the southern United States from 1962 to 1992. The project was federally endorsed by the Kennedy adminis ...

from 1964 to 1967 in the field of voter registration and political leadership training.

Foreign service career

He entered the Foreign Service in 1967 and served abroad in Oslo, Belgrade, Moscow, and as Consul General in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg), and as Principal Officer of the U.S. Embassy Office in Berlin. Miles served as Ambassador to Azerbaijan from 1992 to 1993, as Chief of Mission to Serbia-Montenegro from 1996 to 1999, as Ambassador to Bulgaria from 1999 to 2002 and as Ambassador to Georgia from 2002 to 2005. In the State Department, he also worked in the Office for Soviet Affairs and the Office for East European and Yugoslav Affairs and in the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs. Ambassador Miles worked for Senator Ernest F. Hollings (D-SC) on an American Political Science Fellowship in 1983-1984, and in 1987-1988 he was a fellow at Harvard University's Center for International Affairs. Miles retired from the State Department in August 2005. From April 2006 until December 2006, he served as Executive Director of the

Open World Leadership Center Open World is a ten-day program administered by the Congressional Office for International Leadership that brings emerging leaders from Eurasia to the United States to engage with professional counterparts. The program was established in 1999 to fo ...

headquartered in the Library of Congress. In November 2008, Ambassador Miles was recalled to active duty to serve as Charge of the American Embassy in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. He returned to Washington, DC, and retirement in September 2009. In February 2015, he was asked to go to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan to serve as Charge of the American Embassy there. He returned to Washington and retirement in September 2015. Miles has been awarded the State Department's

Meritorious Honor Award The Meritorious Honor Award is an award of the United States Department of State. Similar versions of the same award exist for the former U.S. Information Agency, Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, and USAID. It is presented to groups or indi ...

and Group

Superior Honor Award The Superior Honor Award is an award of the United States Department of State. Similar versions of the same award exist for the former U.S. Information Agency, Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, and USAID. It is presented to groups or individ ...

(twice). In 1992, he was awarded a Presidential Meritorious Service Award and a national award for reporting. In 2004, he was the recipient of the State Department's Robert C. Frasure Award for peaceful conflict resolution.

References

External links

* , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Miles, Richard 1937 births Living people Ambassadors of the United States to Azerbaijan Ambassadors of the United States to Bulgaria Ambassadors of the United States to Georgia (country) Bakersfield College alumni Harvard Fellows Indiana University Bloomington alumni People from Little Rock, Arkansas University of California, Berkeley alumni United States Foreign Service personnel United States Marines