Education

BA University of California, Berkeley
MA and PhD, Graduate Institute of International Studies, University of Geneva (Switzerland.)
Graduate, Armed Forces Staff College

Military

World War II –Naval officer, 7th Amphibious Force, Pacific, 1944-1945, 1st wave nine assault landings;
1946 Commanding Officer, USS LSM 67 (then one of the Navy’s youngest ship captains). (USNR, 1942-1965).
Vietnam – 1965-1967 Directed psyops against North Vietnam and its army. Saw some combat.
1972 (TDY) Surveyed the situation on the ground in Western II Corps during the 1972 “Easter Offensive” for the President (as an NSC staffer). Saw combat the whole time. Cold War, European front line service, 1947 to 1962. Witnessed Soviet Army suppression of the last Hungarian Revolution resistance in 1956

Civilian

U.S. Foreign Service, 1950-1978. Retired as a Senior U.S. Foreign Service officer with the rank of Counselor, (equivalent to rear admiral). Overseas posts: Vienna, Berlin, Bonn and Saigon (see above). Domestic: State Department (East Europe–USSR Indochina); Deputy Assistant Director and Acting Assistant Director, U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. Federal Member, President’s General Advisory Committee on Arms Control and Disarmament. NSC Staff. (See below.)

The White House (NSC Staff): Indochina (Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia), 1971-1976. advised Henry Kissinger on the enemy, 1971-1973; headed the NSC Indochina Staff, Jan. 1973 to Jan. 1976; Soviet and East European affairs, 1981 to 1993. (Served longer on the NSC Staff than any other professional in history.)

Georgetown University Adjunct Professor of International Affairs 1977 to 1993;
Director, Russian Area Studies Program, (MA and PhD program),1980–1981.

Present: Writing, including books, my memoirs An American Adventure (published in 2012 by the Naval Institute Press) and others and articles on national security-related and other subjects.

Executive Director, U.S. Naval Fire Support Association, a nonprofit, all volunteer group that promotes effective naval surface fire support  (now largely absent) for our Marines and soldiers, essential to reducing casualties and ensuring success in inevitable future littoral conflicts.

Board of Visitors, U.S. Army War College (2005-2007)

Secretary of the Navy’s Advisory Subcommittee on Naval History (2005-2009)

Publications

The Soviet Union and the Occupation of Austria (book); Published in: Naval Institute Proceedings, Armed Forces Journal International, Marine Corps Gazette, Defense News, Navy Times, Washington Post, New York Times, Washington Times, Time Magazine, The Economist (London), Military Review and others.

Honors: Who’s Who in America (as of 1999); Knight of the Holy Sepulchre (Papal order, founded in 1099) Knighted 1997; Department of the Army Outstanding Civilian Service Award.

Footnote for aviation buffs only: Son of Lloyd C. Stearman, World War I naval flyer; principal designer of the WWII Stearman trainer; first President (and, in effect, founder) Lockheed Aircraft Corporation (Now Lockheed Martin); founded Stearman Aircraft Corp (now Boeing-Wichita); National Aviation Hall of Fame.