Richard V. Allen

Richard V. Allen

Richard Vincent Allen (born January 1, 1936) was the United States National Security Advisor to President Ronald Reagan from 1981 to 1982.

Allen was born in 1936 in Collingswood, New Jersey. A graduate of Saint Francis Preparatory School in Spring Grove, Pennsylvania, Allen received his B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of Notre Dame. He served as a senior staff member of President Nixon's National Security Council in 1968 and served various Republican administrations up to and including that of President Reagan.

In November 1981, while serving as Reagan's National Security Advisor, Allen was accused of receiving a bribe from a journalist from Japan for setting up an interview in January 1981 with First Lady Nancy Reagan. Ronald Reagan said, in his diary, that the Japanese magazine gave cash gifts to people that it interviewed, and that Allen had stepped in to intercept the check to avoid embarrassment for Nancy Reagan, then gave the check to his secretary, who put it in an office safe. Then when Allen changed offices, the check was found left in the safe. The FBI cleared everyone involved, then the Justice Department began its own investigation, and the story got leaked to the press. Reagan believed it was just political sabotage behind leaking the story. Although the claims were never proven, Allen was eventually pressed into resigning his position.

Also in 1981 Richard Allen said that an unidentified third country had passed on an offer of 50 Vietnam War POWs in return for $4 billion. He later recanted and no other official has supported the statement in public.

He is currently a senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, and a member of the Heritage Foundation's Asian Studies Center Advisory Council, the Council on Foreign Relations, the United States Defense Policy Board, the American Alternative Foundation, and the United States National Security Advisory Group. He also serves on the advisory council of the Nixon Center.

Allen is president of the Richard V. Allen Company, a Washington-based consulting services firm. He provides consulting services to international companies and organizations. He currently serves on APCO Worldwide's Iraq reconstruction task force and is considered one of the most influential lobbyists in Washington for South Korean interests.

Richard Allen is also a fellow of St. Margaret's College, one of New Zealand's most prestigious residential colleges.