Dr. William Lloyd Stearman

Stearman was born on June 22, 1922 in Wichita, Kansas, the son of Lloyd Stearman, the founder of Stearman Aircraft. After graduating from high school, he attended the Navy's V-12 officer training program and then participated in nine amphibious landings in the Pacific Philippines and Borneo campaigns toward the end of World War II (1944-1945). He was one of the youngest officers to be given command of a ship when he commanded an LSM.

After the war, he attended U C Berkeley, where he earned a Bachelors Degree. Then he attended the University of Geneva's Graduate Institute of International Studies, where he earned his MA and Ph.D. He is also a graduate of the Armed Forces Staff College.

Upon earning his Ph.D., he joined the U.S. Foreign Service and was posted to Vienna, Berlin, Bonn, and Vietnam. He subsequently served on the National Security Council Staff for seventeen years under four Presidents; Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and George H. W. Bush. From January 1973 to January 1976 he was the most senior official involved with Vietnam, reporting directly to Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. While Carter was President, he was an adjunct professor and the Director of the Graduate Russian Studies program. He is considered an expert in Vietnam and International Affairs. He retired as a Senior Foreign Service Officer with the title of Councilor, the equivalent of an Admiral in the US Navy.

In 2012, he wrote his memoir, An American Adventure: From Early Aviation Through Three Wars to the White House, which has been described as "a fascinating accounting of his own remarkable life and the tumultuous times in which he lived."

See more at Wikipedia.