Richard L. Walker

Richard "Dixie" Walker
William H. Gleysteen, Jr.
Succeeded by	James R. Lilley
Personal details
Born	(1922-04-13)April 13, 1922 PhD)
Military service
Allegiance	United States
Branch/service	United States Army
Years of service	1943-1946
Battles/wars	World War II

Richard Louis "Dixie" Walker (April 13, 1922 – July 22, 2003) was an American scholar, author, and former

.

Early life

Walker was born in

as well. He was married to Celeno Kenly Walker for 45 years and had three children.

Career

After his military service, Walker was on the faculty of Yale University until 1957, when he moved to

(USC) that he headed until 1972. In 1961, he founded the Institute of International Studies and headed it until 1981, as it grew into a preeminent national and international center of research, conferences, consultation and publications. In 1996, the institute was renamed the Richard L. Walker Institute in his honor.

In 1981, Walker was chosen by President Ronald Reagan to serve as his ambassador to the Republic of Korea. After unanimous confirmation by the U. S. Senate, he served with distinction at that post until 1986, longer than any other American ambassador. He was partly responsible for securing the release of the imprisoned dissident Kim Dae-jung, who was under sentence of death and who would later become president of South Korea. For this and other efforts, he received recognition from President Reagan and was awarded the highest civilian decoration of the U.S. Department of Defense. Reagan wrote to him, "You have transformed quiet diplomacy into a fine art."

Following his tenure as ambassador, he returned to the University of South Carolina and retired as the James F. Byrnes Professor Emeritus of International Studies and Ambassador-in-Residence at the university. He was academically active until his death.

Walker's life focused on study, writing, and involvement in East Asia. On several occasions, he lived there with his family in

regime, and argued that, in the long term, communism was incompatible within Chinese culture.

A major part of his academic significance is that he tried to some extent to stand between the two competing sides during the period of McCarthyism, which fostered intense anti-communist suspicions in the United States from the late 1940s to the late 1950s. However, as he describes in a 1998 memoir, he still faced academic ostracism for his perceived anti-Communist China bias.^[1]

In addition to his service at South Carolina, where he held its first

on Taiwan with the Order of the Brilliant Star with Grand Cordon. He was president of the American Association for China Studies, from 1995 to 1997.

Walker died in 2003,^[2] and is buried in Berlin, Maryland.

Works

• China Under Communism: The First Five Years
• Hunger in China
• Letters from the Communes

See also

• Ambassadors of the United States

Notes

References

• "Ambassador Richard L. 'Dixie' Walker." Obituary. The State (Columbia, SC). 24 July 2003. B4.
• Nomination of Richard L. Walker To Be United States Ambassador to the Republic of Korea
• Richard L. Walker: In His Own Words - academic papers, articles, clippings, and speeches from the Richard L. Walker Papers at South Carolina Political Collections

External links

• List of U.S. Ambassadors to Korea
• The Richard L. Walker Institute of International and Area Studies at UofSC

Diplomatic posts
Preceded by William H. Gleysteen, Jr.	US Ambassador to Korea 1981–1986	Succeeded by James R. Lilley