Richard V. Allen

Defense Policy Board: Member
Hoover Institution: Senior fellow
Project for the New American Century: Signatory
Committee on the Present Danger: Former member

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Institutional Affiliations

Government Service

Corporate Connections/Business Interests

Education

Highlights & Quotes

Like many of the archconservatives who support the policy positions of the Project for the New American Century, Richard Allen's rightwing credentials date back to the 1970s and 1980s, when he was a member of the Committee on the Present Danger and served in the Reagan and Nixon administrations. Allen is one of eight Hoover fellows serving on the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board.

Along with his political activities, Allen has had a long career working as a financial consultant, founding the consulting firm Potomac International in the 1970s. This work, however, landed him in the middle of several scandals. According to the Washington Post , "It was around [1972] that Allen was paid $10,000 per month for about six months to do consulting work for Howard Cerny, a lawyer for fugitive financier Robert Vesco. Allen, however, was never accused of any involvement in Vesco's alleged swindling. In 1976, Allen was accused in a Senate hearing of soliciting a $1 million campaign contribution for the Nixon reelection fund from Grumman International, a defense contracting firm, in return for pressure on Japan to buy a Grumman plane. Allen denied the charge by a former Grumman official, and it has never been proved [sic]. . On Oct. 30, 1980, Allen resigned from the Reagan campaign because of conflict-of-interest charges reported in the Wall Street Journal. The Journal article said Allen conducted private business negotiations with Japanese companies during his time at the White House in the early '70s; the article also said that Allen, as a result of his actitivties [sic], claimed the right to benefit from a $120,000 per year account that an associate obtained from Datsun, the Japanese automaker." (In the same Post article, the journalist interviewed Allen's children: "So, is there one quality -- one word -- they can say that their father instilled in them? 'Win,' says Kas. 'Rule,' says Kristin. 'Conquer,' says Karen.") (5)

Allen's penchant for making backroom deals also got him into trouble when he served in the Reagan administration. Writes Phillip Burch, "Allen had an embarrassing problem which surfaced in the latter part of 1981. It originated the day after President Reagan's inauguration, when Allen came into possession of a $1,000 gratuity paid in cash from a Japanese magazine, intended for Nancy Reagan in exchange for an interview she had given, which money he placed in a White House safe and then reportedly forgot. Also, it was belatedly discovered that around the same time, Allen had accepted three expensive watches as personal gifts from Japanese friends who were high-level governmental consultants. As a result of these disclosures, Allen was forced to leave his NSC post in early 1982." (20)

(1) APCO Worldwide: Richard V. Allen http://www.apcoworldwide.com/content/bios/allen.cfm

(2) Council of Public Relations Firms: Who We Are: Industry Announcements http://www.prfirms.org/news/spotlight/apco_reconstruction.asp

(3) "ALLEN, Richard V., BA, MA." International Year Book and Statesmen's Who's Who 2004 . Cambridge Scientific Abstracts. p.1161.

(4) The 1999 Elections and the Future of Nigeria http://www.ned.org/forum/reports/taiwan.html

(5) Elisabeth Bumiller, "The Powers and Puzzles of Richard Allen; The Disappearing 'Disappearing Act' of the National Security Adviser" The Washington Post June 28, 1981

(6) Jerry Sanders, Peddlers of Crisis: The Committee on the Present Danger and the Politics of Containment (Boston: South End Press, 1983)

(7) Hoover Bio: Richard V. Allen http://www-hoover.stanford.edu/BIOS/allen.html

(8) CSIS Directory of Alumni: RICHARD V. ALLEN http://www.csis.org/html/alumni/allenr.html

(9) Statement on the Defense of Taiwan http://www.newamericancentury.org/Taiwandefensestatement.htm

(10) "Committees of the Board, 2001-2002" http://www.cfr.org/about/pdf/ar_2002/081-82.pdf

(11) Board of Directors and Advisory Council http://www.nixoncenter.org/boardac.htm

(12) FEDERAL CITY CLUB Board of Governors http://www.federalcityclub.com/fccBoardofGovernors.htm

(13) The American Spectator http://tas.spectator.org/util/print.asp?art=-1

(14) U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea http://www.hrnk.org/about-board.html

(15) American Committee for Peace in Chechnya http://www.peaceinchechnya.org/about_members.htm

(16) Rebuilding Together: 2001 Annual Report . Rebuilding Together. http://www.rebuildingtogether.com/news_information/Publications/Annual%20Report%2025.pdf

(17) Group Watch: Committee for the Free World http://www.irc-online.org/research/Group_Watch/Entries-32.htm

(18) Statement by Press Secretary Fitzwater on the Task Force on United States Government International Broadcasting http://bushlibrary.tamu.edu/papers/1991/91042901.html

(19) Albin Krebs and Robert McG. Thomas, "Notes on People; Another Job for Richard Allen," New York Times , January 23, 1982

20) Philip Burch, Reagan, Bush, and Right-Wing Politics: Elites, Think Tanks, Power, and Policy. The American Right Wing Takes Command: Key Executive Appointments (Greenwich, CT.: Jai Press, 1997), p.19.