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Richard Armitage had all of the fun
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Why has not a movie been made about Richard L. Armitage? The former Deputy Secretary of State in the George W. Bush administration has led a life filled with more than enough heroism and intrigue to warrant the attention of Hollywood.
Armitage, after graduating from the Naval Academy, volunteered for the most dangerous missions during the war in Vietnam. Advising river patrol squads and teaching ambush and interrogation techniques were among the tasks handled by the young warrior.
Though he has never officially admitted to the fact, Armitage was part of a secret CIA program that endeavored to eliminate the civilian leadership of the Viet Cong through capture and/or assassination.
Armitage fell in love with the country of Vietnam. He quickly became fluent in the language, and dressed in appropriate local garb. He also had a large appetite for the seamier aspects of life in the jungle. His cavorting with underworld figures would come back to haunt him in later years, but not to the extent that he would be excluded from the power establishment. His connections, combined with his sense of patriotic duty, were far too valuable.
His disdain for mush-mouthed banalities in the halls of politics notwithstanding , there was a need to call upon Armitage to clean up messy situations. In between globe-trotting visits to most of the more unstable regions, Armitage adopted six children (three of them African-American) and fostered over 40 .jpg)
more who had been abandoned.
When the United States decided to bring a halt to its adventures in Vietnam, Armitage likened American actions to that of an irresponsible father. He was given the task of recovering weapons and equipment before they fell into enemy hands. While this project was flailing, 20,000 South Vietnamese were attempting to flee the approaching Viet Cong. They had no food or water, and an inadequate number of vessels to carry them to safety. Armitage personally arranged the delivery of sustenance, and led the refugee ships over 1,000 miles to the Philippines. This was against the wishes of both the United States and Philippine governments. In New Mexico, this is what we call having serious huevos. It was an act of extreme bravery that cannot be communicated through the paltry device of language, but must be imagined in the ineffable part of ourselves usually referred to as the soul.
Armitage could bench press the equivalent of the combined weight of two journalists, and projected the kind of machismo that was exactly what the United States would need when dealing with nations that were not particularly inclined to capitulate to our demands. This included countries in the Middle East, Asia, and the newly independent republics broken off from the crumbled Soviet Union.
While serving in the Pentagon, Armitage was perfectly aware of the Iran-Contra dealings, though not directly involved, and this nearly sank his career. He did, however, manage to stay on as Washington's fix-it man, and forged a strong personal relationship with Colin Powell, a fellow Vietnam veteran. This bond would prove to be a political boon and albatross in later years.
When Armitage was nominated to be the Secretary of the Army, he found a formidable foe in Texas billionaire Ross Perot. Perot was twisting himself in knots over the fate of American soldiers still being held in Vietnam. He was not pleased with the close relations that Armitage held with those in the area, including a mob boss who ran a large gambling operation. Perot aired the plentiful dirty laundry of Armitage, effectively killing his nomination.
When George W. Bush was building his cabinet, Armitage was angling for another position in the Pentagon, preferably Deputy Secretary of Defense. Meanwhile, Paul Wolfowitz was doing his best to secure a spot in the State Department. Ultimately, each got the job that the other wanted. This paired Armitage with his best friend Powell, and Wolfowitz went to work for Donald Rumsfeld. These pairings set up the bitter battles between the two agencies, highlighting the proclivity of Bush to encourage rancorous debate.
Armitage did sign the now famous letter to Bill Clinton from the Project for the New American Century in 1998 that called for regime change in Iraq. He was not, however, part of the chicken hawk consortium that included Condoleezza Rice, Paul Wolfowitz, Donald Rumsfeld, and Dick Cheney. The actual veterans of war, Armitage and Powell, were naturally more skeptical of the use of military power to acheive political objectives. The pair sadly did not display enough valor to assert their beliefs powerfully enough to provide a solid alternative to protect our interests without perpetrating voluminous deaths of the innocent.
It was Armitage who was sent to deal with our troublesome relationship with Pakistan as the U.S. launched its War on Terror. His contacts with the Pakistani secret service during the Reagan administration surely helped when he laid down the non-negotiable "proposals" that the U.S. offered for Pakistan's aid in the war. Pakistan had given birth to and groomed the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. When Armitage suggested that Pakistan may be "bombed back to the stone age", the country at least nominally cast its lot with the United States.
In the end, the duo of Powell and Armitage were effectively forced out of the administration. While the Iraq War sank to ever lower levels of depravity, the views of these ousted statesmen gained currency in the so-called "Surge" which brought the first semblance of order since the U.S. invasion.
Armitage went on to profit handsomely from his dealings with weapons and oil companies seeking to do business in some of the more darker spaces of the globe. This included a substantial amount of money gained directly from the Iraq War. He also found time to out himself as the one who named Valerie Plame as a covert operative in the infamous scandal that distracted Washington and ruined the career of Scooter Libby. Along with the benchpressing and hardcore insider dealings, Armitage loved to gossip, likely after indulging in one too many. His loose tongue helped launch a time and money wasting goose chase that ultimately meant nothing.
Armitage personified the split in Republican thinking that occurred after the Cold War. Rice, Rumsfeld, Cheney, and Wolfowitz took the approach of capitalizing on American military supremecy, and using it as the ultimate leverage in advancing the priorities of the United States. While Armitage did not wholly reject this, he was more aligned with the views of Colin Powell. They were two vets who understood the horrible effects and limited positives that come from armed conflict. Their approach called for the use of realism in relations with other countries, preferring a balance of power to the United States appointing itself World Police.
When the movie is made, I will proudly tell my friends and family that I told them it would happen, and happily watch the celluloid tale of a unique figure in the political history of the United States.
Coming up next: CIA Director George Tenet
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