John H. Richardson Sr

John H. Richardson Sr (spook)
Died	Mexico
Nationality	US
Alma mater	Berkeley, Sorbonne
Interests	• counterinsurgency • Austria/Gladio
Saigon Chief of Station In office 1962 - 1963 Employer CIA/East Asia Division/Saigon Station Location Saigon,  South Vietnam Succeeded by Peer de Silva  Manila Chief of Station In office 1958 - 1962 Employer CIA/East Asia Division/Manila Station Location Manila,  Philippines Dates not confirmed  Athens Chief of Station In office 1952 - 1956 Employer CIA/European Division/Athens Station Dates not confirmed  Vienna Chief of Station In office 1948 - 1952 Employer CIA/European Division/Vienna Station Location Vienna,  Austria

John H. Richardson Sr was a US spook.

Activities

As Vienna station chief in the early 1950s, he ran the CIA’s first Soviet mole, Col. Pyotr Semyonovich Popov of the GRU, or Soviet military intelligence.

He ran "two hundred agents covering half of Eastern Europe".

Austria/Stay behind

In Athens in the mid-1950s, one of the biggest CIA posts in the world, he helped support the Greek monarchy against communist insurgents.

Four years in the Philippines made him one of the CIA's most seasoned counterinsurgency specialists. In Manila, when Philippine President Diosdado Macapagal was inaugurated in 1961, Richardson was the shadowy man standing by the president’s side on the reviewing stand.

He became Saigon station chief in 1962, where he became a pivotal player the coup against of South Vietnamese president Ngo Dinh Diem.

After Vietnam, he was moved to a desk job as director of training.

His son John Richardson Jr wrote a book about him, My Father The Spy, An Investigative Memoir.

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