Richard Armitage: An old-school US diplomat who knew the reach and restraint of American power

WASHINGTON – Pragmatism, alliance-building and a commitment to American engagement with the world were his calling cards.

He knew the reach of American power. And the value of restraint.

Mr Richard Armitage, an old-school US diplomat, is being remembered here and in Singapore for shaping Washington’s approach to Asia in the decisive years of the early 2000s when the US first began grappling with China’s meteoric rise. 

A traditional Republican, Mr Armitage’s values stood in sharp contrast with the party’s populist “America First” turn and its embrace of a transactional approach to foreign policy under President Donald Trump.

Mr Armitage, who died on April 13 at the age of 79, rose from being a naval ensign in the battlefields of Vietnam to the top rungs of American diplomacy. 

He served as deputy secretary of state (2001-2005) under then President George W. Bush and, before that, as an assistant secretary of defence in the Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush administrations.

In the tumultuous years following the Sept 11 terrorist attacks on America in 2001, he was then Secretary of State Colin Powell’s right-hand man. Known for his directness, the bald, muscular powerlifter famously delivered the ultimatum to Pakistan: Cooperate in the fight against Al-Qaeda or face dire consequences. 

He also pressed allies such as Japan to support the “war on terror”, urging Tokyo to “show the flag” and, controversially, to put “boots on the ground” during the Iraq War, a phrase that sparked debate in pacifist Japan.

At the same time, he was a moderating voice within the Bush administration, advocating diplomacy even as the US embarked on wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

He also played a key role during the 2001 EP-3 spy plane crisis, a major test of the Bush administration’s China policy. The crisis stemmed from a collision between a US Navy EP-3E surveillance aircraft and a Chinese F-8 fighter jet near Hainan island. It resulted in the death of the Chinese pilot and the emergency landing and subsequent detention of 24 American crew members by the Chinese authorities.

Mr Armitage is credited for ending that crisis through dialogue, maintaining a positive relationship with China while affirming the right of the US and other nations to fly in international airspace.

The veteran diplomat, who described himself as “hooked on Asia” in a 2019 podcast, was known for pushing the US to keep a robust presence in the Asia-Pacific. It was key to America’s own security and prosperity, he maintained.

He openly criticised Mr Trump’s free and open Indo-Pacific strategy in his first term as being “all about defence” and described the

US’ decision in 2017 to abandon the world’s largest free trade pact,

the prospective Trans-Pacific Partnership, as disastrous. 

“It wasn’t about the other elements of the other arrows in our quiver: education, political engagement, economic engagement, cultural engagement. And if we don’t do all of that, then we are not going to prevail in this battle of ideas with China,” he said in an interview about US defence policy midway through Trump 1.0 from 2017 to 2021.

One of Mr Armitage’s enduring contributions was in building US ties with Japan. Alongside Harvard professor emeritus Joseph Nye, he co-authored the Armitage-Nye reports, a series beginning in 2000 that provided a bipartisan blueprint for deepening the Washington-Tokyo alliance. 

Updated regularly over 25 years, the reports were pivotal in transforming the alliance to keep pace with China’s growing military power.

“Rich Armitage played a pivotal role in the revitalisation of the US-Japan alliance,” said Dr Victor Cha, president of the Geopolitics and Foreign Policy Department at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

“For many of us, he was the dean of foreign policy practitioners in the US government working on Asia and the man with sage advice for all of us who were alliance managers,” Dr Cha said.

Ahead of the 2016 presidential election, Mr Armitage broke with the Republican Party and publicly endorsed Democrat Hillary Clinton over Mr Trump, declaring that the latter “doesn’t appear to be a Republican, he doesn’t appear to want to learn about issues”.

When contacted by The Straits Times, Mr Robert Zoellick, who succeeded Mr Armitage as deputy secretary of state in 2005, described him as “one-of-a-kind”.

He was a man of action, Mr Zoellick said, who “knew how to use American power, while appreciating the value of restraint and the dangers of overstretch”.

“Rich also had a special appreciation for the importance of East Asia and its peoples,” said Mr Zoellick, 71, who also served as the president of the World Bank (2007-2012) and as US trade representative (2001-2005).

“While he knew the leaders, he cared deeply about those who were most vulnerable. His daring rescue of frightened Vietnamese refugees during the Vietnam War was as important to him as his strategic work with Japan and Singapore.”

Mr Armitage, who served three combat tours in the 1954-1975 war, organised the evacuation of South Vietnamese naval ships and personnel in the days leading up to the fall of Saigon. In a dramatic incident, he personally led a flotilla carrying an estimated 30,000 refugees to safety in the Philippines.

“Most importantly, Rich Armitage, like his contemporaries Colin Powell and John McCain, valued friendship. He was a man you wanted by your side when the odds were against you,” Mr Zoellick said.

Another contemporary, Dr Dov Zakheim, a former undersecretary of defence, described Mr Armitage as the “straightest shooter” he had ever met.

“For that reason, he was trusted throughout East Asia. And, I might add, the Middle East and elsewhere, by all parties,” said Dr Zakheim, 76, who is a senior adviser at CSIS and vice-chairman of the board for the Foreign Policy Research Institute, a Philadelphia-based think-tank.

“Beijing trusted him. Taipei trusted him. Every Asean member trusted him. His vision was for America to foster peace and stability. And he worked hard to make that happen.”

Significantly, he was instrumental in the formulation of the third of the landmark three Sino-US communiques, which was signed in 1982, according to Dr Zakheim.

The last communique, which addressed US arms sales to Taiwan, advocated a balanced approach that prioritised both strategic engagement with Beijing and firm support for Taiwan’s security.

“Rich was an internationalist to the core. Nowadays, however, there are far more isolationists in the Republican Party than when Rich Armitage served in government,” said Dr Zakheim.

In an interview with ST in Singapore almost two decades ago, Mr Armitage dwelt on the theme.

Most Americans are reluctant internationalists, he said in the interview published on Nov 29, 2006.

“They realise they have to be involved beyond the boundaries imposed by two great oceans. But they don’t really like it, as they think there’s trouble out there,” he said.

Americans, he added, are tired of being afraid, unloved and unwanted in the world.

“After 9/11, in our anger and our fear, we presented a snarling face to the world. That’s not the traditional face that Americans put to the world. We put a face of optimism and opportunity and enthusiasm. And I, for one, want to return to that kind of face.”

In that interview, Mr Armitage applauded the flex of Singapore diplomacy.

He said: “Tommy Koh, he’s like the energiser bunny. He just never quits. He can go anywhere in the United States. People want to see him, want to talk to him. That counts for a lot. 

“There’s a lot to be said for the way Singapore deploys her foreign service officers. You’ve got limited numbers, but you make them really count.”

Mr Armitage added: “Having Tommy Koh so long in Washington, then Chan Heng Chee and S. R. Nathan; Heng Chee knows her way very well, and is trusted. When Peter Ho or George Yeo comes… everybody wants to see them.”

His reference was to then Foreign Minister George Yeo and the ministry’s then Permanent Secretary Peter Ho. Ambassador-at-Large Chan Heng Chee served as Singapore’s US envoy in Washington from 1996 to 2012. 

Her predecessor, the late president S R Nathan, served in Washington for six years from 1990. Before him, Ambassador-at-Large Tommy Koh did a stint from 1984 to 1990.

Ambassador Chan told ST on April 16 that Mr Armitage had been pivotal in obtaining a hard-sought meeting of Asean envoys with the State Department during the Bush years. The preceding Clinton administration had refused to grant such meetings because of US sanctions on the Myanmar junta.

“I told him it was absurd that Asean was held hostage to Myanmar as Secretary (Madeleine) Albright never met Asean ambassadors in Washington as a group because of Myanmar, which was sanctioned by the Clinton administration,” said Professor Chan.

It was “bad” for US foreign policy, she told him.

“Armitage hoisted in the point. When George W. Bush was elected president and Colin Powell became secretary of state and Rich his deputy, he arranged an early meeting for the Asean envoys with secretary Powell,” she recollected.

“Rich was an extraordinary person and a wonderful, generous-hearted man. He had a clear understanding of the strategic importance of South-east Asia to American interests. He treated Singapore diplomats as real friends. I had deep, unvarnished conversations with him. He always said it as it is,” she said.

She also shared a softer side of Mr Armitage, saying: “I remember in Singapore, he asked me if I watched Young Sheldon.” The TV series is a spin-off of the popular The Big Bang Theory.

“He proudly told me Sheldon was played by his grandson Iain Armitage,” said Prof Chan, adding that she last saw the former diplomat in 2023.

Mr Armitage’s advocacy on US global leadership was tempered by restraint and respect for partners’ sovereignty.

His takeaway from the spy plane crisis is especially relevant amid the escalating trade wars of today.

“We came out, both China and the US, with a new respect for each other,” Mr Armitage told ST then. “We were not unreasonable, we both had our limits, but within those limits, we could deal.”

Editor’s note: This story has been corrected to clarify that Ambassador Chan sought a meeting of Asean envoys with the State Department, not the White House, during the Bush years.