Howard R. Simpson (1925–1999)

"After World War II, he returned to Paris on the GI Bill to study art at L'Academie Julien, and over the next 50 years he continued to produce numerous watercolors, oils and lithographs. His artistic training landed him his first civilian job as a staff artist and cartoonist at the old San Francisco Call-Bulletin.

While working at the paper, he spotted an ad for a job with the State Department and was sent to Washington, D.C., for training. His first posting was to Saigon during the French war in Indochina, where he acted as a U.S. Information Agency correspondent, a psychological warfare operative and press adviser to Premier Ngo Dinh Diem. After postings in France and Nigeria, Mr. Simpson returned to Saigon to serve as an adviser to Prime Minister Nguyen Khanh when the United States became involved in Vietnam.

From those experiences came three of Mr. Simpson's 15 books -- "Tiger in the Barbed Wire: An American in Vietnam, 1952 - 1991," "Dien Bien Phu: The Epic Battle America Forgot," and "Someone Else's War," a Vietnam novel.

In 1974, Mr. Simpson returned to France as U.S. consul general in Marseille. ... Other diplomatic assignments included Canberra, Australia; Algiers, and Paris.

From 1967 to 1969 he taught at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, R.I., and served as a consultant on international terrorism throughout the rest of his career."