Starboard Memories
Richard Danzig ’65 reflects on his journey from studying political science to becoming the namesake of a new guided missile destroyer.
In 2027, the U.S. Navy will begin construction on a new guided missile destroyer. It will have a complement of 380 officers, span 510 feet, be outfitted with 96 missile cells, and be named after Richard Danzig ’65.
“The idea of a ship being named for you is a very sweet one, in part because of the camaraderie that comes from your connection to the crew,” says Richard, who served as the 71st Secretary of the Navy under President Bill Clinton. “Eventually, the ship is deployed and the people who are on it connect to the name and the history—and you connect to them.”
It might seem incongruous that a vessel that repels ballistic missiles could bear the name of a man who graduated from a college that cheekily adopted “atheism, communism, free love” as its unofficial slogan. Yet throughout his career, Richard has embraced the individualism of Reed and the collectivism of the military, ultimately benefitting from both.
“Reed really celebrates the individual and encourages the development of individuality—and of critical thought and going your own way,” Richard says. “People [in the navy] agree to accept a degree of uniformity. You’re accepting the limitations of that model, but what you get in return is a much greater group force.”
The naming of the USS Richard J. Danzig marks an inflection point in Richard’s impressive and idiosyncratic career, which has seen him work in close proximity to some of the most influential and powerful leaders in American history—not only Clinton, but President Barack Obama, whom Richard served as a national security adviser during the 2008 election.
Power was the subject of Richard’s thesis, which focussed on political revolutions and was written under Professor Kalesh Dudharkar [1959–88]. Yet at Reed, the personal mattered to Richard as much as the political—particularly during the first week of his freshman year, when he met Andrea “Andy” Auster ’65, whom he would eventually marry.
Beginning what he later described as a “torrid courtship,” Richard valiantly wooed Andy, becoming so smitten that one Valentine’s Day, he scattered roses for her across campus. Co-conspirators included Andy’s roommate (who placed a rose with Andy’s toothbrush) and a cashier in Commons (who handed her one at breakfast).
It was, Andy later recalled, “one of those experiences which are awful to endure, but much more wonderful to remember.” It was also a testament to Richard’s tenacity—"the same trait that drove him to earn a doctorate in history from Oxford and a JD from Yale (followed by a clerkship with Supreme Court Justice Byron White).
Serving as secretary from 1998 to 2001, Richard propelled the navy into the 21st century with a series of long-needed improvements, like initiating a program that enabled sailors to earn college credits for navy training and providing for civilian teams rather than sailors to paint ships. He also fought to end what he characterized as the navy’s “conscript mentality,” advocating for sailors and marines to be treated not as low-skilled draftees, but as skilled volunteers.
“Because we had a conscription system until the mid 1970s, the whole system was built on the notion that labor was largely free—that people would come in, get underpaid, be there for two [or three] years, and leave,” Richard says. “Whereas now, we were recruiting people for the long-term, trying to give them a very rich collection of skills.”
Despite serving in the Clinton administration, Richard chose to support Obama over Hillary Clinton in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary. At the time, he told Reed Magazine that his decision was based on his sense of which candidate was better prepared to bridge the ideological gulfs of George W. Bush’s presidency.
“[Hillary Clinton] emphasized the notion that she was a fighter, and I think the U.S. needs a healer,” Richard said in 2008. He put that assessment into practice not only by advising Obama on policy, but by serving as a campaign surrogate, a role that occasionally led to unwanted attention (particularly from partisan media outlets that misconstrued a speech in which Richard referenced Winnie-the-Pooh).
Richard’s dedication to public service was recognized by Reed in 2011, when he became the first recipient of the Thomas Lamb Eliot Award for Lifetime Achievement. It was a landmark moment in his singular career that continues to this day (currently, he serves as a senior advisor at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory).
“I am deeply honored to receive such an award, but I can tell you that it is nothing compared to the honor of having been a recipient of what this place has to offer—the honor of being one of you,” Richard told a crowd of Reedies during the college’s Centennial Celebration.
For Richard, being “one of you” has sometimes meant struggling to reconcile the differences between the two worlds that had shaped him intellectually, Reed and the navy. Lamenting the decline of Reedies serving in the years since World War II, he wrote in 1999 that Reed “could produce terrific officers for our military.”
Today, Richard remains convinced that Reed and the navy have something to gain from each other. “The skills of self-directed thinking, of critical thought, of analysis, of writing and speaking, are all at the core of a Reed education,” he says. “Those skills are invaluable if later, you’re doing even something that may seem as far afield as being Secretary of the Navy.”