Peter Rodman, 64, of Boston; advised American presidents on foreign policy
WASHINGTON - Peter W. Rodman, a foreign policy specialist who helped shape major government initiatives in the areas of national security and defense while holding key posts in the administrations of five presidents, died of complications of leukemia Saturday at Johns Hopkins Hospital. The Boston native was 64.
Over years of service in government and the private sector, Mr. Rodman brought his vigorous intellect to bear on many of the nation's most sensitive diplomatic negotiations and undertakings, such as bringing an end to the Vietnam War and reopening relations with China. He advised on the Middle East during the Reagan administration and was involved in aspects of the Iraq war under President George W. Bush.
Mr. Rodman was known as a force of intellect in the national security and defense arenas. He employed his expertise on issues from the Cold War to beyond the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Of particular interest to him were US policies relating to Europe and Russia, East Asia and South Asia, and the Middle East and Persian Gulf. Since 2007, he was a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, where he researched, wrote, and gave speeches on presidential policy-making in national security.
Mr. Rodman was a strategist and policy planner who understood theory and how to put it into practice in a meaningful way, said Robert M. Kimmitt, deputy secretary of the Department of the Treasury, who worked with Mr. Rodman on President Ford's National Security Council staff.
"While everyone else was working on the issue of the moment, he always took time to look at it in a broader context" to see what it would mean five to 10 years from now, Kimmitt said.
An independent thinker who was not always predictable, Mr. Rodman offered principled views, Kimmitt said.
Mr. Rodman started his government career with the National Security Council in 1969 with his mentor from college, Henry Kissinger. He was an assistant to the former national security adviser and secretary of state during the early days of China diplomacy.
As assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs from 2001 to 2007, Mr. Rodman coordinated Pentagon policies and operations in regions around the world.
Donald H. Rumsfeld, the former defense secretary, said Mr. Rodman had an understated manner. But he "worked energetically over many decades finding bipartisan support for our nation's foreign policy at home and a consensus among diplomats abroad," Rumsfeld said in a statement.
"Unlike so many in the field of foreign policy, Peter was neither a partisan nor an advocate," he added.
Peter Warren Rodman was born in Boston and was a foreign policy junkie from age 4, according to his family. As a youth, he built a shortwave radio and taught himself Russian in order to listen to Soviet broadcasts.
In 1964, he graduated at the top of his class in three years from Harvard University. For his senior thesis on the Cuban missile crisis, he was allowed to pick his own mentor. He chose Kissinger, then a Harvard professor.
He received bachelor's and master's degrees from Oxford University and a law degree from Harvard in 1969.
Mr. Rodman was known for his love of his family and the Boston Red Sox.
He leaves his wife, Veronique, of Washington; two children, Theodora and Nicholas, both of Washington; his parents, Sumner and Helen Rodman of Chestnut Hill, Mass.; and a brother. 