Robert Blackwill

Robert D. Blackwill
20th United States Ambassador to India
In office September 14, 2001 – July 31, 2003
President	George W. Bush
Preceded by	Dick Celeste
Succeeded by	David Mulford
Personal details
Born	August 8, 1939 (age 74) Kellogg, Idaho, U.S.
Nationality	United States
Political party	Republican

Robert Dean Blackwill (born August 8, 1939) is a retired American diplomat, author, Senior Fellow at the Council of Foreign Relations and lobbyist. Blackwill was the United States Ambassador to India (2001–2003), and United States National Security Council Deputy for Iraq (2003–2004), where he was a liaison between Paul Bremer and Condoleezza Rice.

Blackwill was born August 8, 1939, in Kellogg, Idaho. and grew up in Kansas. "From my boyhood on the Great Plains, I brought back east more than 30 years ago the values of Kansas and its people: honesty, candor, compassion, hard work, a dogged stamina in the face of challenge and adversity, a sense of humor, a recognition of one's own limitations, and a deep and abiding love of country," Blackwill said in June 2001 at his Senate confirmation hearings to become ambassador to India. Blackwill earned a B.A. from Wichita State University.

Blackwill served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Malawi from 1964 to 1966. While in the Peace Corps Blackwill served with writer Paul Theroux who Blackwill later described as "the glorious American writer who was my friend in the Peace Corps in Africa more than thirty years ago." In an interview with Rediff News on June 27, 2006 Blackwill was asked if he was still in contact with Theroux and replied "Not recently. But I just finished reading his new novel, Blinding Light. It is terrific."

Blackwill was appointed a Foreign Service Officer in 1967. Blackwill served as a training officer in the Bureau of Personnel of the US State Department from 1968 to 1969. Blackwill served an associate watch officer in the State Department's Operations Center from 1969 to 1970.

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