Robert Sherwood Dillon

Robert Sherwood Dillon (born January 7, 1929) was the United States Ambassador to Lebanon from 1981 to 1983. He was born in 1929 in Chicago and attended Duke University, graduating in 1951.

Dillon served in the US army for eighteen months before being discharged and continuing his education at Duke University. After receiving his B.A. in English Literature in 1951, he served as a CIA intelligence officer with Chinese Nationalist irregular forces. Following his time in the CIA, he joined the Foreign Service. Dillon spent more than 30 years in the Foreign Service with assignments including Venezuela, Turkey, Malaysia, Egypt, Lebanon. He served as Deputy Chief of Mission in Malaysia, Turkey and Egypt and oversaw the negotiations and security of hostages during The Kuala Lumpur Hostage Crisis. Dillon served as US Ambassador to Lebanon for two years, surviving the 1983 United States embassy bombing, before retiring from the foreign service in 1983 with the rank of Career Minister. Dillon currently resides in Arlington, Virginia and has authored a memoir and biography of his father, Dale Crowell Dillon.

Books One of the Very Best Men by Robert Sherwood Dillon (Five and Ten Press, March 2004) (Memoir) An American Soldier in World War I by Robert Sherwood Dillon (Five and Ten Press, June 2005) (Biography of Dale Crowell Dillon)