Gerald Sutton

Biography

Born in Chicago, Gerald Sutton moved to Los Angeles, later graduating from Venice High School and then UCLA in Political Science (with honors) in 1956. He did postgraduate work at the National University of Mexico in 1956.

Gerald Sutton was assigned during his diplomatic career to seven countries (Spain, Cuba, Japan, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Jamaica, Colombia) developing an expertise on Northeast Asia and Latin America. Notable assignments included Director of the Office of Terrorism and Narcotics Analysis (86-90), Deputy Director of Japanese Affairs (1979–81), staff director of Kissinger Commission on Central America (84-85), Principal Officer of American Consulate Fukuoka,Japan (69-70), and political counselor in Ecuador (76-79) and Nicaragua (74-76). He was also charge'd'affaires (acting chief of mission) of the US Embassy in Quito, Ecuador during May 1979, and chief of the State Department's intelligence watch unit (85-86).

A well-traveled senior inspector under the Inspector General toward the end of his service, he eventually visited over 110 countries during his career. He was awarded several Superior Honor, Meritorious Honor, and Career Achievement awards by the State Department and was decorated with the National Medal of Merit by the Ecuadorean government. In addition to State Department assignments, Sutton was a member of the Dick Cheney team on the "Continuity of Government" (i.e. post-nuclear attack planning) project. He also served as deputy chairman of the Inter-agency Committee on Terrorism Reporting.

Notable points in Sutton's career include: the negotiation of a joint communique with the Japanese side (1981)which employed the word "allies" to mutually characterize -officially and publicly for the first time- the singular US-Japan bilateral relationship. . . his initiative which resulted in President Carter sending a stiff—and ultimately successful—note to the Ecuadorean junta admonishing it to refrain from blocking a return to democratic civilian government (1979). . . his conclusion that Libya was responsible for the bombing of a G.I.-frequented discotheque in Berlin—a finding which directly led to the US retaliatory bombing of the Libyan capital in April 1986 . . . his intelligence analysis leading to the apprehension of the Arab hijackers of the Achille Lauro cruise ship (1986). According to a voluntary submission to Wikipedia by thrice chief of mission and thrice deputy assistant secretary of State Francis McNeil, who collaborated closely with him through the years, Sutton played significant role in moving Latin America to a region consisting of almost completely democratically elected governments in the 1980s.

Sutton married former Japanese juvenile radio actress Shigeko Kawahara—scion of a prominent Western Japan media/cultural family—in 1970. At the time, Mrs. Sutton was personal assistant to the Western Japan resident vice president of Japan Steel Corporation. Mrs. Sutton was cited in 2005 by the US Air Force Chief of Staff for "outstanding support" as an Omni Air International crew member participating in the Civil Reserve Air Fleet effort in the Iraq war. She flew two dozen missions ferrying allied troops to entry points to the war zone and was assigned the protocolary military rank of first lieutenant.

Retired from the State Department in 1998, he lives in Las Vegas, Nevada, where he was a quondam precinct captain for Barack Obama in the 2008 Nevada Democratic primary. Sutton has long been an avid sports fan (currently Redskins, Lakers, and Dodgers) and a collector of modern and folk art.