installation of the new Kennedy Administration, Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara directed the dismantlement of the Air Force and Navy long range plans staffs and ordered the services' long range planning experts out of Washington and into the field. This along with imposing a more restrictive editorial policy on the military services' strategy journals removed the services' key thinkers from the Washington debates arising from the administration's new strategic direction with regard to military procurement and military strategy development. As a result, in June 1961, Richardson was transferred to the Military Assistance Division, Headquarters US European Command, Paris, France, and upon arrival was detailed by General Norstad as director of operations for Live Oak, the Tripartite Berlin Plans and Operations Group air force team that coordinated and executed the NATO air responses to the Soviet attempts close down the Berlin air corridors during the Berlin Crisis. Upon termination of the Berlin Crisis, Richardson was assigned as deputy standing group representative, NATO, effective 1 January 1962 through 1 January 1964. Air Force System Command and strategic acquisition development Given Secretary of Defense McNamara's known hostility toward any military service long-range planning and to Richardson's strategic thinking, the Air Force assigned Richardson to Headquarters Air Force Systems Command, Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland. He served as assistant to the commander, then assistant deputy chief of staff for plans, and in August 1965, he was assigned as the deputy chief of staff for science and technology. On 31 July 1966, he reported to Field Command, Defense Atomic Support Agency. His final military assignment was to Headquarters Field Command, Defense Atomic Support Agency, Sandia Base, New Mexico, as deputy commander for weapons and training where he was responsible for managing atomic weapon development and training activities and the nuclear weapons stockpile. Defense policy consultant and learning to influence public policy Richardson retired from active duty on 1 August 1967 and began his second career as a writer, lecturer, and consultant on defense issues, nuclear strategy, and aerospace technology management. He joined his long-time friend and former AFSC commander, General Bernard Adolph Schriever, as a senior associate with Schriever & McKee Associate Consultants to bring his aerospace and systems management expertise to bear on the issues facing urban America. In the 1970s, Richardson greatly expanded his work as an author, lecturer, and policy advocate in the areas of national security, defense theory, defense policy formulation,