American diplomat for the State Department and spy for the Central Intelligence Agency. In 1958, Rickard was appointed American vice-consul in Durban, South Africa. Shortly before his death, Rickard claimed to have provided the information that led to the arrest of Nelson Mandela in 1962 while he was working as vice-consul. In the interview, Rickard described Mandela as “the world’s most dangerous communist outside of the Soviet Union”, and someone who “had to be stopped”. After Mandela’s arrest and conviction he was given a life sentence, serving 27 years before he was released. He went on to become South Africa’s first post-apartheid president in 1994.
In 1942, while in his early teens, Rickard and his parents and brothers had to leave Burma urgently following the Japanese invasion of the country, walking almost 200 miles to India where they made a new home. The family later moved to the San Francisco Bay area where Rickard attended high school and then San Jose State University. After the family moved to Pennsylvania, Rickard attended Bucknell University from where he graduated with a degree in political science before joining the U.S. State Department.
Rickard had diplomatic appointments in Burma, Saipan, Pakistan and South Africa. He also worked for the State Department in Maryland and Washington, D.C., and in 1969 was a U.S. consular officer in Seoul, South Korea. Although a CIA agent, Rickard remained officially a State Department employee.
Rickard retired in 1978 and spent the rest of his life in Pagosa Springs, Colorado. He died on 30 March 2016, aged 88.
Link to Wikipedia biography