Richard James Kerr (born October 4, 1935) was Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency from 1989 to 1992. He was born in Fort Smith, Arkansas. He received a B.A. in history from the University of Oregon and started graduate work there too. Kerr had a 32-year career with the CIA which included involvement in the retaliatory bombing raids against Libya in 1986 and culminated with key roles in managing U.S. intelligence related to the near nuclear stand-off between India and Pakistan in 1990 and the attempted coup against Boris Yeltsin in August, 1991.