Robert White (ambassador)

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Robert White served as U.S. ambassador under different administrations. In 1980-81, he was posted in El Salvador during the first years of that country's brutal 12-year civil war. He was harshly critical of the Salvadoran government, and accused the military and paramilitaries (widely alleged to have close ties) of committing widespread atrocities against civilians, many of which were later factually confirmed. At one time, he described prominent military figure Roberto D'Aubuisson, widely suspected of collaboration with death squad killings including the infamous assassination of FMLN-sympathizing Jesuit Archbishop Óscar Romero, as a "pathological killer."

He was dismissed by the new Reagan administration in 1981. He claims that Secretary of State Alexander Haig pushed for his removal because he did not favor a military solution for the Salvadoran situation.