Peter Laurence O'Keeffe CMG CVO (9 July 1931 – 2 May 2003) was a British diplomat who was ambassador to Czechoslovakia during the Velvet Revolution.
He joined the Civil Service in 1953, initially in HM Customs and Excise, but transferred to the Foreign Service in 1962 and was posted to Bangkok 1962–65; the South East Asia desk at the Foreign Office 1965–68; Head of Chancery at Athens 1968–72; Commercial Counsellor at Jakarta 1972–75; and head of the Hong Kong and Indian Ocean Department, FCO, 1975–76.
He returned to London in 1985 for a brief spell as chairman of the Civil Service Selection Board, before going to Vienna as head of the UK delegation to the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe 1986–88.
He was fortunate to have been introduced to most of the leading dissidents, so by the time of the Velvet Revolution he knew personally all the main actors in Prague and Bratislava.
In the wave of Anglophilia that swept over post-revolutionary Czechoslovakia his official car was greeted by cheering crowds who saw him as a symbol of liberty.