Richard Clark Barkley (December 23, 1932 – January 30, 2015) was a United States diplomat.

After a year at Columbia University he worked from 1968 to 1971 in the State Department in international relations.

[3] From 1974 to 1977 he served as personal assistant of the ambassador Ellsworth Bunker and then in 1979 he began working in the Office of Central European Affairs.

He was then at the United States Embassy in South Africa, then in June 1988 he was made Ambassador to East Germany.

He followed Francis J. Meehan in the post starting in December and worked in that function until October 2, 1990, the eve of German reunification.