Richard Jeffrey Danzig (born September 8, 1944) is an American politician and lawyer who served as the 71st Secretary of the Navy under President Bill Clinton.

Danzig was born in New York City in 1944, and attended the Bronx High School of Science, graduating in 1961.

During this time, Danzig was co-author, with the distinguished policy analyst Peter Szanton, of the book, National Service: What Would It Mean?

A decade before, Szanton had been head of the New York City-RAND Institute, a joint venture of the City and the RAND Corporation when Danzig came to that office as a law student.

The book which Danzig and Szanton co-authored helped shape America's current civilian National Service system.

In the period between these two jobs, he and his wife, Andrea, lived in Asia and Europe while Danzig served as a Traveling Fellow of the Center for International Political Economy and as an adjunct professor at Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.