Richard Edward Snyder (December 10, 1919 – January 9, 2012) was a United States Department of State official best known for his role as the senior Moscow consular official handling Lee Harvey Oswald's attempted defection to the Soviet Union in 1959 and return to the US in 1961.
He was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for actions during World War II in Europe, in helping to evacuate his wounded comrades while under enemy fire.
He spent 10 years in the United States Army Reserve and retired at the rank of major.
Much of Snyder's career was spent in Japan, but after he earned his Master's degree in Russian Studies in 1956, Snyder served as a senior consular official at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow from July 1959 to July 1961.
In Moscow he dealt with Lee Harvey Oswald (accepting Oswald's US passport in October 1959 and returning it to him in July 1961), met with the American defector to the USSR Robert Edward Webster on October 17, 1959, and attended the trial of U2 pilot Francis Gary Powers.