Richard Latter (20 February 1923 – 2 December 1999) was a theoretical physicist, who was famous for his political involvement in the United States during the Cold War, where he warned against MIRVs developed in Soviet Russia, by which arms-reduction treaties could be evaded.
In 1960 his brother, physicist Albert L. Latter,[1] took his place, and he joined the RAND Research Council.
In the early 1960s, Latter had the idea of Multiple Independently targetable Reentry Vehicles (MIRVs) which, as he later realized, was already thought of—and put into use—in Soviet Russia.
He was a member of the US delegation to the Conference for the Discontinuance of Nuclear Weapons Tests on Geneva and a science adviser to the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT).
Latter also helped work with Soviet scientists at the Geneva conference to develop what would later become a treaty against testing nuclear weapons in the atmosphere (1964).