With the installation of the new Kennedy Administration, Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara directed the dismantlement of the Air Force and Navy long range plans staffs and ordered the services' long range planning experts out of Washington and into the field. This along with imposing a more restrictive editorial policy on the military services' strategy journals removed the services' key thinkers from the Washington debates arising from the administration's new strategic direction with regard to military procurement and military strategy development. As a result, in June 1961, Richardson was transferred to the Military Assistance Division, Headquarters US European Command, Paris, France, and upon arrival was detailed by General Norstad as director of operations for Live Oak, the Tripartite Berlin Plans and Operations Group air force team that coordinated and executed the NATO air responses to the Soviet attempts close down the Berlin air corridors during the Berlin Crisis. Upon termination of the Berlin Crisis, Richardson was assigned as deputy standing group representative, NATO, effective 1 January 1962 through 1 January 1964.