Dr. Arthur "Rodger" Swearingen, PhD, Captain, US Army, 1943-46. In 1943, Rodger Swearingen left college after two years to enlist in the US Army as an officer in the Intelligence Corps. He attended the Army Intensive Japanese Language School as well as the Intelligence Service Language School. He then was assigned as a Prisoner of War Interrogator in the Counter Intelligence Section of G-2 General Headquarters Armed Forces Pacific Theater. He became one of General Douglas MacArthur's top aides. Rodger was with MacArthur on the USS Missouri when Japan surrendered in September, 1945. He remained with G-2 in Japan during the Occupation until his discharge in August, 1946, playing a key role in Intelligence and policy matters with staff. Upon his discharge, he was awarded with the Army of Occupation Medal (Japan), Asiatic Pacific Service Medal, Combat Infantryman Badge, American Campaign Medal, and the World War II Victory Medal.

In 1946, he returned to the University of Southern California to finish his undergraduate degree, and his M.A in 1948 in International Relations. He then attended Harvard University, where he had a fellowship at the Russian Research Center, earning his Ph.D. in 1950, and where he became friends with another graduate student named Henry Kissinger. He returned to USC's School of International Relations in 1954 as an assistant professor, where he created the field of Soviet policy and world communism in the school. He taught courses and seminars on the subject until his retirement in 1993. During the 1960s, Swearingen created and directed the USC Research Institute on Communist Strategy and Propaganda.

Swearingen also brought his knowledge to television, moderating a 35-week documentary entitled "Communism: Myth vs. Reality", which aired nationwide and on U.S. Armed Services stations abroad. Swearingen also served as a consultant to the Rand Corporation for 14 years, and was a top advisor to his Harvard classmate Secretary of State Dr. Henry Kissinger through the 1970s and 1980s. He accompanied Dr. Kissinger on numerous trips to the Soviet Union and China. Swearingen has authored or edited 10 books – his readership ranges from high school and college students to former presidents. The World of Communism, for example, published by Houghton Mifflin in 1966, was used in schools throughout the U.S. After reading The Soviet Union and Postwar Japan (Hoover Institution Press, 1978), Richard Nixon wrote to Swearingen praising the book as "an indispensable analysis for policy makers during the next 20 years." His most recent, edited volume, Siberia and the Soviet Far East (Hoover, 1987), was selected as Book of the Year by the American Association of Research Libraries.

Rodger and his wife, Darlene, resided in Newport Beach, where they kept active in their respective fields of international relations and education and as members of St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church.