Principi, Anthony J (1944– )

US public servant, secretary of veterans affairs from 2001. From a military background and himself a Vietnam veteran, he is a long-time advocate of expanding military and veterans' benefits, including improved medical care and service. He was deputy secretary of veterans affairs 1989–92 under President George H W Bush and acting secretary 1992–93.

The son of immigrants from Argentina, Principi grew up in the Bronx borough of New York City and graduated in 1967 from the US Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland. During the Vietnam War he commanded a river patrol unit in the Mekong Delta. Later he trained in law (1975) and became defence counsel for the Department of the Navy in 1980 and counsel to the chair of the Senate Armed Services and Veterans Affairs committees in the mid-1980s.