Patrick West

Patrick "Colonel" West was a 23rd Century Federation Starfleet officer who achieved infamy as part of the Khitomer Conspiracy.

Patrick West began his career as an expert on the Klingon Empire, working in the office of Federation Starfleet Admiral Herbert Solow in 2266 in the months immediately prior to the signing of the Organian Peace Treaty. Those months saw escalating tensions between the Federation and the Klingon Empire, and it was widely believed that war was inevitable. In spite of his young age and rank of lieutenant, West's analyses of the Empire had come to the attention of Federation President Kenneth Wescott, and he was invited to a meeting in the Presidential Office along with Admiral Solow to brief the President, his staff, and senior members of the Federation Diplomatic Corps. In the course of the meeting, President Wescott decided to allow a colony of independent Klingons that the Empire wished to annex to determine for itself whether it wished to join the Empire or remain neutral over Lt. West's loud objections. West had clearly not endeared himself to the president, and believed Wescott to have made a dangerous decision. (Seeds of Rage.)

By 2293, West had risen to the rank of Vice Admiral. That year, he brief Federation President Ra-ghoratreii of Efros on Starfleet's plan to rescue Captain James T. Kirk and Dr. Leonard McCoy from the Klingon Empire, which had arrested the two for the assassination of Klingon Chancellor Gorkon, Son of Toq. West strongly recommended that "Operation Retrieve" be implimented; when Ra-ghoratreii asked what would happen if this prompted a war, West, hawk that he was, simply replied that the Federation would clean the Klingons' chronometers.

Ra-ghoratreii's and Gorkon's work towards peace angered West, and he conspired with Federation Starfleet officers Admiral Cartwright, Lt. Valeris, Yeomens Burke and Samno, and with Romulan Ambassador Nanclus and Klingon General Chang, to assassinate President Ra-ghoratreii at the Khitomer Confrence while disguised as a Klingon, thus guaranteeing a war between the Federation and Klingon Empire. The conspiracy was uncovered by Kirk and the crew of the USS Enterprise, and West himself was killed by Captain Montgomery Scott moments before he attempted to kill Valeris to prevent evidence of the conspiracy from reaching the courts. (Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.)

''In the film, West was referred to only as "Colonel West." "Colonel," of course, is not part of the Federation Starfleet's naval-based rank structure. However, he wore the uniform of a Starfleet Vice-Admiral. Some have suggested that he was part of the Starfleet Marine Corps, but this is non-canonical and has not been used in an licensed fiction. "Colonel" may have been a nickname; the heading of the article reflects that conjecture. West was named as a reference to the infamous United States Marine Corps Lt. Colonel Oliver North, who, as part of the Reagan Administration, sold weapons to the Islamic Republic of Iran and used the profits to fund the anti-Communist Contra rebel group of Nicaragua in violation of United States law and later lied to Congress about his role. West's first name of "Patrick" was established in Seeds of Rage.''