Robert E. Hartland, USIA branch chief Robert E. Hartland, a former chief of the Africa branch at the U.S. Information Agency's Office of Research, died Oct. 28 at Sibley Memorial Hospital's Renaissance skilled nursing center in Washington. The cause was a heart attack, said his wife, Dorothy Hartland. Mr. Hartland, a Chevy Chase resident, worked in the Army Department's Office of Psychological Warfare in Washington before joining what is now the USIA's Office of Research in 1955. He became the chief of the office's Africa branch in 1973 and retired from the USIA in 1980. His speciality was African and Middle Eastern affairs. After retiring, he spent about 10 years as a State Department consultant working on Freedom of Information Act requests. Robert Ernest Hartland was born in Rutherford, N.J., and raised in Brooklyn. During World War II, he served in the Army in Europe and North Africa, and his military decorations included the Bronze Star Medal. He was a 1948 international relations graduate of Harvard University. Mr. Hartland studied at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at American University and was a member of the International Churchill Society, an appreciation group for former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Survivors include his wife of 57 years, Dorothy Hill Hartland of Chevy Chase; three children, Jessica Hartland of New York, Heather Steele of Chevy Chase, and William Hartland of Brooklyn; and four grandchildren.