Frank Carlucci

Template:Short description Template:For Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox officeholder Frank Charles Carlucci III (Template:IPAc-en Template:Respell; October 18, 1930 – June 3, 2018) was an American politician who served as the United States Secretary of Defense from 1987 to 1989 in the administration of President Ronald Reagan.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Historical Office Frank C. Carlucci">Template:Cite web</ref> He was the first Italian American to serve in that position.

Carlucci served in a variety of senior-level governmental positions, including Director of the Office of Economic Opportunity in the Nixon administration, Deputy Director of the CIA in the Carter administration, and Deputy Secretary of Defense and National Security Advisor in the Reagan administration.

Early life

Carlucci was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the son of Roxann (née Bacon) and Frank Charles Carlucci, Jr., an insurance broker. His father was of Italian and Swiss-Italian descent.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> His grandfather was from Santomenna, Italy.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

After graduating from Wyoming Seminary in 1948, Carlucci attended Princeton University, where he roomed with Donald Rumsfeld. Carlucci graduated with an A.B. from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University in 1952 after completing a 153-page senior thesis, "Two American Businesses in Costa Rica."<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> He then attended Harvard Business School for an M.B.A. in 1954–1955.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He was an officer in the US Navy from 1952 to 1954.<ref name=WPObit/> He joined the US Foreign Service and worked for the US State Department from 1956 to 1969.<ref name="NYTO"/>

Early career

Democratic Republic of the Congo

In 1961, Carlucci was the second secretary at the US Embassy in the Congo.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> During that time, Patrice Lumumba, the first prime minister of independent Congo, was killed in January 1961 during the Congo Crisis.<ref name=Who/>

According to subsequently-released US government documents, US President Dwight Eisenhower ordered the CIA to eliminate Lumumba.<ref name=Who>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Minutes of an August 1960 National Security Council meeting confirm that Eisenhower told CIA chief Allen Dulles to "eliminate" the Congolese leader.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The official notetaker, Robert H. Johnson, testified to that before the Senate Intelligence Committee in 1975. However, subsequent investigations indicate that Lumumba was ultimately executed by an order of a political rival, Moïse Tshombe, who led the State of Katanga, with Belgian assistance.<ref name=Who/><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

According to Robert B. Oakley, Carlucci befriended the future Congo Prime Minister Cyrille Adoula in 1959-1960, who was then a Congolese Member of Parliament.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> According to James Schlesinger, Adoula began a White House meeting with President John F. Kennedy with the question "Template:Lang" ("Where is Carlucci?"). Kennedy first responded, "Who the hell is Carlucci?" He then sent Dean Rusk to find him.<ref name="Shorrock">Template:Cite news</ref> Oakley added that that instance was "the beginning of Carlucci's meteoric rise!"<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

A fictionalized 2000 biopic, Lumumba, directed by Raoul Peck, portrayed Carlucci as being involved during his service in Congo in the murder of Lumumba.<ref name="Shorrock" /><ref name="Lum">Template:Cite web</ref> Carlucci furiously denied the claims and successfully went to court to prevent his being named in the film when it was released in the United States.<ref name="Shorrock" /><ref name="Lum"/>

Brazil

Carlucci served alongside Herbert S. Okun on US military attaché General Vernon A. Walters' team in Brazil at the time of the 1964 Brazilian coup d'état against President João Goulart.<ref>Template:Citation</ref>

Federal Service

Secretary Carlucci at a press conference, 1988

In 1969, when US President Richard Nixon persuaded U.S Representative Donald Rumsfeld to leave his seat to become the director of the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO), the agency created by Sargent Shriver to fight Lyndon Johnson's war on poverty, Rumsfeld had Carlucci transferred to OEO from the State Department to head up the Community Action Program.<ref name=Blom>Template:Cite web</ref> Carlucci was Undersecretary of Health, Education and Welfare when Caspar Weinberger was secretary during the Nixon administration.<ref name=Blom/>

In the aftermath of the catastrophic flooding caused by Hurricane Agnes in June 1972, Nixon designated Carlucci to lead the federal response in northeastern Pennsylvania because of his personal ties to the region. At the time, Agnes was the costliest tropical cyclone in U.S. history, and the Wyoming Valley of Pennsylvania was one of the worst hit areas. Carlucci's time in this role was viewed positively by commonwealth and local officials, as well as the general public, given his local ties and effectiveness.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Carlucci became Ambassador to Portugal and served in that position from 1974 to 1977.<ref name=Blom/> He was remembered in Portugal among the winners of the coup of 25 November 1975.<ref>Frank Carlucci parecia "um típico mafioso italiano" Template:Webarchive, João Pedro Henriques, 13 de Novembro 2008</ref>Template:Failed verification The Carlucci American International School of Lisbon, the oldest American school in the Iberian Peninsula, is named after him. In 2019, the official residence of the U.S. Ambassador to Portugal, located in the Lapa neighborhood of Lisbon, was named in his honor.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Carlucci was Deputy Director of the CIA from 1978 to 1981, under Director Stansfield Turner.<ref name="NYTO"/>

Department of Defense

Carlucci was United States Deputy Secretary of Defense from 1981 to 1983.<ref>SecDef stories - Frank C. Carlucci Template:Webarchive, Department of Defense</ref> He served as United States National Security Advisor from 1986 to 1987,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> where he appointed Colin Powell, later his successor, as Deputy National Security Advisor.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Carlucci became US Secretary of Defense in 1987 after Caspar Weinberger resigned due his wife's disabling back pain.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Carlucci served in that position until the end of the Reagan administration, on January 20, 1989.<ref name="NYTO"/><ref name=Blom/> Carlucci was notable during the administration for advocating an arms build-up known as the Strategic Defense Initiative to hasten the end of the Cold War, a policy that Reagan followed.<ref name=Blom/>

Later life

Business

After leaving the Reagan administration in 1983, Carlucci was named president and later chairman of Sears World Trade, a subsidiary of Sears.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Sears announced it would wind down the subsidiary in October 1986.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> By December, 1986, Carlucci returned to government service. Carlucci served as chairman of the Carlyle Group from 1992 to 2003 and chairman emeritus until 2005.<ref name="NYTO"/><ref name=Blom/> He had business interests in the following companies: Ashland Global Holdings, General Dynamics, Westinghouse, Neurogen, CB Commercial Real Estate, Nortel, BDM International, Quaker Oats, and Kaman.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Carlucci was at one time a director of the private security firm Wackenhut<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and was a co-founder and senior member of the Frontier Group, a private-equity investment firm.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Carlucci was an advisory board member of G2 Satellite Solutions and the Chairman Emeritus of Nortel Networks.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Organizations

Carlucci was affiliated with the Project for the New American Century (PNAC), a conservative think tank.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He was Chairman Emeritus of the US-Taiwan Business Council after he had been Chairman from 1999 to 2002; he was succeeded in 2003 by William Cohen.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Historical Dictionary">Template:Cite book</ref> Carlucci was a member of the Board of Trustees of the RAND Corporation<ref name="RAND">Template:Cite web</ref> and was a founding co-chair of the Advisory Board for RAND's Center for Middle East Public Policy.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He was also a member of the Honorary Board of the Drug Policy Alliance, a group that advocates drug legalization.<ref>DPA 2010 Annual Report, p. 22.</ref>

Personal life and death

Carlucci was married to Billie Jean Anthony from 1954 until the couple divorced in 1974.<ref name="NNDB">Template:Cite web</ref> They had two children.<ref name="NNDB"/> Carlucci was later married to Marcia McMillan Myers from 1976 until his death. They had one daughter.<ref name="NNDB"/>

Carlucci died on June 3, 2018, from complications of Parkinson's disease, at his home in McLean, Virginia, at the age of 87.<ref name=WPObit>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="NYTO">Template:Cite news</ref>

Honors

• Grand-Cross of the Order of Prince Henry, Portugal (November 24, 2003)<ref name="OrdHonPor">Template:Cite web</ref>

External links

• Foreign Service Journal article on his Lifetime Contributions to American Diplomacy Award.

• Department of Defense biography
• Template:C-SPAN

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