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Clark McAdams Clifford (December 25, 1906 – October 10, 1998) was an American lawyer who served as an important political adviser to Democratic presidents Harry S. Truman, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Jimmy Carter. His official government positions were White House Counsel (1946–1950), Chairman of the President's Intelligence ...
Jun 8, 2018 · CLIFFORD, Clark McAdams. (b. 25 December 1906 in Fort Scott, Kansas; d. 10 October 1998 in Bethesda, Maryland), rich, successful lawyer who epitomized the Washington insider and power broker; adviser to four presidents; President Lyndon B. Johnson's Secretary of Defense (1968–1969); and a major influence on 1960s policy, particularly with ...
- Early Life
- Government Service
- Cold War Strategy
- Private Practice
- Secretary of Defense
- Return to Private Practice
- Final Days
- For More Information
Clark McAdams Cliffordwas born Christmas Day, 1906. He was the son of Frank Andrew Clifford, an official for the Missouri Pacific Railroad, and Georgia McAdams Clifford. For several years in the 1930s, his mother, a professional storyteller, had her own weekly program on the CBS Radio Network. Named for his mother's brother (Clark McAdams, a newspa...
During World War II (1939–45), Clark Clifford enlisted as an officer in the United States Naval Reserve. He was assigned to the White Housein 1945 as an assistant to his friend James Vardaman, President Truman's naval aide, a presidential advisor who oversees activities of the navy. In 1946, Clifford replaced Vardaman, and nine weeks later Truman m...
The political and economic rivalry between communist and democratic countries became known as the Cold War. The two principal players were the communist Soviet Union and the democratic United States. These two countries had emerged from World War IIas the world's most powerful nations, or superpowers. The United States devised a three-pronged strat...
Clifford resigned from government service in January of 1950 in order to open a private law practice. The firm of Clifford and Miller opened up across the street from the White House. The firm represented many large corporations and continued to advise government officials. John F. Kennedy (1917–1963; served 1961–63; see entry) used Clifford as his...
In 1968, President Johnson appointed Clifford as his secretary of defense. Although Clifford held this post for only a short time, it was an intense period in U.S. history. The controversial and unpopular Vietnam War was nearing its climax. When Clifford became secretary of defense, he supported U.S. involvement in Vietnam. However, the day before ...
Clifford left office in January of 1969 to return to the legal profession. His firm, then Clifford and Warnke, represented major multinational corporations. Seeing that the Vietnam conflict had shifted from the battlefield to the conference table and that the Soviet Union was showing a new willingness to discuss arms limitations, Clifford expressed...
Clifford suffered a major reversal in 1992, when he was president of First American Bankshares, a Washington, D.C., bank. A grand juryindicted, or charged, him for his role in concealing the bank's ties to the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI). BCCI was a foreign bank whose criminal activities and later collapse cost investors around...
Books
Clifford, Clark M. Counsel to the President: A Memoir. New York: Random House, 1991. Parrish, Thomas. The Cold War Encyclopedia. New York: 21st Century Books, 1996. Smith, Joseph, Simon Davis, and John W. Burbidge. Historical Dictionary of the Cold War.Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2000.
Web Sites
Berger, Marilyn. "Clark Clifford, Key Advisor to Four Presidents, Dies." From New York Times, October 11, 1998. Mount Holyoke College International Relations Program.http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/clifford.htm (accessed on August 22, 2003). "Secretary of Defense Histories: Clark M. Clifford." DefenseLINK.http://www.defenselink.mil/specials/secdef_histories/bios/clifford.htm(accessed on August 21, 2003).
Clark McAdams Clifford was an American lawyer who served as an important political adviser to Democratic presidents Harry S. Truman, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Jimmy Carter. His official government positions were White House Counsel (1946–1950), Chairman of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board (1963–1968), and Secretary of Defense (1968–1969); Clifford was also ...
Ironically, Clifford himself became more closely involved in banking issues in the 1980s and became the target of congressional investigation as a result of his association with the BCCI and First American Bankshares, an episode which undermined Clifford's reputation.In 1991 Clifford's insights into successive presidencies were published in his memoirs Counsel to the President which he wrote ...
Oct 11, 1998 · Clark McAdams Clifford was born on Christmas day, 1906, in Fort Scott, Kan., the son of an auditor for the Missouri Pacific Railroad. ... 1963, Clifford was one of the first people summoned to the ...
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Oct 11, 1998 · Clark McAdams Clifford was born in Fort Scott, Kan., on Dec. 25, 1906. ... Clifford's first assignment was to determine how to meet Gen. William C. Westmoreland's request for 206,000 more American ...
