41 Facts About Clark Clifford

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.

Emblematic of Clifford's influence in postwar Democratic presidential administrations was the fact that after Jimmy Carter won the 1976 presidential election, his transition team was adamant that Clifford, as a symbol of the DC establishment, should not have any influence whatsoever, declaring that "if you ever see us relying on Clark Clifford, you'll know we have failed", yet Carter eventually came to rely on him nonetheless.

Clark Clifford was a key figure in the Bank of Credit and Commerce International scandal, which led to a grand jury indictment.

Clark McAdams Clifford was born on December 25,1906, in Fort Scott, Kansas.

Clark Clifford's parents resided there at the time because his father, Frank, was a traveling auditor for Missouri Pacific Railroad.

Clark Clifford was named after his maternal uncle, Clark McAdams.

Clark Clifford built a solid reputation practicing law in St Louis between 1928 and 1943.

Clark Clifford served as an officer in the US Navy from 1944 to 1946.

Clark Clifford became a trusted personal adviser and friend of Truman.

Clark Clifford went to Washington, first to serve as assistant to the President's Naval Adviser, after the naming of a personal friend from Missouri as the President's Naval Adviser.

Clark Clifford was a key architect of Truman's campaign in 1948, when Truman pulled off a stunning upset victory over Republican nominee Thomas Dewey.

Clark Clifford believed that a strong pro-civil rights stance, while sure to alienate traditional Southern Democrats, would not result in a serious challenge to the party's supremacy in that region.

One of his law clients was John F Kennedy, then a US Senator, and Clifford tried to assuage Truman's suspicion of Kennedy and his father, Joseph P Kennedy.

Clark Clifford was a member of President-elect Kennedy's Committee on the Defense Establishment, headed by Stuart Symington.

Clark Clifford served as the chairman of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board during the 1967 Six-Day War.

On January 19,1968, Johnson announced his selection of Clark Clifford to succeed Robert McNamara as the US Secretary of Defense.

Clark Clifford estimated that, in the year just prior to his appointment, he had spent about half of his time advising the President and the other half working for his law firm.

Widely known and respected in Washington and knowledgeable on defense matters, Clark Clifford was generally hailed as a worthy successor to McNamara.

Clark Clifford made no effort to depart from McNamara's policies and programs on such matters as nuclear strategy, NATO, and military assistance, but he favored the Sentinel anti-ballistic missile system, to which McNamara had given only lukewarm backing.

Clark Clifford wanted to deploy the system, and supported congressional appropriations for it.

One important effect of Sentinel construction, he thought, would be to encourage the Soviet Union to enter arms control talks with the US Indeed, before Clark Clifford left office, the Johnson administration made arrangements for negotiations that eventually led to the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty of 1972.

Clark Clifford continued McNamara's highly publicized Cost Reduction Program, announcing that over $1.2 billion had been saved in fiscal year 1968 as a result of the effort.

Clark Clifford took office committed to rethinking Johnson's Vietnam policies, and Vietnam policy consumed most of his time.

Clark Clifford had argued against escalation in 1965 in private counsel with the president, but then provided public support for the president's position once the decision was made.

Clark Clifford opposed ending the US bombing of North Vietnam at the time, but acknowledged that the situation could change.

Clark Clifford got along well with the US Congress, and this helped him to secure approval of at least some of his proposals.

Clark Clifford settled into his duties quickly and efficiently, and capably managed the initial de-escalation of US involvement in Vietnam; indeed, he apparently strongly influenced Johnson in favor of a de-escalation strategy.

Clark Clifford's office overlooked the White House, emphasizing his long experience in the capital.

Clark Clifford was renowned for his seemingly effortless charm, style, tact and discretion.

Clark Clifford made waves by threatening the newly established regime of Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran with war for its intransigence in negotiating the release of the hostages seized from the US embassy in Tehran.

Clark Clifford referred to President Ronald Reagan as an "amiable dunce" at a Washington dinner party.

From 1982 to 1991, Clark Clifford served as chairman of First American Bankshares, which grew to become the largest bank in Washington, DC The bank was nominally owned by a group of Arab investors, but in order to assuage fears from the Federal Reserve, Clark Clifford had assembled a board of distinguished American citizens to exercise day-to-day control.

Clark Clifford's predicament worsened when it was disclosed he had made about $6 million in profits from bank stock that he had bought with an unsecured loan from BCCI.

Clark Clifford insisted that he had no knowledge of illegal activity at First American, and insisted that he himself had been deceived about the extent of BCCI's involvement.

On October 3,1931, Clark Clifford married Margery Pepperell "Marny" Kimball.

Not long after a final, frail appearance in the 1997 PBS television documentary Truman, Clark Clifford died on October 10,1998 at the age of 91.

Clark Clifford was buried at Arlington National Cemetery, in Arlington, Virginia.

Clark Clifford emerged as a national figure almost overnight, moving from a low-level naval aide in the White House to President Truman's top adviser and strategist.

Clark Clifford's success came from hard work, a good mind, poker skills to match those of his boss, the ability to stroke the press, the knack to immediately seize on serendipitous opportunities, and the ability to identify, reshape and promote good ideas first proposed by others, such as George Kennan.

Clark Clifford thus gained fame for papers that he presented forcefully, but did not actually write, including his 1947 proposal on Truman's reelection strategy and the Clifford-Elsey papers on Cold War strategy.

Clark Clifford became a trusted advisor to presidential candidate John F Kennedy in 1960, assuring his access by indicating he wanted no public office.