Frank Carlucci
Encyclopedia
Frank Charles Carlucci III (born October 18, 1930) is a former official in the United States Government, associated with the Republican Party. The most prominent office held by Carlucci was as Secretary of Defense
from 1987 until 1989 in the Reagan Administration
.
, the son of Roxanne (née Bacon) and Frank Charles Carlucci, Jr., an insurance broker. His father was of Italian and Swiss descent. He graduated from Wyoming Seminary
in 1948 and Princeton University
in 1952, where he roomed with Donald Rumsfeld
, and attended Harvard Business School
for an MBA in 1954-55. He was a Naval officer from 1952-54. He joined the Foreign Service, working for the State Department from 1956 until 1969. In 1961 he participated in a CIA mission to Congo
, in which he helped to rescue US citizens from mobs.
According to James Schlesinger, following the death of Patrice Lumumba
, the new Prime Minister of the Congo
, Cyrille Adoula
, began a meeting with President John F. Kennedy
with the question "Ou est Carlucci?" (Where is Carlucci?), who first responded "Who the hell is Carlucci?'" and then sent Dean Rusk
to find him.
In the year 2000, a film called Lumumba
portrayed him as being involved during his service in Congo in the murder of Congolese independence leader Patrice Lumumba
. Carlucci furiously denied the charges, and successfully went to court to prevent being named in the film when it was released in the United States.
became Mr. Carlucci's protégé as Mr. Carlucci showed him the ropes. Carlucci was Undersecretary of Health, Education and Welfare when Caspar Weinberger
was secretary during the Nixon administration. Carlucci became Ambassador to Portugal
, and served in this position from 1974 until 1977. He is still very fondly remembered in Portugal among the winners of the November 25 Coup d'État. Carlucci was Deputy Director of the CIA from 1978–1981, under CIA Director Stansfield Turner
. Carlucci was deputy defense secretary from 1981 until 1983, national security advisor from 1986 until 1987, and defense secretary in 1987, following the resignation of Weinberger, his nomination by President Ronald Reagan
and his confirmation in the Senate by a vote of 91 to 1. He was reportedly less hard-line in policies toward the Soviet Union
than Weinberger.
On January 5, 2006, he participated in a meeting at the White House
of former Secretaries of Defense and State to discuss United States foreign policy with Bush administration officials.
from 1992–2003, and chairman emeritus until 2005. He also has business interests in the following companies: General Dynamics
, Westinghouse, Ashland Oil, Neurogen, CB Commercial Real Estate, Nortel
, BDM International, Quaker Oats, and Kaman
. Carlucci is Chairman of Envion USA, and former director of Wackenhut
. He is a co-founder and senior member of the Frontier Group, a private equity investment firm co-founded by David Robb (formerly with The Carlyle Group) and to which Sanford McDonnell and Norm Augustine are senior advisors. Frontier Group is the principal investor in Utopia Residences (http://www.utopiaresidences.com), which has ordered the Utopia ocean liner [see "A Cruise That Never Ends". http://www.forbes.com/2009/12/01/asia-biggest-cruise-ship-lifestyle-travel-samsung.html?feed=rss_asia. Retrieved 2009-12-21.]. Carlucci is an Advisory board member of G2 Satellite Solutions and the Chairman Emeritus of Nortel Networks.
, or PNAC, a conservative thinktank. He formerly sat on the Board of Directors of the Middle East Policy Council
. He is Chairman Emeritus of the US-Taiwan Business Council
http://www.us-taiwan.org/council.html#history. Carlucci is a member of the Board of Trustees of the RAND Corporation and founding co-chair of the Advisory Board for RAND's Center for Middle East Public Policy. He is also a member of the Honorary Board of the Drug Policy Alliance, a group which advocates drug legalization.
, the first prime minister of independent Congo, was assassinated in January 1961 during The Congo Crisis
. During that time, Carlucci was the second secretary at the US embassy in the Congo and, covertly, a CIA agent. His participation in Lumumba's assassination is implied with the release of US government documents revealing that President Dwight Eisenhower ordered the CIA to murder Lumumba. Minutes of an August 1960 National Security Council meeting confirm that Eisenhower told CIA chief Allen Dulles to "eliminate" the Congolese leader. The official note taker, Robert H. Johnson, testified to this before the Senate Intelligence Committee in 1975.
During a broadcast on HBO of the film Lumumba
, directed by Raoul Peck
, the name of Carlucci was bleeped and removed from the credits due to the Ex-CIA official's lawsuit threat. Carlucci’s lawyers threatened Peck and distribution company Zeitgeist Films
with legal action if the name of the former US official was not bleeped out of a scene that shows American Ambassador Clare Timberlake and Carlucci, along with Belgian and Congolese officials, plotting Lumumba’s assassination.
United States Secretary of Defense
The Secretary of Defense is the head and chief executive officer of the Department of Defense of the United States of America. This position corresponds to what is generally known as a Defense Minister in other countries...
from 1987 until 1989 in the Reagan Administration
Reagan Administration
The United States presidency of Ronald Reagan, also known as the Reagan administration, was a Republican administration headed by Ronald Reagan from January 20, 1981, to January 20, 1989....
.
Early life and career
Carlucci was born in Scranton, PennsylvaniaScranton, Pennsylvania
Scranton is a city in the northeastern part of Pennsylvania, United States. It is the county seat of Lackawanna County and the largest principal city in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre metropolitan area. Scranton had a population of 76,089 in 2010, according to the U.S...
, the son of Roxanne (née Bacon) and Frank Charles Carlucci, Jr., an insurance broker. His father was of Italian and Swiss descent. He graduated from Wyoming Seminary
Wyoming Seminary
Wyoming Seminary, founded in 1844 and currently led by President Kip P. Nygren, is a private college preparatory school located in the Wyoming Valley of Northeastern Pennsylvania, in Kingston and Forty Fort It is near the Susquehanna River and the city of Wilkes-Barre...
in 1948 and Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
in 1952, where he roomed with Donald Rumsfeld
Donald Rumsfeld
Donald Henry Rumsfeld is an American politician and businessman. Rumsfeld served as the 13th Secretary of Defense from 1975 to 1977 under President Gerald Ford, and as the 21st Secretary of Defense from 2001 to 2006 under President George W. Bush. He is both the youngest and the oldest person to...
, and attended Harvard Business School
Harvard Business School
Harvard Business School is the graduate business school of Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts, United States and is widely recognized as one of the top business schools in the world. The school offers the world's largest full-time MBA program, doctoral programs, and many executive...
for an MBA in 1954-55. He was a Naval officer from 1952-54. He joined the Foreign Service, working for the State Department from 1956 until 1969. In 1961 he participated in a CIA mission to Congo
Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a state located in Central Africa. It is the second largest country in Africa by area and the eleventh largest in the world...
, in which he helped to rescue US citizens from mobs.
According to James Schlesinger, following the death of Patrice Lumumba
Patrice Lumumba
Patrice Émery Lumumba was a Congolese independence leader and the first legally elected Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo after he helped win its independence from Belgium in June 1960. Only ten weeks later, Lumumba's government was deposed in a coup during the Congo Crisis...
, the new Prime Minister of the Congo
Republic of the Congo (Léopoldville)
The Republic of the Congo was an independent republic established following the independence granted to the former colony of the Belgian Congo in 1960...
, Cyrille Adoula
Cyrille Adoula
Cyrille Adoula , was a Congolese politician. Adoula was the premier of the Republic of the Congo, from 2 August 1961 until 30 June 1964.Adoula was born in Léopoldville...
, began a meeting with President John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
with the question "Ou est Carlucci?" (Where is Carlucci?), who first responded "Who the hell is Carlucci?'" and then sent Dean Rusk
Dean Rusk
David Dean Rusk was the United States Secretary of State from 1961 to 1969 under presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. Rusk is the second-longest serving U.S...
to find him.
In the year 2000, a film called Lumumba
Lumumba (film)
Lumumba is a 2000 film directed by Raoul Peck centred around Patrice Lumumba in the months before and after the Democratic Republic of the Congo achieved independence from Belgium in June 1960. Raoul Peck's film is a coproduction of France, Belgium, Germany, and Haiti...
portrayed him as being involved during his service in Congo in the murder of Congolese independence leader Patrice Lumumba
Patrice Lumumba
Patrice Émery Lumumba was a Congolese independence leader and the first legally elected Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo after he helped win its independence from Belgium in June 1960. Only ten weeks later, Lumumba's government was deposed in a coup during the Congo Crisis...
. Carlucci furiously denied the charges, and successfully went to court to prevent being named in the film when it was released in the United States.
Administration
During the early 1970s RumsfeldDonald Rumsfeld
Donald Henry Rumsfeld is an American politician and businessman. Rumsfeld served as the 13th Secretary of Defense from 1975 to 1977 under President Gerald Ford, and as the 21st Secretary of Defense from 2001 to 2006 under President George W. Bush. He is both the youngest and the oldest person to...
became Mr. Carlucci's protégé as Mr. Carlucci showed him the ropes. Carlucci was Undersecretary of Health, Education and Welfare when Caspar Weinberger
Caspar Weinberger
Caspar Willard "Cap" Weinberger , was an American politician, vice president and general counsel of Bechtel Corporation, and Secretary of Defense under President Ronald Reagan from January 21, 1981, until November 23, 1987, making him the third longest-serving defense secretary to date, after...
was secretary during the Nixon administration. Carlucci became Ambassador to Portugal
United States Ambassador to Portugal
This is a list of Ambassadors of the United States to Portugal.Bilateral diplomatic relations between the United States and Portugal date from the earliest years of the United States. Following the Revolutionary War, Portugal was the first neutral country to recognize the United States. On February...
, and served in this position from 1974 until 1977. He is still very fondly remembered in Portugal among the winners of the November 25 Coup d'État. Carlucci was Deputy Director of the CIA from 1978–1981, under CIA Director Stansfield Turner
Stansfield Turner
Stansfield M. Turner is a retired Admiral and former Director of Central Intelligence. He is currently a senior research scholar at the University of Maryland, College Park School of Public Policy....
. Carlucci was deputy defense secretary from 1981 until 1983, national security advisor from 1986 until 1987, and defense secretary in 1987, following the resignation of Weinberger, his nomination by President Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
and his confirmation in the Senate by a vote of 91 to 1. He was reportedly less hard-line in policies toward the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
than Weinberger.
On January 5, 2006, he participated in a meeting at the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
of former Secretaries of Defense and State to discuss United States foreign policy with Bush administration officials.
Business
Carlucci served as chairman of the Carlyle GroupCarlyle Group
The Carlyle Group is an American-based global asset management firm, specializing in private equity, based in Washington, D.C. The Carlyle Group operates in four business areas: corporate private equity, real assets, market strategies and fund-of-funds, through its AlpInvest subsidiary...
from 1992–2003, and chairman emeritus until 2005. He also has business interests in the following companies: General Dynamics
General Dynamics
General Dynamics Corporation is a U.S. defense conglomerate formed by mergers and divestitures, and as of 2008 it is the fifth largest defense contractor in the world. Its headquarters are in West Falls Church , unincorporated Fairfax County, Virginia, in the Falls Church area.The company has...
, Westinghouse, Ashland Oil, Neurogen, CB Commercial Real Estate, Nortel
Nortel
Nortel Networks Corporation, formerly known as Northern Telecom Limited and sometimes known simply as Nortel, was a multinational telecommunications equipment manufacturer headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada...
, BDM International, Quaker Oats, and Kaman
Kaman
Kaman is a town and block headquarters and municipality in the Bharatpur district in Rajasthan state, India.-Geography:Kaman is located at . It has an average elevation of 189 metres . It is bordered by two states on the West and North respectively. At the village of Nonera the borders of...
. Carlucci is Chairman of Envion USA, and former director of Wackenhut
Wackenhut
G4S Secure Solutions is a private security company. It was founded as The Wackenhut Corporation in 1954, in Coral Gables, Florida, by George Wackenhut and three partners ....
. He is a co-founder and senior member of the Frontier Group, a private equity investment firm co-founded by David Robb (formerly with The Carlyle Group) and to which Sanford McDonnell and Norm Augustine are senior advisors. Frontier Group is the principal investor in Utopia Residences (http://www.utopiaresidences.com), which has ordered the Utopia ocean liner [see "A Cruise That Never Ends". http://www.forbes.com/2009/12/01/asia-biggest-cruise-ship-lifestyle-travel-samsung.html?feed=rss_asia. Retrieved 2009-12-21.]. Carlucci is an Advisory board member of G2 Satellite Solutions and the Chairman Emeritus of Nortel Networks.
Organizations
He is affiliated with the Project for the New American CenturyProject for the New American Century
The Project for the New American Century was an American think tank based in Washington, D.C. that lasted from 1997 to 2006. It was co-founded as a non-profit educational organization by neoconservatives William Kristol and Robert Kagan...
, or PNAC, a conservative thinktank. He formerly sat on the Board of Directors of the Middle East Policy Council
Middle East Policy Council
The Middle East Policy Council or MEPC is a Washington DC based 5013 non-profit organization that produces analysis and commentary on issues impacting U.S. national interests in the Middle East. It was founded in 1981 under the stated mission to "expand public discussion and understanding of issues...
. He is Chairman Emeritus of the US-Taiwan Business Council
US-Taiwan Business Council
The US-Taiwan Business Council is a membership-based, non-profit organization founded in 1976 to foster trade and business relations between the United States and Taiwan....
http://www.us-taiwan.org/council.html#history. Carlucci is a member of the Board of Trustees of the RAND Corporation and founding co-chair of the Advisory Board for RAND's Center for Middle East Public Policy. He is also a member of the Honorary Board of the Drug Policy Alliance, a group which advocates drug legalization.
Involvement during The Congo Crisis
Patrice LumumbaPatrice Lumumba
Patrice Émery Lumumba was a Congolese independence leader and the first legally elected Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo after he helped win its independence from Belgium in June 1960. Only ten weeks later, Lumumba's government was deposed in a coup during the Congo Crisis...
, the first prime minister of independent Congo, was assassinated in January 1961 during The Congo Crisis
Congo Crisis
The Congo Crisis was a period of turmoil in the First Republic of the Congo that began with national independence from Belgium and ended with the seizing of power by Joseph Mobutu...
. During that time, Carlucci was the second secretary at the US embassy in the Congo and, covertly, a CIA agent. His participation in Lumumba's assassination is implied with the release of US government documents revealing that President Dwight Eisenhower ordered the CIA to murder Lumumba. Minutes of an August 1960 National Security Council meeting confirm that Eisenhower told CIA chief Allen Dulles to "eliminate" the Congolese leader. The official note taker, Robert H. Johnson, testified to this before the Senate Intelligence Committee in 1975.
During a broadcast on HBO of the film Lumumba
Lumumba (film)
Lumumba is a 2000 film directed by Raoul Peck centred around Patrice Lumumba in the months before and after the Democratic Republic of the Congo achieved independence from Belgium in June 1960. Raoul Peck's film is a coproduction of France, Belgium, Germany, and Haiti...
, directed by Raoul Peck
Raoul Peck
Raoul Peck is an award-winning Haitian filmmaker, of both documentary and feature films, and a political activist. Briefly, in the 1990s, he was Haiti's Minister of Culture.-Biography:...
, the name of Carlucci was bleeped and removed from the credits due to the Ex-CIA official's lawsuit threat. Carlucci’s lawyers threatened Peck and distribution company Zeitgeist Films
Zeitgeist Films
Zeitgeist Films is an American independent film distributor based in New York City founded in 1988 by co-Presidents Nancy Gerstman and Emily Russo. Films distributed by Zeitgeist are strongly auteur-driven by directors such as Christopher Nolan, Guy Maddin, Atom Egoyan, Todd Haynes, Nuri Bilge...
with legal action if the name of the former US official was not bleeped out of a scene that shows American Ambassador Clare Timberlake and Carlucci, along with Belgian and Congolese officials, plotting Lumumba’s assassination.