Clark Clifford (25 December 1906 – 10 October 1998) was US Secretary of Defense from 1 March 1968 to 20 January 1969, succeeding Robert McNamara and preceding Melvin Laird.
Biography
Clark Clifford was born in Fort Scott, Kansas in 1906, and he served as a US Navy officer from 1944 to 1946 during World War II. He became naval aide to President Harry S. Truman, and he soon became a trusted advisor and friend to Truman. In 1948, he encouraged Truman to take up a left-wing populist image in order to undermine Henry A. Wallace's third-party leftist campaign, and he also backed Truman's support for civil rights, believing that it would not affect the Democratic Party's dominance of the American South. In 1950, he left the government, and he practiced law in Washington DC. However, he remained an influential advisor to several Democratic Party leaders, including John F. Kennedy. In 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson decided to replace Robert McNamara as Secretary of Defense due to his lack of faith in the Vietnam War, and Clifford was chosen as his successor. He mostly continued McNamara's policies, making very few changes to the US' war policy. However, he turned from hawk to dove within months of entering office, advising President Johnson to halt the bombing of North Vietnam and enter into peace talks. He left office with the rest of the administration in January 1969, and Jimmy Carter relied on Clifford's advice during the 1976 presidential election. Clifford died in 1998 at the age of 91.