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 respect to deescalating the Vietnam War.

Clifford was the son of Frank Andrew, a manager for the Missouri Pacific Railroad, and Georgia (McAdams) Clifford, a writer; he had an older sister. He attended Washington University in St. Louis, graduating with a law degree in 1928. On 3 October 1931 Clifford married Margery Pepperell Kimball. They had three daughters. Clifford served in the U.S. Naval Reserve from 1944 to 1946. As the tumultuous 1960s began, the fifty-three-year-old Clifford had already enjoyed a successful career, both privately and politically, since the administration of President Harry S Truman. But much more was to come.

Clifford conducted the unsuccessful 1960 campaign of Missouri Senator Stuart Symington for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. The winner of the nomination, John F. Kennedy, was so impressed with Clifford's skill that he asked him to join his staff as an adviser. Clifford prepared an analysis of the difficulties Kennedy faced in the transfer of presidential power. Kennedy, again impressed with Clifford's work, asked him to head the transition team.

Kennedy continued to call on Clifford. After the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in April 1961—an operation backed by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)—the president turned to Clifford, and on 16 May 1961 he became a member of the Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board; two years later, on 23 April 1963, Clifford became the board's chair. When in 1962 the country's top steel companies attempted to renege on an agreement not to raise prices, Kennedy used Clifford's good offices to convince the companies to retreat.

After Kennedy's assassination on 22 November 1963, the new president, Lyndon Johnson, almost immediately called on his friend Clifford to help with the transition of power. Clifford could have been rewarded with a high-level government position, but he preferred to remain an adviser and retain his remunerative private law practice. But Johnson needed Clifford's adroit touch in handling two potentially embarrassing scandals in 1964—one involving the presidential aide Walter Jenkins, who was arrested on a morals charge, and the other arising from the shady business dealings of Robert G. (Bobby) Baker, who had been Johnson's secretary when he was the majority leader of the U.S. Senate. Clifford's greatest service was given during the Vietnam War, one of America's longest and most unsettling wars. During the fall of 1965 Johnson sent Clifford to Southeast Asia in his capacity as chairman of the Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. Clifford was convinced of the correctness of the war policy—to crush the Communist guerrillas and their North Vietnamese allies—by the upbeat attitude of the American and South Vietnamese military officials. He therefore opposed Johnson's thirty-seven-day halt in bombing North Vietnam and was generally regarded as in favor of the war. In October 1966 he joined Johnson at the Manila summit conference of Vietnam War allies and remained firm in his convictions. But, as he later revealed, Clifford changed his mind after yet another Southeast Asia trip in the summer of 1967, the purpose of which was to find out why America's Pacific allies—New Zealand, Australia, and the Philippines—had committed only token forces to the conflict. Clifford discovered these allies were not as fearful of Communist aggression as was the United States, even though they were closer to the war zone. He began to doubt America's appraisal of the danger to itself and others.

Despite his growing reservations about the war and his aversion to accepting government appointments, Clifford could not turn down Johnson's offer of the post of Secretary of Defense. Johnson appointed him on 19 January 1968; he was unanimously confirmed by the Senate on 30 January 1968 and sworn in on 1 March 1968.

On 28 February 1968 Clifford took the chair of the president's Ad Hoc Task Force on Vietnam, a group that was convened to decide how to provide over 200,000 more troops for Vietnam but, in fact, debated the reasons for the war. During these debates Clifford remained neutral and hoped he could clarify his own position. He soon found out no solid answers were available. No one could estimate with any accuracy how long the war would continue or whether the additional troops requested would be enough.

When submitting the recommendations of the task force to the president, Clifford made known his reservations about Vietnam policy. His warm friendship with Johnson suddenly turned cool. On 28 March 1968 Clifford met with other government leaders to compose a major presidential address to the nation. Clifford found the draft too warlike and urged "not a war speech but a peace speech." The speechwriting committee presented to the president Clifford's suggestion for a bombing halt, which Johnson, influenced by Clifford's wisdom and personality, included in his nationwide television address of 31 March 1968. Johnson, despite the differences that had developed between him and Clifford, awarded him the Medal of Freedom with Distinction. After Clifford left office his feelings about the war continued to evolve. In July 1969 he called for the unilateral withdrawal of American troops, which was finally achieved in 1973.

Clifford died of pneumonia at age ninety-one at his home in Bethesda, Maryland. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia.

Although his later career was marred by a banking scandal, Clifford will be remembered for his great service to his country during the 1960s, not only in business and political matters but, above all, for helping deescalate the Vietnam War.

Collections of Clifford's papers and related oral history material are in the Harry S Truman Presidential Library in Independence, Missouri, and the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Library in Boston, Massachusetts. Clifford's autobiography, Counsel to the President: A Memoir (1991), written with Richard Holbrooke, details his career as a government official. A biographical account of Clifford's life and career is Douglas Frantz and David McKean, Friends in High Places: The Rise and Fall of Clark Clifford (1995). A thorough overview of Clifford's life is provided by Allan L. Damon in volume 5 of Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives, 1997–1999. Entries in Current Biography (1968) and Political Profiles: The Johnson Years (1976) are the sources for the 1960s. Townsend Hoopes, The Limits of Intervention (1969), concentrates on Clifford's involvement in the Vietnam War. An obituary is in the New York Times (11 Oct. 1998).

John Moran