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BumRushDaShow

(127,298 posts)
Fri Aug 7, 2020, 10:49 AM Aug 2020

Brent Scowcroft, key national security adviser to two presidents, dies at 95

Source: Washington Post




Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Brent Scowcroft, who served at the right hand of power as national security adviser for presidents Gerald R. Ford and George H.W. Bush and played instrumental roles in shaping nuclear warfare strategy, dealing with the end of the Cold War and restoring relations with China after the Tiananmen Square massacre, died Aug. 7 at age 95. The death was announced by a spokesman, Jim McGrath. Complete details were not immediately available.

Gen. Scowcroft did not command the public recognition of Alexander M. Haig Jr., whom he replaced as deputy national security adviser in 1973, or Henry A. Kissinger, whom he succeeded as national security adviser in 1975. Nor did Gen. Scowcroft draw or encourage the media attention (and scrutiny) that made household names of those he closely mentored, including future secretaries of state Colin L. Powell and Condoleezza Rice and national security adviser Stephen Hadley.

Austere in his personal habits and utterly averse to publicity, Gen. Scowcroft kept his focus on discretion and private counsel, leaving him willingly overshadowed by more flamboyant personalities in the military and political establishment. His strength came from resolving interagency turf battles and exerting policy influence during an era when the Soviet Union was collapsing and China rising. “I don’t have a quick, innovative mind,” Gen. Scowcroft once told Time magazine. “I don’t automatically think of good new ideas. What I do is pick out good ideas from bad ideas.”

Gen. Scowcroft fully came into his own as a strategic coach when President George H.W. Bush tapped him in 1989 as assistant to the president for national security affairs. In that job, he helped call the tactical plays for Secretary of State James A. Baker III and Defense Secretary Richard B. Cheney as part of Bush’s policy of caution and moderation concerning the fall of the Soviet empire.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/brent-scowcroft-key-security-adviser-to-two-presidents-dies-at-95/2020/08/07/307a061c-d8b9-11ea-930e-d88518c57dcc_story.html



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Brent Scowcroft, key national security adviser to two presidents, dies at 95 (Original Post) BumRushDaShow Aug 2020 OP
His patriotism was never in doubt, but this article is quite a puff piece in other ways. bucolic_frolic Aug 2020 #1
Follow the BumRushDaShow Aug 2020 #2

bucolic_frolic

(42,665 posts)
1. His patriotism was never in doubt, but this article is quite a puff piece in other ways.
Fri Aug 7, 2020, 10:56 AM
Aug 2020

"Bush’s policy of caution and moderation concerning the fall of the Soviet empire."

You mean the one where the Soviest Union was defeated and all the forces and interests that held them together went home happy with their share of the breakup?

They didn't know what would be released, or how to contain them? Jimmy Carter took heat for the Mariel Boat Lift, but these Republicans have gotten off Scot free. Russian labor, gang elements, Oligarchs have invaded. Little Odessa is a nickname for a place in more than one major metro area.

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