Frank Carlucci

Carlucci was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the son of Roxann (née Bacon) and Frank Charles Carlucci, Jr., an insurance broker. His father was of Italian and Swiss descent.[3] His grandfather was from Santomenna in Italy.[4] After graduating from Wyoming Seminary in 1948, Carlucci attended Princeton University, where he roomed with Donald Rumsfeld. He graduated with an A.B. from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University in 1952 after completing a 153-page long senior thesis titled "Two American Businesses in Costa Rica."[5] He then attended Harvard Business School for an M.B.A. in 1954-55.[6] He was a Naval officer from 1952 until 1954.[7] He joined the Foreign Service, working for the State Department from 1956 until 1969.[8]

In 1961, Carlucci was the second secretary at the United States Embassy in the Congo. During that time, Patrice Lumumba, the first prime minister of independent Congo, was executed in January 1961 during the Congo Crisis.[9]

According to subsequently released U.S. government documents, President Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered the CIA to eliminate Lumumba.[9][10] Minutes of an August 1960 National Security Council meeting confirm that Eisenhower told CIA chief Allen Dulles to "eliminate" the Congolese leader.[11] The official note taker, Robert H. Johnson, testified to this before the Senate Intelligence Committee in 1975. However, subsequent investigations indicate that Lumumba was ultimately executed by order of political rival Moïse Tshombe of the State of Katanga with Belgian assistance.[9][12]

According to James Schlesinger, a subsequent Prime Minister of the Congo, Cyrille Adoula, began a White House meeting with President John F. Kennedy with the question "Où est Carlucci?" ("Where is Carlucci?"). Kennedy first responded "Who the hell is Carlucci?'" and then sent Dean Rusk to find him.[13]

A fictionalized 2000 biopic of Lumumba, titled Lumumba, and directed by Raoul Peck, portrayed Carlucci as being involved during his service in Congo in the murder of Lumumba.[13][14] Carlucci furiously denied the claims, and successfully went to court to prevent being named in the film when it was released in the United States.[13][14]

Secretary Carlucci at a press conference, 1988

In 1969, when President Nixon persuaded U.S. Rep. Donald Rumsfeld to leave his congressional seat to become director of the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO), the agency created by Sargent Shriver to fight President Johnson's War on Poverty, Rumsfeld had Carlucci transferred to OEO from the State Department to head up the Community Action Program.[15] Carlucci was Undersecretary of Health, Education and Welfare when Caspar Weinberger was secretary during the Nixon administration.[15]

Carlucci became Ambassador to Portugal, and served in this position from 1974 until 1977.[15] He was remembered in Portugal among the winners of the November 25 Coup d'État.[16] The Carlucci American International School of Lisbon, the oldest American school in the Iberian Peninsula, is named for him.

Carlucci was Deputy Director of the CIA from 1978 until 1981, under CIA Director Stansfield Turner.[8]

Carlucci was married to Billie Jean Anthony from 1954 until the couple divorced in 1974.[30] They had two children.[30] Carlucci was later married to Marcia McMillan Myers from 1976 until his death. They had one daughter.[30]

Carlucci died on June 3, 2018, from complications of Parkinson's disease, at his home in McLean, Virginia, at the age of 87.[7][8]

• Grand-Cross of the Order of Prince Henry, Portugal (November 24, 2003)[31]

• Foreign Service Journal article on his Lifetime Contributions to American Diplomacy Award.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Frank Carlucci.

• Department of Defense biography
• Appearances on C-SPAN