Brent Scowcroft

Brent Scowcroft (March 19, 1925August 6, 2020) was a United States Air Force officer who was a two-time United States National Security Advisor, first under U.S. President Gerald Ford and then under George H. W. Bush.

He served as Military Assistant to President Richard Nixon and as Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs in the Nixon and Ford administrations.

Scowcroft was born March 19, 1925, in Ogden, Utah, the son of Lucile (née Ballantyne) and James Scowcroft, a grocer and business owner.

Scowcroft received his undergraduate degree and commission in the United States Army Air Forces from the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, in June 1947.

With the establishment of an independent United States Air Force in September 1947, his commission transferred to the USAF.

Having envisioned life as a fighter pilot following World War II, Scowcroft completed his pilot training in October 1948 following his commissioning as an Air Force Second Lieutenant in 1947 and received his Air Force Command Pilot Wings.

He served in a variety of operational and administrative positions from 1948 to 1953.

In the course of his military career, he held positions at the Joint Chiefs of Staff, headquarters of the United States Air Force, and the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs.

His other assignments included: faculty positions at the United States Air Force Academy and the United States Military Academy, and Assistant Air Attaché in the American Embassy in Belgrade, Yugoslavia.

However, on January 6, 1949, while on flight training with a North American P-51 Mustang, his aircraft experienced engine trouble after taking-off from Grenier Army Airfield, causing the plane to crash-land.

Although his injuries were not critical, Scowcroft assumed that he would never fly again and considered another career within the Air Force.

Scowcroft subsequently earned an MA (1953) and PhD (1967) in international relations from Columbia University.

As a senior officer, General Scowcroft was assigned to Headquarters U.S. Air Force in the office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, Plans and Operations, and served in the Long Range Planning Division, Directorate of Doctrine, Concepts and Objectives from 1964 to 1966.

He next attended the National War College at Fort McNair, followed by assignment in July 1968 to the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs.

In September 1969, he was reassigned to Headquarters U.S. Air Force in the Directorate of Plans as Deputy Assistant for National Security Council Matters.

He had a long association with Henry Kissinger, having served as his assistant when Kissinger was the National Security Adviser under Richard Nixon, from 1969.

Scowcroft was long sought after as a respected, professional and largely apolitical or nonpartisan expert (within the standards of fellow White House veterans) and chaired and served on a number of policy advisory councils, including the President's General Advisory Committee on Arms Control, the President's Commission on Strategic Forces, the President's Blue Ribbon Commission on Defense Management, the Defense Policy Board, and the President's Special Review Board (Tower Commission) investigating the Iran–Contra affair.

He also served on the Guiding Coalition of the nonpartisan Project on National Security Reform.

In March 1970 he joined the Joint Chiefs of Staff organization and became the Special Assistant to the Director of the Joint Staff.

Scowcroft was appointed Military Assistant to the President in February 1972; and was reassigned as Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs in January 1973.

He was promoted to lieutenant general on August 16, 1974, and retired from active duty at that rank on December 1, 1975.

He had, just a month earlier, during the Halloween Massacre, become the United States National Security Advisor (for him, the first time), replacing Henry Kissinger.

On the 24th anniversary of the USS Liberty incident (in 1991), approximately 50 Liberty survivors, including Captain William McGonagle, were invited to the White House to meet with President George H.W. Bush in a meeting set up by former Congressmen Paul Findley and Pete McCloskey.

After waiting for over 2 hours, President Bush waved at them as he passed by in his limousine, but did not meet with them in person.

Many of the survivors were reportedly disheartened and disappointed with this.

Instead, Scowcroft and White House Chief of Staff John H. Sununu greeted them.

Rear Admiral Thomas A. Brooks, who had spoken out in favor of Liberty survivors previously, presented them with a Presidential Unit Citation that had been signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson but never awarded.

Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Thomas H. Moorer, a longtime Liberty advocate, was also in attendance.

This meeting was objected to by the Anti-Defamation League.

Before joining the Bush administration, Scowcroft was vice chairman of Kissinger Associates.

He elaborated upon his relationship with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in a 1999 oral history: "I have close personal ties to some of the church leadership. They would not consider me a good Mormon. I don't live by all of the rules the Mormons like—I like a glass of wine and a cup of coffee. But yes, I do consider myself a Mormon. It's part of a religious and a cultural heritage."

He served as Chairman of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2005, and advised President Barack Obama on choosing his national security team.

On the morning of September 11, 2001, Scowcroft was in an E-4B aircraft, also known as the National Airborne Operations Command Center (NAOC), on the taxiway, waiting to takeoff for Offutt Air Force Base, when the first hijacked airliner hit the World Trade Center (WTC).

Scowcroft's aircraft was en route to Offutt when the second hijacked airliner struck the WTC.

Scowcroft was involved in observing the command and control operations of both President George W. Bush in Florida, and Vice President Dick Cheney, who was at the White House.

Scowcroft was the founder and president of The Forum for International Policy, a think tank.

He was appointed Co-Chair of the Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future from 2010 to 2012 alongside Lee Hamilton.

Scowcroft's continued service in the Air Force would have been contingent on reconfirmation of his rank by the Senate, a distinction that National Security Advisor H. R. McMaster elected to pursue in 2018.

His military decorations and awards included the Air Force Distinguished Service Medal, the Legion of Merit with oak leaf cluster and the Air Force Commendation Medal.

He was a descendant of early 19th-century British immigrants from England and Scotland, along with immigrants from Denmark and Norway.