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, Italy.[4]

After graduating from Wyoming Seminary in 1948, Carlucci attended Princeton University, where he roomed with Donald Rumsfeld. Carlucci 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 senior thesis, "Two American Businesses in Costa Rica."[5] He then attended Harvard Business School for an M.B.A. in 1954–1955.[6] He was an officer in the US Navy from 1952 to 1954.[7] He joined the US Foreign Service and worked for the US State Department from 1956 to 1969.[8]

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

According to subsequently-released US government documents, US President Dwight 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 notetaker, Robert H. Johnson, testified to that before the Senate Intelligence Committee in 1975. However, subsequent investigations indicate that Lumumba was ultimately executed by an order of a political rival, Moïse Tshombe, who led the State of Katanga, with Belgian assistance.[9][12]

According to Robert B. Oakley, Carlucci befriended the future Congo Prime Minister Cyrille Adoula in 1959-1960, who was then a Congolese Member of Parliament.[13] According to James Schlesinger, 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?" He then sent Dean Rusk to find him.[14] Oakley added that that instance was "the beginning of Carlucci's meteoric rise!"[15]

A fictionalized 2000 biopic, Lumumba, directed by Raoul Peck, portrayed Carlucci as being involved during his service in Congo in the murder of Lumumba.[14][16] Carlucci furiously denied the claims and successfully went to court to prevent his being named in the film when it was released in the United States.[14][16]

Secretary Carlucci at a press conference, 1988

In 1969, when US President Richard Nixon persuaded U.S Representative Donald Rumsfeld to leave his seat to become the director of the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO), the agency created by Sargent Shriver to fight Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty, Rumsfeld had Carlucci transferred to OEO from the State Department to head up the Community Action Program.[17] Carlucci was Undersecretary of Health, Education and Welfare when Caspar Weinberger was secretary during the Nixon administration.[17]

In the aftermath of the catastrophic flooding caused by Hurricane Agnes in June 1972, Nixon designated Carlucci to lead the federal response in northeastern Pennsylvania because of his personal ties to the region. At the time, Agnes was the costliest disaster in U.S. history, and the Wyoming Valley of Pennsylvania was one of the worst hit areas. Carlucci's time in this role was viewed positively by commonwealth and local officials, as well as the general public, given his local ties and effectiveness.[18]

Carlucci became Ambassador to Portugal and served in that position from 1974 to 1977.[17] He was remembered in Portugal among the winners of the coup of 25 November 1975.[19] The Carlucci American International School of Lisbon, the oldest American school in the Iberian Peninsula, is named after him. In 2019, the official residence of the U.S. Ambassador to Portugal, located in the Lapa neighborhood of Lisbon, was named in his honor.[20]

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

Carlucci was married to Billie Jean Anthony from 1954 until the couple divorced in 1974.[34] They had two children.[34] Carlucci was later married to Marcia McMillan Myers from 1976 until his death. They had one daughter.[34]

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)[35]

• 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