Clifford, Clark McAdams (1906-1998), was United States secretary of defense under President Lyndon B. Johnson from March 1968 to January 1969. He became the leader of a group of officials who persuaded Johnson to de-escalate the Vietnam War. Clifford argued that the burden of fighting in the war should be transferred from U.S. troops to South Vietnamese forces.
Clifford was born on Dec. 25, 1906, in Fort Scott, Kansas. He received a law degree from Washington University in St. Louis in 1928 and practiced law in St. Louis until he entered the Navy in 1944. Clifford began his public career in 1946 as special counsel and speechwriter to President Harry S. Truman. He was also a practicing attorney in Washington, D.C.
In 1992, United States and New York state officials filed legal charges against Clifford. Federal officials charged that he, as chairman of First American Bankshares, Inc.—a Washington, D.C., bank—had helped hide the fact that the bank was illegally owned by another bank, Bank of Credit and Commerce International SA, also known as B.C.C.I. A huge international bank, B.C.C.I. had been closed in 1991 by banking regulators worldwide and charged with fraud, money laundering, and bribery. New York officials charged that Clifford had accepted bribes in return for helping B.C.C.I. officials influence First American Bankshares, Inc. In 1993, the federal charges against Clifford were dropped in order not to interfere with the New York case. The state charges were dropped due to Clifford’s failing health. In 1991, Clifford published an account of his career as a government official in Counsel to the President: A Memoir. He died on Oct. 10, 1998.
