on August 17, 1974 (l) and Central Intelligence Agency Director
William Colby (r) during a break in a meeting of
the National Security Council in April 1975. confers with
Henry Kissinger and Scowcroft in October 1974. 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. 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. Lieutenant General Brent Scowcroft with President
Gerald Ford and Secretary of State
Henry Kissinger on-board
Air Force One on November 17, 1975 examines papers with
Dick Cheney and Scowcroft in April 1989. in
Washington, D.C. Robert Gates 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. 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. 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. 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. Before joining the Bush administration, Scowcroft was vice chairman of
Kissinger Associates. 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. He was appointed Co-Chair of the
Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future from 2010 to 2012 alongside
Lee Hamilton. 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. Scowcroft's aircraft was en route to Offutt when a second hijacked airliner struck the other tower. 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 also president of The Scowcroft Group, an international business consulting firm. He was co-chair, along with
Joseph Nye, of the
Aspen Strategy Group. He was a member of the
Inter-American Dialogue,
Trilateral Commission, and the
Council on Foreign Relations and a board member of the
Center for Strategic and International Studies and the
Atlantic Council. Scowcroft was a leading
Republican critic of American policy towards
Iraq before and after the
2003 invasion, which war critics in particular have seen as significant given Scowcroft's close ties to former President George H. W. Bush. He drew attention for reports of remarks critical of Bush – which he did not deny when reported by
The Washington Post citing his view that "Bush is 'mesmerized' by Israeli Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon, that
Iraq was a 'failing venture' and that the administration's unilateralist approach has harmed
relations between Europe and the United States." Despite his public criticism of the decision to invade, Scowcroft continued to describe himself as "a friend" of the Bush administration. He also strongly opposed a precipitous withdrawal, arguing that a pull-out from Iraq before the country was able to govern, sustain, and defend itself "would be a strategic defeat for American interests, with potentially catastrophic consequences both in the region and beyond". Scowcroft went on to stress that the U.S. must "secure the support of the countries of the region themselves. It is greatly in their self-interest to give that support.. unfortunately, in recent years they have come to see it as dangerous to identify with the United States, and so they have largely stood on the sidelines." The New York Times noted that Scowcroft was "a traditionalist, who believed that the nation should work with allies and international organizations, as opposed to a 'transformationalist,' like the second President Bush, who argued that America should fight terrorism by spreading democracy in the world." He backed the
invasion of Afghanistan as a "direct response" to
9/11 terrorism, a
war that would go on to last about 20 years. President
George H. W. Bush presented him with the
Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1991. In 1993, he was created an Honorary
Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire by
Queen Elizabeth II at
Buckingham Palace. In 1988, he received the Golden Plate Award of the
American Academy of Achievement. In 2005, Scowcroft was awarded the
William Oliver Baker Award by the
Intelligence and National Security Alliance. In 1998, he co-wrote
A World Transformed with George H. W. Bush. This book described what it was like to be in the White House during the end of the
Cold War, as the
Soviet Union collapsed in the early 1990s. Notably, both figures explained why they didn't go on to
Baghdad in 1991: "Had we gone the invasion route, the United States could conceivably still be an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land." In 1994, Scowcroft co-authored the opinion-editorial "The Time for Temporizing is Over" urging President
Bill Clinton to order a
preemptive strike on
North Korea's
Yongbyon nuclear facility unless it readmitted
International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors. His discussions of foreign policy with
Zbigniew Brzezinski, led by journalist
David Ignatius, were published in a 2008 book titled
America and the World: Conversations on the Future of American Foreign Policy. Scowcroft was a member of the Honorary Council of Advisors for
U.S.-Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce (USACC). Critics have suggested that Scowcroft was unethical in his lobbying for the Turkish and Azeri governments because of his ties to
Lockheed Martin and other defense contractors that do significant business with
Turkey. He was also a member of the board of directors of the
International Republican Institute, and served on the Advisory Board for
Columbia University's
School of International and Public Affairs and for America Abroad Media. Scowcroft endorsed
Hillary Clinton in the run-up for the
2016 United States presidential election. In 1989, he was sent to
Beijing by President George H.W. Bush for a sensitive China-related mission following the
Tiananmen Square massacre. ==Evaluation==