Weiss was born in
Chicago on May 15, 1925. He served in the
United States Navy during
World War II, achieving the rank of
Lieutenant. After the war, he attended the
University of Pennsylvania, and then received a
Master of International Affairs degree from the
University of Chicago. Weiss then spent five years working in the
Office of Management and Budget and the
United States Agency for International Development. Weiss then joined the
United States Foreign Service. From 1968 to 1969, Weiss headed the State Department's Office of Strategic Research and Intelligence. He spent 1972-73 as deputy director of the
Policy Planning Staff. In 1973,
President of the United States Richard Nixon nominated Weiss as
Director of the Bureau of Politico-Military Affairs; he held this office from August 6, 1973 until January 17, 1974. President
Gerald Ford appointed Weiss
United States Ambassador to the Bahamas in 1974, and Weiss held this post, his last, from September 11, 1974, until December 15, 1976. In retirement, Weiss continued to act as an adviser on foreign policy and defense affairs. In the late 1970s, was an advisor to
Team B. During the
1980 presidential election, he was a foreign policy advisor for
Ronald Reagan, and during the Reagan administration, he would serve as an advisor to
United States Secretaries of Defense Caspar Weinberger (1981–87) and
Frank Carlucci, and under the administration of
George H. W. Bush as an advisor to
Defense Secretary Dick Cheney. Weiss was generally considered a
neoconservative, a
hawk, and an anti-
Soviet hard-liner. Weiss died of
liver cancer at his home in
Bethesda, Maryland, on September 23, 1992, at the age of 67. ==References==