Frank Carlucci, defense secretary and tamer of federal bureaucracies, dies at 87

Source: Washington Post

By Bruce Nelan
June 4 at 9:33 AM

Frank C. Carlucci III, a soft-spoken but hard-driving crisis manager for six presidents and whose reputation as a tamer of federal bureaucracies led to stints as secretary of defense, national security adviser and deputy CIA director, died June 3 at his home in McLean, Va. He was 87.

The cause was complications from Parkinson’s disease, said a family friend, Susan Davis.

Mr. Carlucci’s rise was linked with those of his Princeton wrestling teammate, Donald H. Rumsfeld, and Caspar W. Weinberger, both of whom were entrenched in Republican politics and who became defense secretaries. They and others in high office often called on Mr. Carlucci, a self-described damage-repair specialist, to sort out turmoil and scandal in fractious federal power centers.

As No. 2 at the CIA in the late 1970s, he was widely credited with helping calm a spy agency in almost open revolt against its director, Adm. Stansfield Turner. A few years later, as national security adviser, he helped restore the National Security Council’s probity after the Iran-contra affair brought down its chief, Vice Adm. John Poindexter, and the head of its military-political office, Lt. Col. Oliver L. North.

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