Scowcroft, Brent

Scowcroft, Brent, 1925–2020, U.S. air force general and government official, b. Ogden, Utah, B.S. United States Military Academy, 1947, Ph.D. Columbia, 1967. From 1947 to 1975, he served in the U.S. air force, rising to the rank of lieutenant general. He taught Russian history at West Point and political science at the Air Force Academy, and also was special assistant to the director of the joint chiefs of staff. He was deputy U.S. national security adviser (1973–75), then national security adviser (1975–77), under President Ford, served again (1989–93) in the latter post under President George H. W. Bush, and was chair (2001–5) of the president's intelligence advisory board under President George W. Bush. Scowcroft advocated a restrained foreign policy, emphasizing diplomacy rather than regime change, and was notable for his opposition to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He also accompanied President Nixon on his historic trip to China (1972) and helped formulate the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty II (1979).

See his A World Transformed (1998, with G. H. W. Bush), America and the World (2008, with Z. Brzezinski); biographies by D. Schmitz (2011) and B. Sparrow (2015).

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2024, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

See more Encyclopedia articles on: U.S. History: Biographies