Launch, which were excited to host here this evening i want to extend a special welcome to kristens mother and secretary carlucci, his widow Marcia Carlucci and kristens husband, mr. Joshua. We thank you so much for being here this evening. I also want to welcome the chairman of the reagan president ial foundation institute, mr. Fred ryan. Thank you so much for being here this evening. Thanks, fred. Well, here we recognizing kristens for the publication of get me carlucci. And this release is near and dear to our hearts■1 here at the Reagan Institute because. Kristens father, secretary carlucci, had an outsize impact on the reagan■ Q Administration serving in a variety of roles both terms. Now, before serving in the Reagan Administration, Frank Carlucci and diverse career in the Foreign Service in cold war hotspots, really across the globe in the 1960s, he was a political and a nixon and foreign ministrations he was ambassador to portugal during a particularly tumultuous of time he was deputy of the Central Intelligence agency during their careers and. He was Caspar Weinberger is reagans first secretary of defense his deputy the department of defense during the first term and then served president reagans National Security advisor and then secretary of defense in the second term resume unlike pretty much anyone else, few could compare what secretary carlucci did during those years of government service. Now, secretary carlucci is remembered here at the Reagan Institute as one of the most accomplished and serving figures from the Reagan Administration. And he was a consummate Public Servant. What quote, a hero among Civil Servants devoted to service, hard work and statesman statesmanship, which, of course, is unusual in this town. He got things done, as we were just discussing. So well talk about all of this and more. Please join me in welcoming Kristen Carlucci head to the stage where we engage in discussion on get me carlucci. Thanks for being here. Its rather thank you. Well, to our viewers on cspan, heres the book, get me carlucci will do the most important thing i could do for you this evening and tell her to go on amazon. Oh, yes and purchase this book right now. Now that weve dispensed with the most important business for the evening, we can all go back to the reception. Just kidding. Well have a conversation. First of its a great and its i in with Washington Post story right soon after your father became deputy secretary of defense and theyre trying to explain who is this person that is just become the nations deputy secretary, defense and what do they find out in that article . Get me carlucci yeah. So title is from Washington Post, article from 1981. It just my dad had just served in the Carter Administration and was easily confirmed io the Reagan Administration. And in this Washington Post article, they they say that nixon, Reagan Kennedy had all said, get me, who is this guy . Get me carlucci. Everybody is asking for him. Basically this book is about its about identifying the traits that make my dad so, so wanted. So desired. And in this town, a consummate professional skilled Public Servant that everybody wanted in their corner. Republicans democrats, even though he was a republican. But that he was he got things done. So i thought it was a very appropriate title. Absolutely. And that image, the beginning of the story of president carlucci. Where and your father sitting . I in foggy bottom, having lunch with carl. And next thing you know, hes kind of brought in and into the white house, meet someone who was a statesman from, well, from congo. Yeah. Back. He was a foreign svice officer. And he had served in the congo, and hed come back to washington. He was having lunch. Was having lunch. Oh, thats better. And a minister from the congo was sitting down with president. And this who my father had known in the congo during that period of congolese independ since my father had gotten to know everybody in the congo and minister in the congo says with president Kennedy Kennedy louis carlucci, which is whereas carlucci and french president Kennedy Kennedy says, who the hell is carlucci and why is he not here . So his of staff, kennedy is chief of staff, says, go find this guy. You need to go find this guy, ken carlucci. So my dad says he thinks he was shuffling suitcases in blair house at the time. So they pull him in and hes asked to translate for president kennedy and the minister the congo in end, he says he does. He didnt do a very good job. So he was never asked to translate after that. It was i the next time he translated for someone may have been president reagan or something, but yeah yeah it was someone spoke in a paragraph and he translated it with three words i believe. Yeah i think thats right. Lets take a step back for a second because its this is such a■m unique way to write effectively is a biography biography. You have a memoir that your father kept, but obviously never published. You were around more important parts, but all of of his in Public Service and you really got to your father in a different way through this project. So share a little bit about that background about the memoir you found and kind of how you came to discover your father bit through this through this journey. Sure. So is a very unusual way to write a book. Humble he he was not prone to and he thought the idea writing a book was absurd. But in the final years his life, he he considered me the writer in, the family. I had a history of writing. So i was urging him to put his thoughts to paper, put his memories to paper. So he put together a small memoir of his l agrateful. Did he would send me copies, drafts. Hed say is is is this good . And id say, yeah, thats great, dad. Thank you you just put it down and put your memories down. And in 2020, like, of us, i was going through a period of transition and. I had run across this memoir again with a friend and she read it and she said, i knew your dads life was interesting. I had no i had no conception of how interesting it was. Is this available like is this available to buy . And i said no. And that really kind of got me down this path. Okay, i need to convert it. I need to make this into something that is actually a book that people buy. But it was missing pieces. Was. And i had to fill in the blanks, the history of the time as well as he left out a lot of family details in his memoir, i kind of assumed that we would be reading it. So to meld two voices was a difficult thing to do. I became mostly the narrator, and then there was a lot of things i couldnt ask, so i asked other people i conducted interviews. I metyou know, colin powell before he passed away, another contemporary is of my fathers. And then, thankfully, my family likes to hoard things. So have boxes of his papers and his photographs and newspaper articles in our basement. It was a treasure trove of material to work from, and i was astonished at how many, for instance, newspaper articles re about and about this time period. So so i go pretty far. I mean, you would expect this sort of newspaper coverage from his time and in a cabinet massacre advisor but in some ways, yes they were captured even from the service and in the Foreign Service. Yeah. Mm hmm. I want to ask you, you know, this about the personalities here because this book is so interesting from understanding what was happening during Frank Carlucci, his career in Public Service. But certainly for people in washington, see the sorts of people he was engaging with and when. Mhm. So going to throw out some names and just tantalize everybody with, with how your got to know them and when. One of my favorites and we didnt prepare this beforehand. So im not violating it here but cheney right. Thats i recall his friend your fathers friend don right from princeton right is working in the Nixon Administration and the office of economic opportunity. And then brings in and in. Yeah. Intern on capitol hill. Yeah. So thats how we first meets him. So so father now is number two in the Office Taking opportunity and hes interviewing this devil named. Yeah, cheney. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So you imagine mean this is the this was the kind of the that they are getting to know each other is that their young wasnt ionians doing these jobs in in washington i mean in washington and and we know a lot of these names. This is why kind of this is one another reason i that we just didnt know or i didnt have a i think anybody had an appreciation for Frank Carlucci which is why i, i brought lets continue this fun so okay yeah celebrate frank lucy blame Frank Carlucci. He was responsible cheney in early on. It was really don rumsfeld, who i dont think he was. But but then you go from there, and this is one of my favorites in the story. So you ingrain that office, and then hes recruited to omb. Right. Just imagine everybody. The phone rings and whos on the other end of the line. Its is George Shultz right . And he says, id like you to come. To omb to be my deputy. Mm. And then what happens next . You end up working for shultz. Hes hes for weinberger. Shultz gets pulled into treasury, right . And then he ends up working for walmart. Yeah. Who . He had met at ohio, actually, because, you know, weinberger was with reagan. He got into a little spat with thengovernor reagan right at. But he developed gloss over them. Yeah. Where you get that . Yeah. I mean, the context here governor reagan is fighting a particul program when he wants kill a program california, which your father said, no, i dont want to kill this program. Yeah yeah. So my father finds a diplomat way to make both things happen, which i actually think is another a line that that flows throughout this book. So theres a federal program that governor reagan wants to kill. And my dad working in ohio doesnt to kill it. So he says well, why dont we appoint a three judge panel in california to, republicans and a democrat to see this program is actually as bad. You say it was reagan was going after this program because its good sample. Governor reagan, a waste or whatever, right . Yeah, yeah, yeah. And the three judge panel says, actually, no programs okay. So my dad says, well, this provides you the political you need to say, you know, this independent says its okay and ended up funding the longest in this programs history. So i do think that you know exit governor reagan for the stage. But yeah hell return exgovernor from this and later chapter. All right lets lets continue having this personality, shall we . All right. Okay. So so that we have George Shultz dont get to work for him he leaves working for Casper Weinberger as a deputy on right. Again, this is kind of just remarkable because here you have a Career Service officer now finding in this number two cabinet level position in the in the executive office of the president. Right and then he continues with lindbergh, right. He goes with weinberger to the 80 w and then goes with weinberger to the and he becomes step secdef at. The and then and then at and now h. W. , of course is what we call now health and Human Services hhs and. Then he returns i love this piece of the story to the Foreign Service because Henry Kissinger because of course we had we talk about this period having not mentioned Henry Kissinger. So he surfaces and he personally, as president. Ford mm hmm. To have well, i guess its get me carlucci to portugal. So us tell us what was going on in portugal at the time and why Henry Kissinger thought that your father was a person who could address, you know, what he needed and right. So during this period of time, portugal was transitioning. The 50 years prior, portugal under an autocracy and kissinger was extremely worried and convinced that portugal was going to fall under communist rule. So he wanted to send tough guy carlucci. He viewed him as tough guy carlucci to portugal to to change the situation. My nominated as ambassador there goes to portugal, and within and does the of the same things that he had done in the Foreign Service. He lands in portugal. He is ableo speak portuguese because he had in brazil. So he starts he was the first ambassador there to speak portuguese and he assesses the situation on the ground in portugal and figures actually, no, i dont think this is to i dont think this country is going stay communist. I think theres going to be a democratically elected prime minister. And you sure this is the sort of thing you dont do . Henry kissinger at the height of his power. Right. You know going and saying actually where you see communism as the outcome . I differ. And he did not appreciate. No, no, Henry Kissinger did not appreciate it that my my my dad said im i think youre wrong. And he pretty staunch in that opinion. And he came to washington and i said he said, i youre wrong. And he was proven correct. And i believe Henry Kissinger said something to the effect of, well, then you do it. Yeah, then you do it. And he did. And he did. Yeah. Pretty remarkable. My sense was, is that post ambassador to portugal was was perhaps one of his favorite. I think kind of moments in his career. Yeah obviously, they went on to other more senior and perhaps rivals. But that one it didnt seem to reflect to me kind of his quality and were able to play out and i think and and you know, think about it this way, like for 50 years now, portugal has been a democratic country. So the so the his influence there, he was able to give the portuguese the spirit out and the, you know, the spirit of the United States behind them. Right. And so i think that was that that was the most consequential, you know, position that he held. There were probably more higher positions or more higher positions, the u. S. Government. But i do feel like that that that one, especially, you, my mom was there with him. I think i think that one was the most meaningful there. The residence there is now named after him, costa carlucci and reed and the and the school there is named after him. So in he is quite a wellknown i t that you know, when we think about democracy sometimes we take it for granted and i feel like you for for the portuguese that was quite meaningful. Well i it because it it it in some ways reflected something that president reagan absolutely held very deep and combining point of view that people want to be free. Right and it wasnt ready to write them off as okay, theyre communists. Take the horrible approach, bring them over seem to be the approach he took. And i really wonderful job in terms of giving that insight into you know that portugal look like during this moment the cold war when certainly had and appreciate it. All right well were done with the 40 years yeah enter carter we go from republican to democrat what republican Frank Carlucci do now and he actually before becoming taking on his next post at the intelligence agency. There was discussion whether he could take on a more political post. It was that it wasnt going to work right. But he comments that carter really likes and wants him to work at the state department. But he said he laughs at that and says, theres no way im going to get confirmed at the state department. So he goes and works for stansfield turner, the agency, for a couple of years under president carter. So the president carter pieces. You have a great story in. The book, because it wasnt his first time interacting with president carter. No. So not onlthat, he denied governor reagan or challenge governor reagan. He also challenged governor carter when. At right with cash weinberger. Give us a little feel of perhaps his political instincts. Things were slightly off. They were wrong then. Yes. And any midset. So, yeah. And i believe it was. I think you have it in front of me. Yeah, it was a it was a head start program. Yes. And so i read the sense. You go ahead. Yes. I was great. So. So they were going to tell carter that, were going to override your, veto and put push the program in and you weinbergers hesitating and this isci says when he we hung up, i turned to kevin. Youre quoting from the memoir, really nice device in this book, you know, when its coming ight the memoir and said cap hes a lame duck governor, youll never hear from him again. Override the veto. Yeah. Yeah. He was wrong. But whats remarkable about that is our Politics Today and this is a throughout if you would have overrun, you know, a governor who then became president , you would never work for them. Let youd be persona non grata, let you in the town right and he ends up becoming. Yeah. A part of that administration. Yeah. He ends up saying, you know, carter liked me like he me. So i worked for his administration because thats what did he was a Public Servant he always put you know then the Public Service and service to you know the nation before anything else. Well, that did come at a cost little bit, at least, at least with one. Senator jesse helms never forgave. Right. Maybe we can move to there and this is this is really when remarkable things about your ther out to the book was his ability to deal with difficult certainly strong personalities. Right and i think the one that is kind of comes out brightest in the book is a relationship between cap weinberger and George Shultz. So justo the scene and maybe you can comment on it. Weinberger wants and ultimately your father become his deputy right. And then soon after George Shultz becomes the secretary of state and then later on, hes now career advisor and hes managing to day to day. And it it came across like shuttle diplomacy. I think. Tell us about those relationships between weinberger and shultz. Right. Well, first, how did he become National Adviser when when s aso be National Adviser . He came in and. He thought that the president was going to give him accolades on how intelligent he was, how he might be a great visionary. And said, actually, no, were choosing your we chose him because you were the only person that that shultz weinberger could agree on. So i think these two personalities, he knew in particular very well, and i think know, he commented quite a few times. He was he w to manage these two personalities very effectively. He would get them to even, you know, and i have read later, would get them to write down their what their opinions were on pieces of paper. He would take them to the president and he would give them both to the president. And then the president would ask what my father thought. And he said i would give it sometimes he wouldnt ask what he thought. And he said, still give what i thought. But he was able to manage both personality is extremely effectively. And in weinberger in particular, you know, weinberger you know, was a lawyer and often, you know, was quick to judgments. And my father wrote particularly if those judgments were public, he would very rarely go back on what he said. But there was he he said, you know but this is particular when he was secdef at end of the day, my dad would meet with him and he said, i would always save the contentious issues for. The last said often id able ie able to mediate him down from what he was thinking and change his mind. Yeah it really comes out throughout the book that he had a intuitive sense of people and knew how to what made them tick and therefore could could work with them and kind of go back to his team of of get outcomes and and lead and certainly some of the the toughest personalities you your father writes about the kind of agrees with George Shultzs assessment that cap isz described himself as more analytical. And again he was able to work with analytical mind in the person position taker, the lawyer, the economist example. Right. And and support support the president. Anotherd that earlier. But id love for you to expand. You know, he had this very close relationship with cap weinberger, made him a better secretary of defense. Clearly. But also was a wonderful mentor, became close friend and confidant with, colin powell, right before he had conversation with colin powell in preparing this book before he passed. Talk about their relationship and. What i love about it, its the the decades right, you know, kind of weaving in and out of the various he had somewhat biting colin powell tends to look at that and oh hes calling me again bring me in he didnt give me much choice but clearly had deep affection. Right. What came from it . Yeah, it was it was such an honor. And ill always remember it being able to interview colin a couple of weeks before died for this memoir. They were dear fri admiration fh other. But one story in particular think really illustrates how my father really respected and depended on colin and that is right after he was chosen to be National Security adviser. You know, this is right after irancontra. So he had decided to streamline the, you know, the National Security council. And the only person wanted working for him was, colin powell, who had just gotten a cushy gig over in germany and had nog interest returning. I can see you guys know this story. So. So he calls colin on the phone says, i, id like you to be my number two. And colin says, well, i thought you were calling me for my congratulations. Ends right for your new position. He said, you know, colin says, i have no interest returning to washington. You know, frank, i hear all my his wife really likes germany. Im commanding troops over here. I dont want to come back to to washington, d. C. Hes like, im going to need a call from the president. So later that evening. My dad, president reagan, to colin, a call to say we need you back here. So, you know, he comes back. And that relationship of course, a military assistant. There was another example where uses cap weinberger suddenly reaches out to him, ask him to be his military assistant. You know, who is it . I hadnt fully appreciated the years that they had worked since then when. They switched. I think he was just my father was so low key. When they switch and my dad is told hes going to be secretary of defense, theyre at this long table and know colin reiterates this story me you know a while back just passes him a note and congrats youre the new National Security and colin reads this note and hes like, what . Why . Like theres no fanfare theres no you know, theres none of this nonsense that seems to, you know, accompany people nowadays, but theres just yeah. And the and the humility of your father, i mean the i think just before that story he recalls how you recall the conversation he had with president reagan and and so whos going to take your position . And he said, well, colin powell and his, you know, hell be better at the job than i. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Great. Great admiration. Lets talk a little bit. We have a few more minutes and. Then we can go to questions from the audience here. I do want to talk about how your your father viewed president reagan and their relationship as well being is now your advisors deputy secretary of defense and of course, secretary of defense. But his time as secretary of defense really stood out in. The memoir, as you know coming in after irancontra, as you note the of the defense buildup and all money going into the department of defense carry out reagans vision of of peace through strength. But he really came in and tried to reform the place, and particularly acquisition and in a way they hadnt fully appreciated prior to reading this kind of expand on that as his tenure as secretary defense was 14 months right. I think i think he was concerned. Any like wasteful spending. I think the other thing when he reflected about his tenure as secretary of defense, one of his top accomplishments would have told you was the Brac Commission, which is a base realignment and closure enclosure, wherevery concerned t cutting personnel, not affecting the morale of of people in the military. But he was aware that the infrastructure of, the military could be reduced. I remember a story that you ide Brac Commission to the president and president be an elected official said good luck with that. You know, but it was successful. He came up with this idea of an independent commission to reduce bases and base infrastructure and to give it in congress and and able to reduce spending overall without, you know, costs to military personnel. We right you write that you know weinberger became the outside person engaging Foreign Affairs probably yeah sparring with with george and and your father the one al the the budgets and the. So he was probably best positioned to figure out where to. Yeah, yeah, yeah i think thats right well lets take the last few moments open up to questions just to get your sense of how your father viewed president reagan. Theres a great quote out from the memoir you have here capturing kind of different elements of of president reagan when i really liked lbj we knew that whenever we got into trouble entering the sentence formulation, when we got into trouble, the staff of the administration. Yeah, we can make up the cue cards and put him on television and he could sway the day he could bring along like nobody ive ever known. I imagine that was asecurity blt official or now security adviser. Right. I think he really viewed him that way. I think there was and a number of things that that were helpful i think he viewed well first i knew he he viewed working in the Reagan Administration as an honor and he writes about that extensively. I think the second thing is, as reagan was a strategic visionary but not a day day manager, which for i think my dad super helpful. I think you he he writes later that he had a meeting a week president reagan as secretary of defense for an and he said i dont even think we use that full hour because he was so overwhelmingly supportive of what we were doing. So he he didnt have the his you know, he wasnt involved in every decision. But he didnt need to be because he had the best people, best people place to do it, to carry out his vision. Although i do think theres a note in there just before the extra about i shared that after president reagan passed, he was surprised to see, yes, all the notes of what he did is absorbing it. But still was somebody who listened. Yeah, because he wasnt quite sure about how much he was absorbing, how much he wasnt hearing and all that. Yeah, yeah. There you go. Yeah. Last question and then well live up to to the audience kind of bookend this where we started here you are we look at this s career, your fathers career. So remarkable spanning decades administrations strong personalities, difficult personalities from carter to reagan, you couldnt be more different. And yet it was consistent. Me. Carlucci right. Do you in America Today and washington today with a deep partizanship and division that were all gpp and regret, but its a reality we could ever have another Frank Carlucci i do not know the answer to that question, but that discussion is one of the major reasons i wrote this book is because i feel strongly that his life is one that we should think and remember and aspire to try to live out in ways, even in a washington thats conducive to it. Questions from the audience to give enough prep time. The gentleman in the back over. Please wait for the microphone and it a question please less commentary thank you on the numerous successes and your father faced, is there any particular challenge that stands out above them all in memoir and in your life that you can think of was really the most challenging, the most . Im i dont know if he had one particular event that was the most challenging for him. I would say his i mean, if you ask me what would probably have been the most challenging for its probably his earlier in in the Foreign Service, if you read the book, i mean it sounds like you had just dropped him into the most conflict ridden zones in the world at the time and said, do your best. So physical victim of that, he was, you know, he got stabbed i9 the back right in the congo. So i think in of trying to, you know do his best in those thats probably when he had the toughest time. I mean i dont know that i dont know if he would answer that way. Maybe hed washington was tougher, but at least from my personal point of view, that would that would probably be the case. You have time for. Another question. A gentleman over here. Sure. Please wait for the microphone microphone. Could you comment on the issue of south africa, the mid eighties, reagan was dealing with the issue of sanctions against the apartheid regime. The same time he recognized how important it was for the u. S. , south africa to be close allies in the fight against communism. One of the things reagan did was the first africanamerican u. Ambassador to south africa. What role did your father play and in promoting that kind of dynamic because it created a very interesting dynamic with the afrikaner government was forced to confront the issue of. Their racist past. Same engaging with the United States to promote, you know, National Security interests. Yeah, that is an excellent one that i do not have the answer. I am. So im, so sorry. We have time for one last question and then the question. Lets go to our distinguished , dr. Professor henryding up in now, thank you very for making my views on there henry. Please it on so on. Okay. Its on your networks. But i was wondering whether or not your father was ever asked or whether he discussed with the family running for Public Office and if not, why not . It seems to me he had all those qualities that would have resonated in the public arena. Somebody told me recently that he was to run for pennsylvania governor or maybe was pennsylvanias congressman. But other than that i, i dont know. And, you know, i was a child the time. So if he was it wouldnt reach. That would have been a fantastic think about that running. Well, maybe he was running for senate. You know, i never you know wilkes barrow yeah. Because he was born and rahad strong in the area. I dont know that he had much interest in it. He had kind of the powell philosophy, but but but, yeah, somebody in this book, then this book tour era, he somebody did tell that. Well, for our viewers, you enjoy this book launch. Please stay tuned for our social media online announcements for future book events taking place at the Reagan Institute. I read it here. Please join me in thanking book, get meucci wade he ms. Butler mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from california. Ms. Butler mr. President , i rise today on the final day recognizing plaque History Month to bring attention to this chamber and to the american people
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