oh, good evening, everybody. my name is roger zakheim. as you just heard, i'm the director of the reagan institute, the dc office of the ronald reagan presidential institute, and hope you all been enjoying this reception. christine carlucci reid's book launch, which we're excited to host here this evening i want to

extend a special welcome to kristen's mother and secretary carlucci, his widow marcia carlucci and kristen's husband, mr. joshua. we thank you so much for being here this evening. i also want to welcome the chairman of the institute, mr. fred ryan. thank you so much for being here this evening. thanks, fred. well, here we recognizing kristen's for the publication of get me carlucci. and this release is near and dear to our hearts here at the reagan institute because. kristen's father, secretary carlucci, had an outsize impact on the reagan serving in a variety of roles both terms. now, before serving in the reagan administration, frank carlucci enjoyed, an illustrious 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 reagan's first secretary of defense his deputy the department of defense during the first term and then served president reagan's 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 secretary called, 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 we'll 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. it's rather thank you. well, to our viewers on c-span, here's 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 we've dispensed with the most important business for the evening, we can all go back to the reception. just kidding. we'll have a conversation. first of it's a great and it's i think even better story behind it with washington post story right soon after your father became deputy secretary of defense and they're trying to explain who is this person that is just become the nation's

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 into the reagan administration. and in this washington post article, they they say that reagan kennedy had all said, get me, who is this guy? get me carlucci. everybody is asking for him. and that's basically this book is about it's 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 kennedy who's carlucci, get me carlucci. where and your father sitting? i in foggy bottom, having lunch with carl. and next thing you know, he's 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 service officer. and he had served in the congo, and he'd come back to washington. he was having lunch. was having lunch. oh, that's 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 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 he's asked to translate for president kennedy and the minister the congo in end, he says he does. he didn't 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 that's right. let's take a step back for a second because it's this is such a 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. my was so 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 life, and i was grateful. did he would send me copies, drafts. he'd say is is is this good? and i'd say, yeah, that's 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 dad's 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. it was missing context. 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 couldn't ask, so i asked other people i conducted interviews. i■x he passed away, another

contemporary is of my father's. 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 there were 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 howthem and when. one of my favorites and we didn't prepare this beforehand. so i'm not violating it here but -- cheney right. that's i recall his friend your father's 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 that's how we first meets him. so so faer now is number two in the office taking opportunity and he's 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 wasn't 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 decided put this together is that we just

didn't know or i didn't have a i think anybody had an appreciation for frank carlucci which is why i, i brought let's 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 don't 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 he's recruited to omb. right. just imagine everybody. the phone rings and who's on the other end of the line. it's is george shultz right? and he says, i'd like you to come. to omb to be my deputy. mm. and then what happens next? you end up working for shultz. he's he's for weinberger. shultz gets pulled into treasury, right? and then he ends up working for wal-mart. yeah. who? he had met at ohio, actually, because, you know, weinberger was with reagan.

he got into a little spat with then-governor 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 particular program when he wants kill a program california, which your father said, no, i don't 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 there's a federal program that governor reagan wants to kill. and my dad working in ohio doesn't to kill it. so he says well, why don't we apint 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 it's good sample. governor reagan, a waste or whatever, right? yeah, yeah, yeah. and the three judge panel says, actually, no program's okay. so my dad says, well, this provides you the political you

need to say, you know, this independent says it's okay and ended up funding the longest in this program's history. so i do think that you know exit governor reagan for the stage. but yeah he'll return ex-governor from this and later chapter. all right let's let's continue having this personality, shall we? all right. okay. so so that we have george shultz don't get to work for him he leaves working for casper weinberger as a deputy on right. again, this is kind of just remarkable because he 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 it's 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 w 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 able to 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 don't think this is to i don't think this country is going stay communist. i think there's going to be a democratically elected prime minister. and you sure this is the sort of thing you don't do? henry kissinger at the height of his power. ghand 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 i'm i think you're wrong. and he pretty staunch in that opinion. and he came to washington and i said he said, i you're 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 didn't 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. soname and i think that you kno, 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 wasn't ready to write them off as okay, they're 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 we're done with th 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 wasn't 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, there's no way i'm 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 wasn't his first time interacting with president carter. no. so not only that, he denied governor reagan or challenge

governor reagan. he also challenged governor carter when. he was working as a deputy 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 mid-set. 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, we're going to override your, veto and put push the program in and you weinberger's hesitatin what fran he we hung up, i turned to kevin. you're quoting from the memoir, really nice device in this book, you know cap he's a lame duck governor, you'll never hear from him again. override the veto. yeah. yeah. he was wrong.

but what's 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 you'd 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 that's 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 father 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 just to 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, he's now career advisor and he's 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 he was asked by president reagan to be national adviser? he came in and. he thought that the president him accolades on how intelligent he was, how he might be a great visionary. and said, actually, no, we're 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 was 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 wouldn't ask what he thought. and he said, still give what i thought. but he was abltopersonality is y 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 thing we discussed and he said often i'd able i'd be 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 know 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 shultz's assessment that cap is a position and george shultz 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. another■ personality referenced that earlier. but i'd 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, it's 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 he's calling me again bring me in he didn't give me much choice but clearly had deep affection. right. what came from it? yeah, it was ioa honor. and i'll always remember it being able to interview colin a couple of weeks before died for this memoir. they were dear friends and had mutual admiration for each

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 iran-contra. 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 no interest returning. i can see you guys know this story. so. so he calls colin on the phone and says, i, i'd like you to be my number two. and colin says, well, i thought you were calling me for congrat. 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. i'm commanding troops over here.

i don't want to come back to to washington, d.c. he's like, i'm 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 he you know, it came he was 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 hadn't 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 he's going to be secretary of defense, they're at this long table and know colin reiterates this story me you know a while back just passes him a note and congrats you're the new national security and colin reads this note and he's like, what?

why? like there's no fanre there' no you know, there's none of this nonsense that seems to, you know, accompany people nowadays, but there's just yeah. and the and the humility of your father, i mean the i think just before that story he recalls how reagan and and so who's going to take your position? and he said, well, colin powell and his, you know, he'll be better at the job than i. yeah, yeah, absolutely. great. great admiration. let's 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 defense. but his time as secretary of defense really stood out in. the memoir, as you know coming in after iran-contra, as you note the of the defense buildup and all money going into the

department of defense carry out reagan's vision of of peace through strength. but he really came in and tried to reform the place, and particularly acquisition and contracting that really came out in a way they hadn't 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, where you know, he was very concerned with not 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 know he he proposed this idea the brac commission to the president and president be an elected official said good luck with that. youhe came up with this idea ofn independent commission to reduce bases and base infrastructure and to give it an or down vote in congress and and able to reduce spending overall without, you know, costs to military personnel. we right you write that you know engaging foreign affairs probably yeah sparring with with george and and your father the one really overseeing the build up the the budgets and the like. so he was probably best positioned to figure out where to. yeah, yeah, yeah i think that's right well let's take the last few moments open up to questions just to get your sense of how your father viewed president

reagan. there's 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 i've ever known. i imagine that was a nice security blanket for a cabinet 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 don't even think we use that full hour because he was so overwhelmingly supportive of what we were doing. so he he didn't have the his you know, he wasn't involved in every decision. but he didn't need to be because he had the best people, best people place to do it, to carry out his vision. although i do think there's 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 wasn't quite sure about how much he was absorbing, how much he wasn't hearing and all that. yeah, yeah. there you go. yeah. last question and then we'll live up to to the audience kind of bookend this where we started

here you are we look at this person's career, your father's career. so remarkable spanning decades administrations strong personalities, difficult personalities from carter to reagan, you couldn't 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 we're all grappling with and regret, but it's 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 that's 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 m all in memoir and in your life that you can think of was really the most challenging, the most? i'm i don't know if he had one particular ent that was the most challenging for him. i would say his i mean, if you ask me what would probably have been ting for it's probably his earlier in in the foreign service, if you read the book, i mean it sounds like you had just dropped■d 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 in the back right in the congo. so i think in of trying to, you know do his best in those that's probably when he had the toughest time. i mean i don't know that i don't know if he would answer that way. maybe he'd 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 african-american u.s. 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 i'm, so sorry. we have time for one last question and then the question. let's go to our distinguished scholar here and standing up in the back, dr. professor henry now, thank you very for making my views on on so on. okay. it's 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 governor or maybe was pennsylvania's congressman. but other than that i, i don't know. and, you know, i was a child the time. so if he was it wouldn't 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 raised in pennsylvania and still had strong in the area. i don't 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 sociao media online announcements for future book events taking place at the reagan institute. i read it here. please join me in thanking kristen carlucci wade for her book, get mes2■

ms. butler: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from california. ms. butler: mr. president, i rise today on the final day recognizingla