1995 Distinguished Graduate Award
CITATION

Brent Scowcroft

     In positions of great responsibilities in the national interest of the United States, General Scowcroft has exemplified outstanding devotion to the principles expressed in the motto of West Point:  DUTY, HONOR, COUNTRY. 

     General Scowcroft graduated from West Point in 1947 and was commissioned in the Army Air Corps.  He began his flight training at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, and joined his first unit, the 82nd Fighter Wing at Grenier Air Force Base, New Hampshire, shortly over a year later.  After serving in a variety of operational and staff assignments in the Wing, he attended Columbia University where he was awarded his master of arts degree in 1953.  From 1953 until 1957, he was an assistant professor in the Department of Social Sciences at West Point. 

     Attendance at the Strategic Intelligence School in Washington, DC, preceded a two-year tour as Assistant Air Attache at the American Embassy in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. The following two years saw General Scowcroft assigned to the Political Science Department at the United States Air Force Academy, where he served as Associate Professor and acting head of the department. 

     In 1964, General Scowcroft was assigned to Headquarters, US Air Force, in the office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, Plans and Operations, and served in the Long Range Planning Division, Directorate of Doctrine, Concepts and Objectives.      
                   
     During the 1967-68 academic year, General Scowcroft was a student at the National War College.  Upon graduation, he was assigned to the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs and served in the Western Hemisphere Region.  In September 1969 he was reassigned to Headquarters, US Air Force, in the Directorate of Plans as Deputy Assistant for National Security Council Matters.  In March 1970, he became Special Assistant to the Director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

     In February 1972, General Scowcroft was appointed Military Assistant to the President, and a year later became Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, a post he held until the end of the Ford administration in January 1977.

     In 1975, he retired from the Air Force with the rank of lieutenant general.  From 1978 until 1981, General Scowcroft served as a member of the President's General Advisory Committee on Arms Control, and in 1983 he was selected Chairman of the President's Commission on Strategic Forces. In 1985, President Reagan appointed General Scowcroft to the President's Blue Ribbon Commission on Defense Management. In 1986-87 he was a member of the President's Special Review Board investigating the Iran-Contra affair.

     Prior to joining the Bush administration in 1989, General Scowcroft was Vice Chairman of Kissinger Associates, Inc.  In January 1989, General Scowcroft was appointed Assistant to the President, National Security Council.  As advisor to President Bush, he made important contributions to the planning for the reunification of Germany; he was a principal architect shaping the strategy leading up to Desert Storm; and he was a key advisor during the planning
for the North American Free Trade Agreement.

     In July 1991, President Bush presented General Scowcroft with the Medal of Freedom Award at the White House.  In 1992, he was the recipient of the first award of the Eisenhower Leadership Prize.  And, in 1993, General Scowcroft was presented with the insignia of an Honorary Knight of the British Empire by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace.

     General Scowcroft is a Director of the National Bank of Washington; Chairman of the Board of the Georgetown Center for Strategic and International Studies/Pacific Forum; and a member of the Board of Visitors of the US Air Force Academy.

     General Scowcroft has an aeronautical rating as a pilot, and his decorations and awards include the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, National Security Medal, Air Force Distinguished Service Medal with two oak leaf clusters, Legion of Merit with one oak leaf cluster, and the
Air Force Commendation Medal.

     General Scowcroft's lifelong career of distinguished service made permanent and invaluable contributions to the national security of his country; and as advisor to five presidents of the United States, his selfless dedication exemplified the principles and ideals of West Point.

     Accordingly, the Association of Graduates is proud to present the 1995 Distinguished Graduate Award to Brent Scowcroft, USMA Class of 1947.