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 You are in: Out of Date Releases > Out of Date Biographies > F
Picture of Carl W. Ford, Jr.BIOGRAPHY

Carl W. Ford, Jr.
Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Intelligence and Research
Term of Appointment: 05/31/2001 to 10/03/2003

Carl W. Ford, Jr. was sworn in as Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research on May 31, 2001.

Born in 1943 in Hot Springs, Arkansas, Mr. Ford graduated from Hot Springs High School in 1960, and after 2 years at Florida State University in Tallahassee, joined the U.S. Army. He graduated from Infantry OCS in December 1963 and a month later from the Airborne School. After a tour with the 29th Infantry Battalion, 197th Infantry Brigade, in Fort Benning, Georgia, Mr. Ford served in Vietnam with MACV from 1965 to 1966.

Having completed his tour in Vietnam, Mr.Ford returned to university and in 1968 received a B.A. in Asian Studies and in 1969 an M.A. in East Asian Studies. He rejoined the U.S. Army as Military Intelligence Officer and after graduating from the Area Intelligence Officer Course at Fort Holabird, Maryland, he served with the 525th MI Group in the Central Highlands of South Vietnam from 1970 to 1971. Upon his return to the United States, he was assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency as China Strategic Intelligence Officer.

Mr. Ford resigned his Regular Army commission in 1974 to accept a position as China analyst with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). He also briefly followed developments in North Korea before being selected in 1978 as CIA Congressional Foreign Affairs Fellow. He served in the office of Senator John Glenn as legislative assistant for arms control and foreign policy.

In 1979, Mr. Ford left the CIA to become the professional staff member responsible for East Asia on the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. In 1981 he was concurrently appointed as Senator Glenn’s Foreign Policy and Defense Issues Director. During Senator Glenn’s Presidential Campaign in 1984 he serve as the candidate’s foreign policy and defense advisor. He returned to the CIA as the National Intelligence Officer for East Asia in 1985.

In April 1989, Mr. Ford was sent to the Department of Defense on loan from the CIA to serve as the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs (ISA) and concurrently Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for East Asia and the Pacific. He served as Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for ISA from May 1989 until August 1989. In August 1991, Mr. Ford was again appointed Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense and served in that capacity until December 1991, when he assumed the concurrent duties of Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Near East and South Asian Affairs, while retaining his Principal Deputy portfolio until February 1993.

Mr. Ford retired from the CIA in May 1993 after almost 28 years of government service to establish his own international strategic consulting firm, Ford and Associates, in Washington, DC.

Mr. Ford is married has one child. 


Released on October 16, 2003

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