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Appointment of Eight Special Assistants to the President for National Security Affairs

February 11, 1987

The President today announced the appointment of eight members of the National Security Council staff as Special Assistants to the President for National Security Affairs, reporting to the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, Frank Carlucci. They are as follows:

Grant S. Green, Jr., will also serve as Executive Secretary for the National Security Council. He will succeed Rodney B. McDaniel. Since January 1983 Mr. Green has served in several senior management positions with Sears World Trade (SWT), and most recently he was assistant to the chairman. Before joining SWT, Mr. Green served in the U.S. Army (in the grade of colonel), where he last held the position of Military Assistant to the Deputy Secretary of Defense. Throughout his 22-year military career, Mr. Green served in a variety of infantry and aviation command and staff assignments, including tours of duty with the 82d Airborne Division, where he commanded the 2d Aviation Battalion. Mr. Green is a graduate of the University of Arkansas (B.A., 1961) and George Washington University (M.S., 1976). He is married, resides in Alexandria, VA, and was born June 16, 1938, in Seattle, WA.

Herman Jay Cohen, will also serve as Senior Director of African Affairs for the National Security Council. He will succeed Clark A. Murdock. Since 1955 Mr. Cohen has been a career Foreign Service officer with the Department of State, where he specialized in African affairs and served as United States Ambassador to the Republics of Senegal and The Gambia, 1977-1980. He has also served in various capacities in Uganda, Zimbabwe, Zaire, and Zambia. Mr. Cohen was Director for Central African Affairs, 1970-1974; and since 1980 Mr. Cohen has successively held the State Department positions of Deputy Assistant Secretary for Intelligence and Research and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Personnel. He is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the City College of New York. Mr. Cohen is married, has two children, and was born February 10, 1932, in New York City.

Robert W. Dean, will also serve as Senior Director of International Programs and Technology Affairs for the National Security Council. Since August 1986 Mr. Dean has served as Senior Representative for Strategic Technology Policy at the Department of State. Previously he was Deputy Secretary of State for Politico-Military Affairs, 1981-1985. He served as national intelligence officer for the U.S.S.R. and Eastern Europe; as senior staff member at the Rand Corp. in California; and as policy assistant to the director, Radio Free Europe, Munich, Germany. Mr. Dean graduated from Brandeis University (B.A., 1964), the Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Denver (M.A., Ph.D., 1970), and Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government (M.P.A., 1977). He is married, has two children, and resides in McLean, VA. Mr. Dean was born January 16, 1942, in Boston, MA.

Fritz W. Ermarth, will also serve as Senior Director of Soviet and European Affairs for the National Security Council. He will succeed Ambassador Jack Matlock. Since 1984 Mr. Ermarth has served as the national intelligence officer for the U.S.S.R. and a member of the National Intelligence Council under the Director of Central Intelligence. In 1983 he served on the Hoffman panel to develop strategic perspectives for the President's SDI program and on the Levine panel to examine assessments of the Soviet economy for the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. He was a member of the National Security Council staff with responsibility for strategic and regional security planning, 1978-1980. Mr. Ermarth graduated from Wittenberg University (B.A., 1961) and Harvard University (M.A., 1963). He is married, has two children, and resides in McLean, VA. Mr. Ermarth was born February 20, 1941, in Chicago, IL.

Barry Kelly, will also serve as Senior Director for Intelligence and Multilateral Affairs for the National Security Council. Since his retirement from the Central Intelligence Agency in 1981, Mr. Kelly has worked in private industry, where he concentrated on issues affecting national security; and most recently he held the position as operations manager at Titan Systems, Inc. The major portion of Mr. Kelly's career has been with the United States Government, where he served in Nepal, Vietnam, and the Soviet Union. In 1978 he was appointed director of an office in the Central Intelligence Agency's Directorate for Science and Technology. Mr. Kelly graduated from the University of Pittsburgh (B.A.) and Duke University (M.A., James B. Duke fellow). He received the first CIA Distinguished Intelligence Officer Award in 1980. Mr. Kelly was born May 12, 1931, in Jeannette, PA.

Ambassador Robert Bigger Oakley, will also serve as Senior Director of Middle East, South Asia, and North Africa Affairs for the National Security Council. Mr. Oakley has the rank of Career Minister in the Foreign Service, which he joined in 1957. He has most recently been a resident fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Previously, he completed a 2-year tour as Director of the Office for Combatting Terrorism at the Department of State, September 1984 to September 1986; Ambassador to the Somali Democratic Republic, 1982-1984; Ambassador to the Republic of Zaire, 1979-1982; Deputy Assistant Secretary for Asia and the Pacific, 1972-1979; and senior adviser of the National Security Council staff for the Middle East, South Asia, and North Africa, 1974-1977. Mr. Oakley graduated from Princeton University (1952). He is married, has two children, and resides in Washington, DC. Mr. Oakley was born March 12, 1931, in Dallas, TX.

Jose S. Sorzano, will also serve as Senior Director of Latin American Affairs for the National Security Council. He will succeed Raymond F. Burghardt. Since 1969 Dr. Sorzano has been an associate professor of government at Georgetown University. He is also president of the Cuban American National Foundation, an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to gathering and disseminating data about Cuban economic, political, and social issues. During a recently concluded leave of absence from the University, Dr. Sorzano was appointed by the President as Ambassador and U.S. Representative to UNESCO, a position he held from 1981 to 1983. Subsequently, Dr. Sorzano was appointed to the position of Deputy U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations with the rank of Ambassador, where he served until August 1985. He graduated from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service (B.S., 1965; Ph.D., 1972). Dr. Sorzano is married, has two children, and was born in 1940 in Havana, Cuba. He came to the United States in 1961 and became a United States citizen shortly thereafter.

Paul Schott Stevens, will also serve as legal adviser for the National Security Council. Formerly a partner in the firm of Dickstein, Shapiro and Morin, Mr. Stevens has been engaged in the private practice of law in Washington, DC, since 1978. Previously, he served as Deputy Director and General Counsel of the President's Blue Ribbon Commission on Defense Management, 1985-1986; and he was a lecturer in law on the adjunct faculty of the Washington College of Law at the American University, 1980-1983. Mr. Stevens graduated from Yale University (B.A., 1974) and the University of Virginia School of Law (J.D., 1978). He is married, has one child, and resides in Alexandria, VA. Mr. Stevens was born November 19, 1952, in New Orleans, LA.

Ronald Reagan, Appointment of Eight Special Assistants to the President for National Security Affairs Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/251507

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