Appointment of Robert C. McFarlane as Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs

The President announced today his intention to appoint Robert C. McFarlane as Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs. He will succeed William P. Clark.

Mr. McFarlane has served as the President's Personal Representative in the Middle East since July 1983. He has also served as Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs since January 1982.

In January 1981 Mr. McFarlane was nominated as Counselor, Department of State, where he served until becoming Deputy Assistant to the President. In 1979-1981 he was a member of the professional staff of the Senate Committee on Armed Services. He was a senior research fellow at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C., in 1977-1978.

In 1976-1977 he was Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs. Mr. McFarlane was Executive Assistant to the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs in 1975-1976. From 1973 to 1975, he was military assistant to Dr. Henry Kissinger at the White House. In 1971-1972 he was a White House fellow and Executive Assistant to the Counsel to the President for Legislative Affairs.

Mr. McFarlane is retired from the Marine Corps (lieutenant colonel). He is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and studied international relations at the Institut des Hautes Etudes in Geneva, Switzerland. He is a recipient of the Distinguished Service Medal, the Nation's highest peacetime military decoration.

Mr. McFarlane and his wife Jonda have three children. They reside in Bethesda, Md. He was born July 12, 1937.