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

The President today announced the designation of two members of the National Security Council staff as Special Assistants to the President, reporting to the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, William P. Clark. They are as follows:

Jack F. Matlock, Jr., Senior Director of European and Soviet Affairs and Special Assistant to the President. Mr. Matlock is currently U.S. Ambassador to Czechoslovakia and a Career Foreign Service officer. He has served three tours of duty at the American Embassy in Moscow, most recently as charge d'affaires in 1981. He has also been Director of Soviet Union Affairs at the Department of State, Deputy Director of the Foreign Service Institute, and has served at American Embassies in Austria, Ghana, and Tanzania. Ambassador Matlock received his A.B. from Duke University and an M.A. and certificate of the Russian Institute from Columbia University. Before entering the Foreign Service in 1956, he taught Russian language and literature at Dartmouth College, and from 1978 to 1979, he was a visiting professor of political science and diplomat in residence at Vanderbilt University. He is married, has five children and one grandchild, and resides in Washington, D.C. He was born in North Carolina in 1929.

Christopher M. Lehman, Senior Director of Legislative Affairs and Special Assistant to the President. Prior to joining the National Security Council staff, Mr. Lehman served as Director of the Office of Strategic Nuclear Policy, Department of State. He was special assistant for national security affairs to Senator John W. Warner from 1979 to 1981, and to Senator Harry F. Byrd, Jr., from 1976 to 1978. He has also served as an associate staff member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Mr. Lehman is a graduate of St. Joseph's College, Philadelphia (A.B.), and holds an M.A. in international relations and an M.A. in law and diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. He is also a Ph.D. candidate at the Fletcher School. He is the author or coauthor of several works on strategic policy and defense issues. Mr. Lehman served in the U.S. Naval Reserve from 1969 to 1971. He is married, has two children, and resides in Vienna, Va. He was born in Pennsylvania in 1948.