David Abshire

David Abshire served as a Special Counselor to President Reagan and was the U.S. Ambassador to NATO from 1983 until 1987. Dr. Abshire graduated from Baylor School in 1944 and from West Point in 1951. He fought in the Korean War and was decorated as a company commander. Abshire received his doctorate in History from Georgetown University in 1959, where for many years he was an adjunct professor at its Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. In 1962, Dr. Abshire and Admiral Arleigh Burke founded the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Dr. Abshire served as Assistant Secretary of State for Congressional Relations from 1970-1973 and later as Chairman of the U.S. Board of International Broadcasting (1975-1977). He was a member of the Murphy Commission (1974-1975), the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (1981-1982), and the President's Task Force on U.S. Government International Broadcasting (1991). During the transition of government in 1980, Dr. Abshire was asked by President-elect Reagan to head the National Security Group, which included the State and Defense Departments, the U.S. Information Agency, and the Central Intelligence Agency. He also served for nine years on the board of Proctor & Gamble. Dr. Abshire is the author of six books, his latest, Saving the Reagan Presidency: Trust Is the Coin of the Realm was published in 2005. Dr. Abshire is married and has five children.