WASHINGTON (AP) — A Washington think tank confirms that James Schlesinger, a hawkish and erudite Republican who served in top Cabinet-level posts under three presidents, has died. He was 85.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies, where Schlesinger was a trustee, confirmed his death Thursday. The onetime University of Virginia economics professor built an impressive national security resume as defense secretary for Republican presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford and the nation’s first energy secretary under Democratic President Jimmy Carter. Earlier he was a top White House budget official, chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission and director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
Former Sen. Sam Nunn, a Georgia Democrat, who sparred with him as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee called him “a remarkable public servant.”
