Profile of Retired US Army General Wesley Clark

General Wesley Kanne Clark is a retired 4-star US Army general. He commanded the NATO operation in Kosovo from 1997 to 2000 as Supreme Allied Commander. A Vietnam veteran, he served in the Army from 1966 to 2000, retiring after political wrangling with Washington.

Clark was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2000, made a Knight of the British Empire and earned a Purple Heart, Bronze Star, Silver Star and Army Distinguished Service Medal, plus 30 more honors from the US and abroad.

Wesley Clark became a UCLA fellow, effective October 2006, where he teaches seminars, publishes, and holds an annual national security conference. At UCLA he follows in the footsteps of former Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter.

For 5 months, Clark pursued the 2004 presidency race, but dropped out after winning only one primary. Clark is rumored to be on Barack Obama's shortlist of VP candidates.

Securing America, Clark's PAC, actively supported veterans running for Congress in the 2006 elections.

Clark is a moderate liberal with impeccable national security credentials. He holds strong pro-environmental views, and equally strong pro-civil rights stances. He supports equal opportunity for gays in military service, and believes that reproductive decisions should be between a woman and her doctor.

He's a fiscal moderate who urges return to balancing the federal budget, reduction of the budget and trade deficits, and would repeal all Bush tax cuts for wealthy Americans.

After a distinguished high school career, Wesley Clark obtained his cherished goal: appointment to West Point. While Clark chafed at the "inspections, polishing shoes, marching in parades," he regarded West Point as "a means to an end...I liked the chance to make a difference." He was drawn to international relations studies.

Clark graduated first in his West Point class. He then won and accepted a two-year Rhodes scholarship to Oxford University before entering the Army.

Clark entered the Army in 1966, was called to Vietnam duty in 1969, and shot 4 times in one 1970 combat incident. He returned and served 2 more years in Vietnam. In the 1970s, Clark was a West Point professor of social science, and served in various vital Washington DC Defense Department positions, including White House Fellow from 1975-76, along with Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld. Clark next commanded battalions in Germany and Colorado, and earned promotion to general.

During the Persian Gulf War, Clark was Commanding General of the Army National Training Center, in charge of arranging 3 deployments to Kuiwait during Operation Desert Storm. A 1994 promotion placed Clark in a key Joint Chiefs of Staff strategy position. In 1997, he was made Supreme Allied Commander, head of US military activites in 89 countries and of all NATO forces in Europe. He oversaw the Kosovo conflict, and played a strong role in negotiating peace in Bosnia.

• Birth - December 23, 1944 in Chicago to Bejnamin and Veneta Kanne. Moved to Little Rock in 1949 to be with his mother's family after his father's death.
• Youth - Mentored by the director of the local Boys Club of America
• High School - Class valedictorian, President of the National Honor Society, led swim team to state championship
• Family - Married since 1966 to Gert Kingston, who he met at a Navy USO dance; one son, one grandson.
• Faith - Christian. Raised Southern Baptist. Converted to Roman Catholic when married. Now attends Presbyterian church services.

Clark's beloved devout Jewish father died suddenly when Wesley was 4 years old. His widowed mother moved back to her hometown of Little Rock, Arkansas. Cognizant of Southern anti-semitism, she hid his Russian Jewish immigrant roots from him. He learned of his ancestry while, as an Oxford student, he was contacted by his father's family.

Clark's father was a handsome Chicago attorney and Democratic politician and activist. At his funeral, people lined up for blocks to pay their respects.

Wesley Clark is private, ambitious and competitive with great intellectual powers, a blend that inspires jealousy more than friendship. He's telegenic with a star-quality smile, and at ease in front of cameras. Clark can be self-effacing, relaxed and funny at times, intense and tightly wound at other times.

He was described in a 1980 magazine article as someone "who took everything seriously...who would be able to inspire the troops and earn their respect, but probably not...earn their love."

Referring to the present Bush Administration, "I think we're at risk with our democracy. I think we're dealing with the most closed, imperialistic, nastiest administration in living memory. They even put Richard Nixon to shame."

"There are two big legacies we leave to our children: Constitutional government and the environmental itself."

"It was my belief in service that led me to West Point. It was the year after John F. Kennedy admonished us to ask not what our country could do for us, but what we could do for our country....I wanted to be an officer and leader in the Army."

"It is in the best interest of our country to promote stable communities and families. I believe that same-sex couples should not be denied rights to pensions, health insurance, family medical leave. bereavement leave, hospital visitation, survivor benefits and other basic legal protections that all families and chldren need."

"One of the principles that we operate on in this country is that leaders are held accountable. The simple truth is that we went into Iraq on the basis of some intuition, some fear, some exaggerated rhetoric and some very, very scanty evidence."

"There are three terrible things that can happen to you in the United States Army, if you're an officer. You can win the Congressional Medal of Honor. You can be a Heisman Trophy winner. Or you can be a Rhodes scholar."