David Manker Abshire

Early life

Abshire was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on April 11, 1926.

Education and early career

He graduated from The Bright School in 1938, and Baylor School in Chattanooga in 1944.

Abshire graduated from the US Military Academy at West Point in 1951. Then he 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. He is a member of the Project on National Security Reform. Till 1977 he worked as administrator in the Advisory Board at St. Albans School and in the Board of Advisors at Naval War College.

In 1962, Abshire and Admiral Arleigh Burke founded the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). In 1988, as President of CSIS, he merged the Hawaii-based Pacific Forum into his organization to give it more input from the Asia-Pacific region. Dr. Abshire served as Assistant Secretary of State for Congressional Relations from 1970 to 1973 and later as Chairman of the U.S. Board of International Broadcasting (1975–77). He was a member of the Murphy Commission (1974–75), 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, 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 served for nine years on the board of Procter & Gamble.