82 JUNE 2025 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL that aim to sell books with salacious tidbits and hitherto-unknown gossip. The third, into which this book falls, is biographies by family members and close friends. Frank Carlucci is fortunate that his children, Kristin Carlucci Weed and Frank C. Carlucci III, chose to write this book. The result is a fascinating, candid, and probing look at a beloved father and great statesman. The authors do not pull any punches in writing about their father. While their enormous affection for him comes through in their writing, they are candid about the factors that led to the failure of Carlucci’s first marriage, and about the toll that his frenetic career took on his own health and emotional well-being, as well as on the health and well-being of his spouses and children. What emerges from this narrative is the tale of a truly talented and deeply patriotic American who came of age during the Cold War and dedicated his life to serving his country and striving for world peace. While Carlucci clearly had high standards for himself and his staff, he also emerges from the pages of this book as a committed mentor and a champion of countless colleagues who worked with and for him. This story is, in many ways, a period piece. It is not conceivable that a Foreign Service officer could rise this far and this fast in current conditions. An entry-level FSO is not likely to be known to a president of the United States, as happened when the visiting prime minister of the Congo asked Kennedy, “Where’s Carlucci?” The president sent for him, and the rest is history. We are indebted in so many ways to the generations of Foreign Service officers before us who navigated the treacherous shoals of the Cold War and helped to achieve the peaceful end of that conflict. We are also indebted to Frank Carlucci’s daughter and son for sharing the story of their father’s achievements. This is the story of a great American life. n Eric Rubin was president of AFSA from 2019 to 2023 and U.S. ambassador to Bulgaria from 2016 to 2019. He retired in 2023 after a 38-year career in the U.S. Foreign Service.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy ODIyMDU=