US national security adviser whose long career took in the evacuation of Saigon, Richard Nixon’s visit to China and the end of the cold war
Despite his long and influential career in the conduct of the US’s international affairs, Brent Scowcroft, who has died aged 95, attracted little personal attention to himself. This low profile was surprising enough in 1975 when, as national security adviser in the Gerald Ford administration, he organised the US’s evacuation from Saigon, the event that marked the end of the Vietnam war.
More remarkably, he remained as much in the shadows when recalled to the same job by the White House of George HW Bush 14 years later. During that stint he was caught on the hop by the fall of the Berlin Wall, by the implosion of the Soviet Union, and by Saddam Hussein’s attack on Kuwait.
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