Biography of Anthony Lake
Mr. Lake was appointed Assistant to the President for National
Security Affairs on December 22, 1992. Mr. Lake formally assumed
the position on January 20, 1993. In this capacity, Mr.
Lake serves as the President's principal advisor on national security
matters and, on behalf of the President, administers the National
Security Council advisory process. The National Security Advisor also
selects and supervises the NSC's policy staff which, through Mr. Lake,
serves as the President's own national security policy staff inside
the White House. Mr. Lake previously divided
his time between the farm he manages in western
Massachusetts and Mount Holyoke College, where he has been Five
College Professor of International Relations since 1981. He also
served as a Senior Foreign Policy Advisor to the Clinton/Gore
campaign.
In 1961, Mr. Lake received an A.B. degree, magna cum laude, from
Harvard College. He then studied international economics at Trinity
College, Cambridge, and went on to receive his Ph.D. from the
Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at
Princeton University in 1974.
Mr. Lake joined the State Department in 1962, where he served until
1970 as a Foreign Service Officer. His distinguished State
Department career included assignments as U.S. Vice Consul in
Saigon, Vietnam (1963), U.S. Vice Consul in Hue, Vietnam (1964-1965)
, and Special Assistant to the Assistant to the President for National
Security Affairs (1969-1970).
After work with the Muskie campaign, the Carnegie Endowment and
International Voluntary Services, Mr. Lake returned to the State
Department in 1977 to serve as Director of Policy Planning for
President Carter, a position he held until 1981.
Mr. Lake is the author of several books including Somoza Falling
(1989), Our Own Worst Enemy: The Unmaking of American Foreign
Policy (co-author) (1984) and The “Tar Baby” Option: American
Policy Toward Southern Rhodesia (1976). In addition, he edited
After the Wars (1990) and was a contributing editor to Legacy
of Vietnam: The War, American Society, and the Future of U.S.
Foreign Policy (1976).
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