Former Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, 68, a Rhodes scholar and theoretical physicist who helmed the Pentagon between 2015 and 2017, died of a heart attack Tuesday at his home in Boston.
At the time of his death, Carter was director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. He also served as a board member at General Electric, MITRE, and MIT’s Lincoln Laboratories.
As President Barack Obama’s fourth Secretary of Defense — the third nominated by Obama — Carter oversaw the beginnings of the ongoing, 30-year, $1-trillion nuclear modernization program that began in earnest during Obama’s second term.
“Over the last 25 years, we made only modest investments and basic sustainment and operations. But while we didn’t build anything new for 25 years and neither did our allies, others did – including Russia, North Korea, China, Pakistan, India and for a period of time, Iran,” Carter said shortly after his confirmation in a 2016 speech at a STRATCOM changing of the guard in Bellevue, Neb. “So we can’t wait any longer and we also can’t operate under the mistaken assumption that our own recapitalization will stimulate others to invest – because the evidence is just the opposite – they have consistently invested in nuclear weapons during a quarter-century pause in U.S. investment.”
The first holistic round of modernization of the post-Cold War world, part of a political trade-off to ratify the New Start nuclear-arms control treaty with Russia, is intended to upgrade U.S. nuclear weapons, delivery vehicles, carrier craft and nuclear-weapons production infrastructure to last for much of the rest of this century.
During the Clinton administration, between 1993 and 1996, Carter served as assistant secretary of defense for international security policy and led the Nunn-Lugar program to remove nuclear weapons in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Belarus.
A Philadelphia native, Carter graduated summa cum laude with bachelor’s degrees in physics/medieval history from Yale University where he was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. He received his doctorate in theoretical physics from Oxford University.
“Ash was a leader on all the major national security issues of our times – from nuclear deterrence to proliferation prevention to missile defense to emerging technology challenges to the fight against Al Qaida and ISIS,” President Joe Biden (D) said in an Oct. 25th statement. “He opened every field of military service to women and protected the rights of transgender service members.”
As president, Biden said that he relied on Carter’s “expertise through his presence on my Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.
A version of this story first appeared in Weapons Complex Morning Briefing affiliate publication Defense Daily.
