Two other speaking engagements highlighted thirty-three-year-old Professor Rice’s calendar in that period. In November 1987, she was invited to be a visiting scholar for a few days at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. She lectured and led a seminar for students in the university’s Center for Russian and East European Studies, and also gave a public speech about Gorbachev. The following spring, in April 1988, she made a trip to the USSR to give a speech at the U.S. ambassador’s residence in Moscow.
Condi’s community activities were motivated by a genuine desire to do public service, a characteristic that did not go unnoticed by her colleagues. “I think of people as being one of two types,” said John Raisian, Director of the Hoover Institution at Stanford. “One group looks at the politics of an organization and thinks strategically as they climb the career ladder. Others look for opportunities to make a difference, independent of where that puts them on the ladder. Condi is very much the latter.” He added that she is the sort of person who thrives on taking on many things at once. In addition to her teaching, writing, and research, “she has always had advisory interests and capacities,” he said. “She’s always been a very busy and full-plate-type person.”
Her plate began to fill up during her first year at Stanford when she started serving on several university committees and other administrative organizations. Her committee involvement included the Public Service Center Steering Committee, which she chaired (1987 and 1991-1999); the Committee on Undergraduate Admissions and Financial Aid, which she also chaired for one year (1982-1985 and 1988-1989); the Executive Committee of the Institute for International Studies (1988-1989 and 1991-1993); and the Graduate Admissions Committee, which she chaired for one year (1991-1992). She was also the Director of Graduate Studies and a member of the Faculty Senate in 1988 and 1989. The Senate handles the internal administration of the university, from setting policy to drafting new rules and statutes regarding degree programs. The Senate’s proposals are forwarded to the Board of Trustees for approval.
In 1985, Condi was awarded a National Fellowship from the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, which allowed her to take a break from her classroom work and devote an entire year to research. Founded by Herbert Hoover in 1919, the Institution was one of the first think tanks in the United States and has amassed one of the world’s largest archives and libraries on twentieth century politics, economics, and social issues. In its mission statement, Hoover defines itself as a research organization committed to “generating ideas that define a free society. . . . [and] contributing to the pursuits of securing and safeguarding peace, improving the human condition and limiting government intrusion into the lives of individuals.”
Among the research opportunities for scholars at Hoover is the National Fellows Program, which supports junior scholars who are completing research projects. That year, Condi was among fourteen people selected from throughout the country for the fellowship. It was the first of three Hoover fellowships she would receive during her years at Stanford. As a National Fellow from September 1985 to the August 1986, she completed The Gorbachev Era with Alexander Dallin, one of her three published books. Dallin was an emeritus professor of political science and history at Stanford when he died in July 2000, and his colleagues at the university’s Center for Russian and East European Studies described him as “a distinguished scholar and a kind and wise human being.” Working on a book with Dallin was an honor in itself, as he was one of the country’s foremost experts on the Soviet Union and one of the first generation of graduates from Columbia University’s Russian Institute.
Condi atop her uncle’s car, age five, in 1959. Courtesy of Condoleezza Rice
A school picture in Birmingham, age seven. Courtesy of Condoleezza Rice
The Rice home in Birmingham, just a few blocks from Westminster Presbyterian Church where Condi’s father was the pastor. The home was built by the church to serve as the parish house shortly after Condi was born. Photo by Antonia Felix
Inside Westminster Presbyterian Church. During Sunday services, Condi played the piano (front left) while her mother played the organ (front right) and her father preached from the center pulpit. Photo by Antonia Felix Westminster Presbyterian Church on South Sixth Avenue (Titusville) in Birmingham. Photo by Antonia Felix
A portrait of Condi’s grandfather, John Wesley Rice, whom she discussed in her speech at the Republican National Convention in 2000. Reverend Rice left sharecropping to attend college and become a Presbyterian minister, and he founded Westminster Presbyterian Church in Birmingham. His son, Condi’s father, took over as minister of the church in 1951. Courtesy of Westminster Presbyterian Church
Condi skating at age thirteen in Denver, Colorado, 1967. Condi’s parents spent several summers taking graduate school courses at the University of Denver, and while they were in class during the day, Condi practiced figure skating. She once referred to her lessons on the rink as “high-priced child care.” The Rices moved to Denver permanently in 1969. Courtesy of Condoleezza Rice
Condi, age seventeen, with her mother, Angelena, and father, John Wesley Rice III, on the day Condi was named Outstanding Junior Woman at the University of Denver, 1972. Courtesy of Condoleezza Rice
Two undergraduate portraits taken at the University of Denver. Courtesy of the University of Denver
Condi’s father in a public speaking engagement at the University of Denver. John Rice was a lecturer as well as an administrator during his career at the university, teaching courses in black studies and serving as an associate dean, vice chancellor, and in other posts. Courtesy of the University of Denver
Josef Korbel, University of Denver professor, father of Madeleine Albright, and Condi’s mentor in Russian and Soviet studies. Condi remembers him as one of the most important people in her life. Courtesy of the University of Denver
At Denver’s Graduate School of International Studies with Dean Edward Thomas Rowe (left), and university Chancellor Dan Ritchie (right). Courtesy of the University of Denver
Guest commencement speaker at the University of Notre Dame, where she received her master’s degree in government in 1975. Courtesy of the University of Notre Dame
Assistant professor of political science at Stanford University, age twenty-six. Courtesy of Stanford University News Service
Professor Rice teaching at Stanford, May 1993, at thirty-nine. Courtesy of Stanford University News Service
Provost of Stanford, 1995, enjoying a return to the classroom to discuss the fall of communism. Courtesy of Stanford University News Service
Working out in the strength training room at Stanford. Exercise is a high priority in Condi’s life, and she keeps a rigorous daily workout schedule. “I put her through the same regimes I did with any athlete at Stanford,” said Stanford trainer Mark Mateska. Photo by Frederic Neema/Corbis Sygma
On George W. Bush’s campaign trail in October 2000 with Laura Bush (left) and Barbara Bush (center) to support the “W is for Women” push. Photo by Rebecca Cook/© Reuters 2000
The White House senior staff swearing-in ceremony on January 22, 2001. Condi is the first woman and the second black person to become a national security advisor. Photo by Larry Downing/© Reuters 2001
National Security Advisor Rice in the Oval Office with President Bush, April 11, 2001. She is one of the president’s closest confidants as well as a long-time Bush family friend who previously served as one of Bush Senior’s top Soviet advisors. Photo by Ho/© Reuters 2001
A pat on the cheek for Secretary of State Colin Powell in the Oval Office. As national security advisor, Condi’s job is to referee the often very differing views of the secretary of state, secretary of defense, and other members of the National Security Council and bring their opinions to the president. Photo by Kevin Lamarque/© Reuters 2002
Shaking hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin on May 24, 2002. Condi speaks fluent Russian, and devoted her academic career to the study of Russia and the former Sovi
et Union. Photo by Kevin Lamarque/© Reuters 2002
An impassioned moment with the Moscow press in July 2001, after meetings about arms control talks between the United States and Russia. Photo by Sergei Karpukhin/ © Reuters 2001
Accepting the NAACP President’s Award at the Image Awards ceremony on February 23, 2002. Photo by Jim Ruymen/© Reuters 2002
Fielding a question at a White House briefing on November 1, 2001. After the attacks of September 11, 2001, Condi came to the forefront as one of the White House’s lead spokespeople on the war on terrorism. Photo by Kevin Lamarque/© Reuters 2001
Condi the collectible—the TOPPS “Enduring Freedom” trading card featuring National Security Advisor Rice. Courtesy of TOPPS 2001
Accompanying cellist Yo-Yo Ma in a Brahms piece performed at the National Medal of Arts Ceremony in Washington on April 22, 2002. Condi, who started lessons at age three, is an accomplished pianist who trained for a professional career until her junior year in college, when she changed her major to international relations. Photo by Larry Downing/ © Reuters 2002
The official White House portrait of National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice. White House photo by Tina Hager
Condoleezza Rice is sworn in to testify before the 9/11 Commission, April 8, 2004. © Larry Downing/Reuters/Corbis
President George W. Bush nominates Condoleezza Rice as Secretary of State, November 16, 2004. © Kevin Lamarque/Reuters/Corbis
The Gorbachev Era is a collection of essays by leading figures in the field of Soviet studies, many from Stanford, which had been presented at a summer program at Stanford in 1985. In addition to editing the book, Condi contributed two essays entitled “The Development of Soviet Military Power” and “The Soviet Alliance System.” Dallin’s entries were “The Legacy of the Past” and “A Soviet Master Plan? The Non-Existent ‘Grand Design’ in World Affairs.”
Dallin’s wife, a Soviet specialist at the University of California at Berkeley, also contributed two essays to the book, and she recalled how the project got started. “The Stanford Alumni Association had asked Alex to develop a series of lectures for its summer program while Chernenko was still the Party’s General Secretary,” she said. “By the time of the lectures Gorbachev was the country’s new leader and a major transition was under way in the USSR. The chapters examine the nature of the various crises confronting the Soviet system—economic, political, social, military, foreign policy—and also represent one of the early efforts to speculate about what possible direction Soviet policy might take under Gorbachev.” Dr. Lapidus contributed two chapters to the book, “Soviet Society in Transition” and “The Soviet Nationality Question,” and she recalled that her husband and Condi worked well together in spite of their differing political views. “Clearly they approached international affairs and the USSR from rather different political perspectives,” she said, “but these differences didn’t stand in the way of a warm personal relationship, and Condi paid a touching tribute to Alex at a memorial service in our garden when he died.”
The most difficult part of Condi’s life in 1985 was being far away from her parents. Back in Denver, her mother was battling breast cancer and that year, at age sixty-one, she died. Condi flew home to attend the funeral and to grieve with her father and the many relatives who flew to Denver to be with them. Friends recall that music—which was so central to Angelena’s life—encircled them as they thought about her quietly back at the Rice home. “I never shall forget the day we returned from her mother’s funeral,” said Evelyn Glover, a family friend from Birmingham. “When we came in, Condoleezza prayed with everyone and said, ‘Let’s play some of mother’s favorite hymns.’ And she went to the piano.”
During the year of her first Hoover fellowship, Condi also began work on a book about the history and development of military staffs in the United States and the Soviet Union. She continued working on the book after she returned to her teaching, but it was slow going with all of the other responsibilities on her schedule. A couple of years later that book was put on hold indefinitely. In February of 1989 she got a call from an old acquaintance, Brent Scowcroft, who convinced her to take a leave of absence from teaching and put her Soviet expertise into practice.
Scowcroft had just been named national security advisor to newly elected President George Bush, and he wanted Condi to be part of his team on the National Security Council. A moderate Republican and long-time career military man and academic, he would have an enormous influence on Condi’s development as a foreign policy specialist. They shared a passion for Soviet history, they both had academic careers teaching Soviet history, they both spoke Russian and they both held a power politics outlook on international relations.
Stepping in as national security advisor was a smooth transition for Brent because he had served in that post under President Gerald Ford. In that administration, Henry Kissinger was both national security advisor and secretary of state, and Brent was his deputy, his righthand man in national security. When Kissinger stepped down as national security advisor to devote all of his time and energy to his role as secretary of state, Brent replaced him as national security advisor.
Brent, who describes himself as someone who likes to stay out of the limelight, never gave press interviews as national security advisor. He kept eighteen-hour days in the White House, and was widely respected as a consensus builder and expert organizer. In the Ford administration, everyone understood that Kissinger made the foreign policy, and Scowcroft managed, organized, and coordinated it between various agencies and the Oval Office. In terms of recognition, Kissinger’s term as national security advisor was the most high-profile in history and Scowcroft’s the most low-key.
Despite his quiet and unassuming demeanor, Brent is a foreign policy luminary with a long career in the military and the departments of state and defense. Born in Ogden, Utah, he is a Mormon who neither smokes nor drinks. He and his wife, Marian, who have been married since 1951, have one daughter. After graduating from West Point Brent planned on a career as a pilot in the Air Force, but an accident in a defective plane ruined his chances for flying. He went on to get a master’s degree in international relations from Columbia University and returned to West Point as a professor of Russian history. He learned to speak Russian fluently and pursued more Slavic language study at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., after which he used his skills in a foreign service post at the United States embassy in Belgrade, Yugoslavia.
In the early 1960s he was an associate professor of political science at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado, where he eventually became full professor and chair of the department. His academic career progressed after he finished his Ph.D. in international relations at Columbia University, and was hired to teach military strategy and security to senior military at the National War College. His career continued to span both academia and government, with a post on the long-range planning staff at Air Force headquarters in Washington and several national security jobs at the Pentagon.
By the time he reached the rank of colonel in 1971, he was appointed one of President Nixon’s military aides and helped construct the realpolitik diplomatic stance with China that culminated in Nixon’s historic trip to China in 1972. After returning from the trip, Brent was promoted to brigadier general. He then went to Moscow as the leader of the advance team to organize Nixon’s trip to the Soviet Union in 1972.
During the Nixon years, Brent was at the center of nuclear arms policy, helping craft the SALT II treaty. He was also given the job of organizing the withdrawal of Americans from Saigon during the evacuation in April 1975.
In contrast to the Nixon/Kissinger strategy of détente, President Reagan took a more aggressive approach to the Soviet Union and Brent was not appointed to a defense or state department post. But the administration needed his military expertise, particularly on analyzing the newly developed multiple-warhead weaponry that was part of Reagan’s fast-growing arsenal. He led the Commission on Strategic Forces to an
alyze how this weapon could be used. His national security background was also put to use in that administration. Reagan appointed him head of the Tower Commission to investigate the National Security Council’s role in the Iran-Contra affair. In his report, Brent placed the greatest blame on Reagan’s chief of staff but also criticized the president for not keeping track of the Council members and their activities. He concluded that the structure of the National Security Council was not the problem, but the people who were serving in it.
After Brent met Condi at a dinner hosted by the Stanford political science department in 1987, he followed up with her and sat in on one of her classes. Her lecture on the MX missile convinced him that she would be a great asset to his national security team in the new Bush administration. He talked to her at length at a foreign policy strategy meeting in Aspen, Colorado, then invited her on board at the National Security Council.
As national security advisor, Brent’s job was to gather foreign policy opinions and strategies from cabinet members such as Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney, Secretary of State James Baker, and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Colin Powell. All three were members of the National Security Council (NSC), the advisory group that discussed foreign policy issues and drafted strategies for implementing that policy.
Scowcroft presented various NSC members’ ideas to the president and made it a priority to keep conflicts and rivalries in check to ensure a smooth-running operation. “Scowcroft and Baker placed a premium on cooperation,” wrote Condoleezza and Philip Zelikow in their book about German unification. “Bitter rivalries between the State Department and the National Security Council staff had been a standard feature of Washington politics since the 1960s,” they added, and although disagreements were part of the territory in any administration, a hallmark of Scowcroft’s style was to prevent upheaval and concentrate on cooperation. “Disputes arose but were always quickly contained,” wrote Condi and Philip.
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