Ramsey Clark | |
|---|---|
_(05)_(cropped).jpg) Clark in 1975 | |
| 66thUnited States Attorney General | |
| In office November 28, 1966 – January 20, 1969 Acting: November 28, 1966 – March 10, 1967 | |
| President | Lyndon B. Johnson |
| Deputy | Warren Christopher |
| Preceded by | Nicholas Katzenbach |
| Succeeded by | John N. Mitchell |
| 8thUnited States Deputy Attorney General | |
| In office January 28, 1965 – March 10, 1967 | |
| President | Lyndon B. Johnson |
| Preceded by | Nicholas Katzenbach |
| Succeeded by | Warren Christopher |
| United States Assistant Attorney General for theEnvironment and Natural Resources Division | |
| In office 1961–1965 | |
| President | John F. Kennedy Lyndon B. Johnson |
| Preceded by | Perry W. Morton |
| Succeeded by | Edwin L. Weisl Jr. |
| Personal details | |
| Born | William Ramsey Clark (1927-12-18)December 18, 1927 |
| Died | April 9, 2021(2021-04-09) (aged 93) New York City,New York, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
| Relatives | Tom C. Clark (father) William F. Ramsey (grandfather) |
| Education | University of Texas, Austin (BA) University of Chicago (MA,JD) |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | United States |
| Branch/service | United States Marine Corps |
| Years of service | 1945–1946 |
William Ramsey Clark (December 18, 1927 – April 9, 2021) was an American lawyer, activist, andfederal government official. A progressive,New Frontier liberal,[1] he occupied senior positions in theUnited States Department of Justice under PresidentsJohn F. Kennedy andLyndon B. Johnson, serving asUnited States Attorney General from 1967 to 1969; previously, he wasDeputy Attorney General from 1965 to 1967 andAssistant Attorney General from 1961 to 1965.
As attorney general, Clark was known for his vigorous opposition to thedeath penalty, aggressive support ofcivil liberties andcivil rights, and dedication to enforcingUnited States antitrust laws.[2] Clark supervised the drafting of theVoting Rights Act of 1965 andCivil Rights Act of 1968.
After leaving public office, Clark led many progressive activism campaigns, including opposition to thewar on terror. He offered advice or legal defense to such prominent figures asCharles Taylor,Slobodan Milošević,Saddam Hussein, ColonelMuammar Gaddafi, andLyndon LaRouche.[3] He was the last surviving Cabinet member of theLyndon B. Johnson administration.[4]
Clark was born inDallas, Texas, on December 18, 1927,[5] the son of juristTom C. Clark and his wife Mary Jane (née Ramsey). Clark's father served asUnited States Attorney General from 1945 to 1949 under PresidentHarry S. Truman and then became aSupreme Court Justice in August 1949.[6] His maternal grandfather wasWilliam Franklin Ramsey, who served on theSupreme Court of Texas,[7][8] while his paternal grandfather, lawyer William Henry Clark, was president of the TexasBar Association.[7]
Clark attendedWoodrow Wilson High School in Washington, D.C., but dropped out at the age of 17 in order to join theUnited States Marine Corps, seeing action in Western Europe in the final months of World War II;[7] he served until 1946. Back in the U.S., he earned a Bachelor of Arts from theUniversity of Texas at Austin in 1949, and obtained a Master of Arts inAmerican history from theUniversity of Chicago and aJ.D. degree from theUniversity of Chicago Law School in 1950 and 1951, respectively.[9] While at the University of Texas, he was a member of theDelta Tau Delta fraternity.[10]
He was admitted to the Texas bar in 1950, and was admitted to practice before theSupreme Court of the United States in 1956. From 1951 to 1961, Clark practiced law as an associate and partner at his father's Texas law firm, Clark, Reed and Clark.[11]
In the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, Clark occupied senior positions in theJustice Department; he wasAssistant Attorney General, overseeing the department'sLands Division from 1961 to 1965, and then served asDeputy Attorney General from 1965 to 1967.[12]
In 1967, PresidentLyndon B. Johnson nominated him to beAttorney General of the United States. He was confirmed by theSenate and took the oath of office on March 2. Clark was one of Johnson's popular and successful cabinet appointments, being described as "able, independent, liberal and soft-spoken" and a symbol of theNew Frontier liberals;[1] he had also built a successful record, especially in his management of the Justice Department's Lands Division; he had increased the efficiency of his division and had saved enough money from his budget so that he had asked Congress to reduce the budget by $200,000 annually.[1]
However, there also was speculation that one of the reasons that contributed to Johnson's making the appointment was the expectation that Clark's father,Associate JusticeTom C. Clark, would resign from the Supreme Court to avoid a conflict of interest.[13] Johnson wanted a vacancy to be created on the Court so he could appointThurgood Marshall, the first African American justice. The elder Clark assumedsenior status on June 12, 1967, effectively resigning from the Supreme Court and creating the vacancy Johnson apparently desired.[14]
During his years at the Justice Department, Clark played an important role in the history of thecivil rights movement. He:
As attorney general during part of theVietnam War, Clark oversaw the prosecution of theBoston Five for "conspiracy to aid and abetdraft resistance." Four of the five were convicted, includingpediatrician Dr.Benjamin Spock and Yale chaplainWilliam Sloane Coffin Jr.,[15] but in later years, Clark expressed his regret at the prosecution's victory: "We won the case, that was the worst part."[16]
Clark served as the attorney general until Johnson's term as president ended on January 20, 1969.[17] Because ofRichard Nixon's attacks on Clark's liberal record during the1968 presidential election campaign and ultimate narrow victory overHubert H. Humphrey, relations between Johnson and Clark soured and, by inauguration day, they were no longer on speaking terms.[15]
In addition to his government work, during this period Clark was also director of theAmerican Judicature Society (in 1963) and national president of theFederal Bar Association in 1964–65.[17]
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Following his term as attorney general, Clark taught courses at theHoward University School of Law (1969–1972) andBrooklyn Law School (1973–1981).[18] He was active in the anti-Vietnam War movement and visitedNorth Vietnam in 1972 as a protest against the bombing of Hanoi.[15] During this time he was associated with the New York law firmPaul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, but he resigned in 1973, saying, "I didn't feel like working on things I didn't believe in, I didn't think were important."[19]
On January 28, 1970, Ramsey Clark testified in theChicago Seven trial. He was barred by JudgeJulius Hoffman from testifying before the jury after Clark had testified outside the presence of the jury. Judge Hoffman upheld the prosecution's objections to 14 of Defense Attorney William Kunstler's 38 questions to Clark, but Clark did testify that he had told the prosecutor Tom Foran to investigate the charges against the defendants through Justice Department lawyers "as is generally done in civil rights cases", rather than through a grand jury.[20]
At the1972 Democratic National Convention, Clark received one delegate vote for the presidential nomination[21] and two delegate votes for the vice-presidential nomination.[22]
In1974, Clark ran as theDemocratic candidate forU.S. Senator from New York; he defeated the party's designeeLee Alexander in the primary, but lost in the general election to the incumbentJacob Javits.In the 1976 election, Clark again sought the Democratic nomination to represent New York in the Senate, but finished a distant third in the primary behindDaniel Patrick Moynihan and CongresswomanBella Abzug.[15]
On November 5, 1979, at the start of theIranian hostage crisis, PresidentJimmy Carter instructed Clark and Senate stafferWilliam Miller to visit Tehran and seek to open negotiations with Iranian authorities for the hostages' release; while en route, they were refused entry into the country byAyatollah Khomeini.[23][24] Defying a travel ban, Clark went to Tehran again in June 1980 to attend a conference on alleged U.S. interference in Iranian affairs, on which occasion he was granted admission. While there he both demanded the release of the hostages and criticized past U.S. support forthe deposed Shah. This second unauthorized trip reportedly infuriated President Carter.[25][15]
In 1991, Clark's Coalition to Stop U.S. Intervention in the Middle East opposed the U.S.-led war and sanctions against Iraq.[26] Clark accused the administration of PresidentGeorge H. W. Bush, its officialsDan Quayle,James Baker,Dick Cheney,William Webster,Colin Powell,Norman Schwarzkopf, and "others to be named" of "crimes against peace, war crimes", and "crimes against humanity" for its conduct of theGulf War against Iraq and the ensuingsanctions;[27] in 1996, he added the charges ofgenocide and the "use of a weapon of mass destruction".[28] Similarly, after the1999 NATO bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Ramsey charged and "tried" NATO on 19 counts and issued calls for its dissolution.[29]
In September 1998, Clark led a delegation toSudan to collect evidence in the aftermath of PresidentBill Clinton's bombing of theAl-Shifa pharmaceutical factory inKhartoum the previous month as part ofOperation Infinite Reach. Upon returning to the U.S., the delegation held a press conference on September 22, 1998, to refute the U.S. State Department's claims that the facility had been producingVX nerve agent.[30] U.S. officials later acknowledged that the evidence cited as the rationale for the Al-Shifa strike was weaker than initially believed.[31]
As a lawyer, Clark was criticized by both opponents and supporters for some of the people he agreed to defend, such as foreign dictators hostile to the United States; Clark stood beside and defended his clients, regardless of their own admitted actions and crimes.[32]
In 2004, Clark joined a panel of about 20 Arab and one other non-Arab lawyers to defendSaddam Hussein in his trial before theIraqi Special Tribunal.[33] Clark appeared before the Iraqi Special Tribunal in late November 2005 arguing "that it failed to respect basic human rights and was illegal because it was formed as a consequence of the United States' illegal war of aggression against the people of Iraq."[34] Clark said that unless the trial was seen as "absolutely fair", it would "divide rather than reconcile Iraq".[35]Christopher Hitchens said Clark was admitting Hussein's guilt when Clark reportedly stated in a 2005 BBC interview: "He [Saddam] had this huge war going on, and you have to act firmly when you have an assassination attempt".[36]
Hitchens continued to describe Clark in the following terms:
"From bullying prosecutor he mutated into vagrant and floating defense counsel, offering himself to the génocideurs ofRwanda and toSlobodan Milošević, and using up the spare time in apologetics forNorth Korea. He acts as front-man for theWorkers World Party, which originated in a defense of theSoviet invasion of Hungary in 1956."[36]
Sociologist and anti-communist scholarPaul Hollander wrote of Clark:
"It is likely that well before Clark took his bizarre positions in support of highly repressive, violent, and intolerant political systems and their leaders, he came to the conclusion that the United States was the most dangerous and reprehensible source of evil in the world. This overarching belief led to the reflexive sympathy and support for all the enemies and alleged victims of the United States. They include dictators of different ideological persuasion noted above, whose inhumane qualities and policies Clark was unable to discern or acknowledge, let alone condemn. It was sufficient for Clark's moral accounting that if these dictators were opposed to (and allegedly victimized by) the United States, they deserved and earned his sympathy."[37]
Clark was not alone in criticizing the Iraqi Special Tribunal's trial of Saddam Hussein, which drew intense criticism from international human rights organizations.Human Rights Watch called Saddam's trial a "missed opportunity" and a "deeply flawed trial",[38][39] and the UNWorking Group on Arbitrary Detention found the trial to be unfair and to violate basic international human rights law.[34] Among the irregularities cited by HRW, were that proceedings were marked by frequent outbursts by both judges and defendants, that three defense lawyers were murdered, that the original chief judge was replaced, that important documents were not given to defense lawyers in advance, that paperwork was lost, and that the judges made asides that pre-judged Saddam Hussein.[40] One of the aforementioned outbursts occurred when Clark was ejected from the trial after passing the judge a memorandum stating that the trial was making "a mockery of justice". The chief judgeRaouf Abdul Rahman shouted at Clark, "No, you are the mockery ... get him out. Out!"[41]
On March 18, 2006, Clark attended the funeral ofSlobodan Milošević. He commented: "History will prove Milošević was right. Charges are just that: charges. The trial did not have facts." He compared thetrial of Milošević with Saddam's, stating "both trials are marred with injustice, both are flawed." He characterized Milošević and Saddam Hussein as "both commanders who were courageous enough to fight more powerful countries."[42]
In June 2006, Clark wrote an article criticizing U.S. foreign policy in general, containing a list of 17 U.S. "major aggressions" introduced by "Both branches of our One Party system, Democrat and Republican, favor the use of force to have their way."[a] He followed this by saying, "The United States government may have been able to outspend the Soviet Union into economic collapse in the Cold War arms race, injuring the entire planet in the process. Now Bush has entered a new arms race and is provoking a Second Cold War."[43]
On September 1, 2007, in New York City, Clark called for detainedFilipinoJose Maria Sison's release and pledged assistance by joining the latter's legal defense team headed by Jan Fermon. Clark doubted Dutch authorities' "validity and competency", since the murder charges originated in thePhilippines and had already been dismissed by the country's Supreme Court.[44]
In November 2007, Clark visitedNandigram in India[45][46] whereconflict between state government forces and villagers resulted in the death of at least 14 villagers.[47][48][49] In a December 2007 interview, he described thewar on terror as awar against Islam.[50]
In April 2009, Clark spoke at a session of the UN's anti-racismDurban Review Conference at which he accused Israel of genocide.[51]
In September 2010, an essay on torture by Clark was published in a three-part paperback entitledThe Torturer in the Mirror (Seven Stories Press).[52][15]
Clark was a recipient of the1992 Gandhi Peace Award,[53] and also the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award for his commitment tocivil rights, his opposition to war and military spending and his dedication to providing legal representation to the peace movement, particularly, his efforts to freeLeonard Peltier.[54] In 1999, he traveled toBelgrade to receive an honorary doctorate fromBelgrade University.[55][56]
In 2008, the United Nations awarded him itsPrize in the Field of Human Rights for "his steadfast insistence on respect for human rights and fair judicial process for all".[57]
| Founded | 2002 |
|---|---|
| Dissolved | January 20, 2009 |
| Type | Political advocacy |
| Focus | Impeachment of Bush administration members |
| Location |
|
Area served | United States |
| Members | Reported over 1,000,000 signatories |
Key people | Ramsey Clark (founder) |
In 2002, Clark founded "VoteToImpeach", an organization advocating theimpeachment of PresidentGeorge W. Bush and several members of his administration. For the duration of Bush's terms in office, Clark sought, unsuccessfully, for the House of Representatives to bring articles of impeachment against Bush. He was the founder of theInternational Action Center, which holds significant overlapping membership with theWorkers' World Party.[58] Clark and the IAC helped found the protest organizationA.N.S.W.E.R. (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism).[59]
On March 19, 2003, theNew Jersey newspaper and websiteThe Independent reported Clark's efforts to impeach Bush and others, prior to the start of theIraq War. The paper commented: "Clark said there is a Web site, www.votetoimpeach.org, dedicated to collecting signatures of U.S. citizens who want President George W. Bush impeached, and that approximately 150,000 have signed to impeach, he said."[60]The Weekly Standard magazine stated in an article dated February 27, 2004, "Ramsey Clark's VoteToImpeach.org is a serious operation", and said the group had run full-sized newspaper advertising on both coasts of the U.S. though theStandard also went on to describe them as also being an "angry petition stage."[61]
Clark's speech to a counter-inauguration protest on January 20, 2005, atJohn Marshall Park in Washington, D.C., was broadcast byDemocracy Now in which Clark stated: "We've had more than 500,000 people sign on 'Vote to Impeach'."[62] TheSan Francisco Bay Guardian listed the website as one of three "Impeachment links", alongside afterdowningstreet.org and impeachpac.org.[63]
The organization, under Clark's guidance, drafted its own articles of impeachment against President Bush, Vice PresidentRichard B. Cheney, Secretary of DefenseDonald Rumsfeld, and Attorney GeneralJohn Ashcroft. The document argues that the four committed, "violations and subversions of theConstitution of the United States of America in an attempt to carry out with impunity crimes against peace and humanity and war crimes and deprivations of the civil rights of the people of the United States and other nations, by assuming powers of an imperial executive unaccountable to law and usurping powers of the Congress, the Judiciary and those reserved to the people of the United States."[64] Votetoimpeach.org claimed to have collected over one million signatures in favor of impeachment as of January 2009.[65]
As a lawyer, Clark also provided legal counsel and advice to prominent figures, including many controversial individuals.[66][67]
Regarding his role as a defense lawyer in thetrial of Saddam Hussein, Clark said: "Afair trial in this case is absolutely imperative for historical truth."[68] Clark stated that by the time he decided to join Hussein's defense team, it was clear that "proceedings before the Iraqi Special Tribunal would corrupt justice both in fact and in appearance and create more hatred and rage in Iraq against the American occupation...affirmative measures must be taken to prevent prejudice from affecting the conduct of the case and the final judgment of the court...For there to be peace, the days ofvictor's justice must end."[69]
A partial listing of persons who have reportedly received legal counsel and advice from Ramsey Clark includes:
InAaron Sorkin's 2020 filmThe Trial of the Chicago 7, Clark was portrayed byMichael Keaton.[91]
Clark married Georgia Welch, a classmate from the University of Texas, on April 16, 1949. They had two children, Ronda Kathleen Clark and Tom Campbell Clark II. His wife died on July 3, 2010, at the age of 81.[92][93] His son Tom died from cancer on November 23, 2013.[94]
Clark died at age 93 at his home inGreenwich Village in New York City on April 9, 2021.[15]
| Legal offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | United States Assistant Attorney General for theEnvironment and Natural Resources Division 1961–1965 | Succeeded by Edwin L. Weisl Jr. |
| Preceded by | United States Deputy Attorney General 1965–1967 | Succeeded by |
| United States Attorney General 1966–1969 Acting: 1966–1967 | Succeeded by | |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Democratic nominee forU.S. Senator fromNew York (Class 3) 1974 | Succeeded by |
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