A. Denis Clift

A. Denis Clift is a former naval officer, editor-in-chief of Proceedings magazine, and president emeritus of National Intelligence University. He served in eleven presidential administrations, including tours as National Security Council senior staff member for the Soviet Union and Eastern and Western Europe/NATO, National Security Advisor to the vice president of the United States, and chief of staff, Defense Intelligence Agency. His books include A Death in Geneva, The Bronze Frog, and With Presidents to the Summit. 

Articles by A. Denis Clift

President Franklin D. Roosevelt at lunch with his son Elliott Roosevelt, Harry Hopkins, Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr., and George Durno during the 1943 Casablanca Conference.

Casablanca with the FDRs

By A. Denis Clift

May 2024

Future Navy Rear Admiral Edward K. Walker's gunnery officer on board the Mayrant in 1942 was Lieutenant Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr.

Serving on the flag staff ashore in Manila when the Japanese attacked then-Yeoman Cecil King made his way to Corregidor, and in late December boarded the four-stack destroyer USS Peary (DD-226) for a hair-raising escape to Port Darwin.

Yeoman Through the Ranks

By A. Denis Clift

April 2024

An excerpt from the Naval Intitute oral history of Future Chief Warrant Officer Cecil S. King Jr.

Though his winning Prize Essay never made it to the pages of Proceedings, Professor Philip Alger believed in the power of the open forum. As Lieutenant Commander Roy Smith wrote in Proceedings in October 1923, “Professor Alger’s advice to [Naval Academy] graduates was always to take up a specialty; and he advised them further that in no other way could they keep in touch with their profession save by careful study of the progress marked out in the Proceedings.”

‘To Speak His Thoughts’

By A. Denis Clift

March 2024

Though his winning Prize Essay never made it to the pages of Proceedings, Professor Philip Alger believed in the power of the open forum.

Future Vice Admiral J. Victor Smith was tapped as aide to Admiral William Leahy (behind Roosevelt) in early 1944 and was with him at Yalta, where postwar reorganization in Europe would be determined.

Aide to Leahy

By A. Denis Clift

February 2024

In these edited excerpts from his oral history, Vice Admiral J. Victor Smith shares his experience as aide to Admiral Leahy during his time as Chief of Staff to FDR.