Wesley Clark

Wesley Clark General (1944–)

Wesley Clark is a military leader who rose to the top tier of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff and was NATO Supreme Allied Commander.

Synopsis
During his 34 years in the U.S. Army, Wesley Clark rose to the rank of four-star general and was named director for strategic plans and policy of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. As Supreme Allied Commander and Commander in Chief of the U.S. European Command, Clark commanded Operation Allied Force, NATO’s first major combat action, which saved 1.5 million Albanians from ethnic cleansing in Kosovo.

Profile
General. Born Wesley Kanne on December 23, 1944 in Chicago, Illinois. After his father, prosecutor and democratic politician Benjamin Kanne, died when Wesley was a young child, he and his mother moved to Little Rock, Arkansas. In 1954, his mother married Victor Clark, who became Wesley's stepfather. He graduated first in his class from the United States Military Academy at West Point and studied for two years at England's Oxford University on a Rhodes scholarship.

During his 34 years of service in the United States Army, Clark rose to the rank of 4-star General and NATO Supreme Allied Commander. He is the recipient of numerous U.S. and foreign military awards, including the Silver Star, Bronze Star and Purple Heart. In August 2000, Clark was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.