• Authority on National Security Issues and Foreign Affairs
• Former Top Pentagon Official
• Senior Adviser to the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies
KT McFarland is a former top Pentagon official in the Reagan Administration and a frequent television and radio commentator on national security issues and foreign affairs. She has a reputation for taking complex national security issues and explaining them in plain English. Radio talk show hosts and television news anchors seek out her expertise on issues because, as one major news producer said, McFarland doesn’t have an axe to grind, she tells it like it is.
KT served on Dr. Henry Kissinger’s legendary National Security Council Staff at the White House during the Nixon and Ford Administrations. Starting as a part-time secretary typing the President’s Daily Brief, KT rose to become Dr. Kissinger’s research assistant and press aide. She worked on all aspects of foreign policy, including the Vietnam Peace Accords, Middle East peace negotiations, U.S.-Soviet arms control agreements, and the U.S. opening to China.
During the Reagan Administration KT was the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs. As speechwriter to Secretary of Defense ‘Cap’ Weinberger, KT wrote his landmark Principles of War speech, and led the Defense Department’s strategic communications and public diplomacy programs. She was also one of the first women to serve on the Armed Senate Services Committee Staff. KT traveled throughout the U.S. and abroad as the Reagan Administration’s Pentagon spokesman and was one of the highest-ranking women in the Pentagon. She was awarded the Defense Department’s highest civilian honor, The Distinguished Service Award.
KT became active in New York Republican politics and ran for the U.S. Senate from New York, hoping to challenge Hillary Clinton in the 2006 election. Although KT lost the Republican primary, she received 40% of the statewide vote.
