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Wesley Kanne Clark, Sr. (born December 23, 1944) is a retired General of the United States Army. He graduated as valedictorian of the class of 1966 at West Point and was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to the University of Oxford, where he obtained a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. He later graduated from the Command and General Staff College with a master's degree in military science. He spent 34 years in the Army, receiving many military decorations, several honorary knighthoods, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Clark commanded Operation Allied Force in the Kosovo War during his term as the Supreme Allied Commander Europe of NATO from 1997 to 2000. Clark joined the 2004 race for the Democratic Party presidential nomination as a candidate in 2003, but withdrew from the primary race in 2004, after winning the Oklahoma state primary, endorsing and campaigning for the eventual Democratic nominee, John Kerry. Clark leads a political action committee, "WesPAC", which he formed after the 2004 primaries〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=WesPAC – Securing America )〕 and used to support Democratic Party candidates in the 2006 midterm elections. Clark was considered a potential candidate for the Democratic nomination in 2008, but, on September 15, 2007, endorsed Senator Hillary Clinton. After Clinton dropped out of the presidential race, Clark endorsed the then-presumptive Democratic nominee, Barack Obama. Clark serves as the co-chairman of Growth Energy, an ethanol lobbying group, and is on the board of directors of BNK Petroleum.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Board of Directors )〕 Since July 2012, he also acts as an honorary special advisor to Romanian prime minister Victor Ponta on economic and security matters.〔(Press statements by PM Victor Ponta and General Wesley K. Clark appointed as Special Adviser to Prime Minister on security and economic strategy matters, at the end of the Executive meeting )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Retired US General Wesley Clark becomes an adviser to Romania's PM Victor Ponta )〕 ==Early life and education== Clark's father's family was Jewish; his paternal great-grandfather immigrated to the United States from Belarus in response to the Pale of Settlement and anti-Semitic violence from Russian pogroms. Clark's grandfather, Jacob Kanne, graduated from the Chicago-Kent College of Law and served in the U.S. Naval Reserve as an ensign during World War I, although he was never assigned to a combat mission. Kanne, living in Chicago, became involved with ward politics in the 1920s as a prosecutor and served in local offices. He served as a delegate to the 1932 Democratic National Convention that nominated Franklin D. Roosevelt as the party's presidential candidate〔Felix, Antonia, ''Wesley Clark: A Biography''. Newmarket Press; New York, 2004. pp. 7–9.〕 (though his name does not appear on the published roll of convention delegates). His mother was of English ancestry and was a Methodist. 〔Official Report of the Proceedings of the Democratic National Convention, held at Chicago, Illinois, June 27 to July 2, inclusive, 1932〕 Kanne came from the Kohen family line,〔Felix, pp. 12–3.〕 and Clark's son has characterized Clark's parents' marriage, between his Methodist mother, Veneta (née Updegraff), and his Jewish father, Benjamin Jacob Kanne,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Clark 2004 biography )〕 as "about as multicultural as you could've gotten in 1944".〔''(American Son )'' by Linda Bloodworth. Produced by Linda Burstyn, Cathee Weiss and Douglas Jackson; edited by Gregg Featherman.〕 Clark was born Wesley Kanne in Chicago on December 23, 1944. His father Benjamin died on December 6, 1948; his mother then moved the family to Little Rock, Arkansas. This move was made for a variety of reasons, including escaping the greater cost of living in a large city such as Chicago, the support Veneta's family in Arkansas could provide, and her feeling of being an outsider to the remaining Kanne family as she did not share their religion.〔Felix, pp. 14–5.〕 Once in Little Rock, Veneta married Viktor Clark, whom she met while working as a secretary at a bank.〔Felix, p. 22.〕 Viktor raised Wesley as his son, and officially adopted him on Wesley's 16th birthday. Wesley's name was changed to Wesley Kanne Clark. Viktor Clark's name actually replaced that of Wesley's biological father on his birth certificate, something Wesley would later say that he wished they had not done.〔Felix, p. 25.〕 Veneta raised Wesley without telling him of his Jewish ancestry to protect him from the anti-Semitic activities of the Ku Klux Klan in the South.〔Felix pp. 16–7.〕 Although his mother was Methodist, Clark chose a Baptist church after moving to Little Rock and continued attending it throughout his childhood.〔Felix, p. 21.〕 He graduated from Hall High School with a National Merit Scholarship. He helped take their swim team to the state championship, filling in for a sick teammate by swimming two legs of a relay.〔〔Felix, p. 41.〕〔Felix, p. 52.〕 Clark has often repeated the anecdote that he decided he wanted to go to West Point after meeting a cadet with glasses who told Clark (who wore glasses as well) that one did not need perfect vision to attend West Point as Clark had thought.〔〔Felix, p. 49.〕 Clark applied, and he was accepted on April 24, 1962.〔Lambert, J. C., MajGen. "Letter of Acceptance to West Point Military Academy." Letter to Wesley J. Clark. April 24, 1962.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Wesley Clark」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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