Albert Wohlstetter

Albert Wohlstetter (died January 10, 1997) was a major intellectual force behind efforts to avoid the spread of nuclear weapons and the need to develop nonnuclear alternatives. He and his wife Roberta Wohlstetter, an accomplished historian and intelligence expert, received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Ronald Reagan on November 7, 1985.

A native of New York, Wohlstetter earned degrees from the City College of New York and Columbia University in the 1930s. During the 1940s, he worked with the War Production Board and within the private sector.

From 1951 to 1963, he served first as a consultant and later as a senior policy analyst for the Rand Corporation, and maintained his affiliation with Rand for years afterward. He and his wife also advised both Democratic and Republican administrations, including President John F. Kennedy during the Cuban missile crisis in 1962.

During his long career, Wohlstetter also taught at UCLA and the University of California, Berkeley, in the early 1960s. From 1964 to 1980, he taught in the political science department of the University of Chicago.

Wohlstetter died in Los Angeles in 1997 at the age of 83.