Appointment of Robert Michael Kimmitt as Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs

The President today announced the appointment of Robert Michael Kimmitt as Executive Secretary of the National Security Council and Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs. Mr. Kimmitt has been serving as NSC General Counsel and Director of Legislative Affairs and Security Assistance. He will retain the General Counsel designation in his new position.

After being commissioned as a regular army officer in 1969 at West Point, Mr. Kimmitt completed field artillery, airborne, and ranger schools. He then served a 17-month combat tour with the 173d Airborne Brigade in Vietnam (1970-1971) and was subsequently assigned to the 101st Airborne at Ft. Campbell, Ky. (1972-1974). He attended Georgetown University Law School in 1974-1977, during which time he also served as a legislative counsel to the Army's Chief of Legislative Liaison (summer 1975) and then as an NSC staff member specializing in arms sales policy (1976-1977). Upon graduation from law school, he served as a law clerk to Judge Edward Allen Tamm of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (1977-1978). He returned to the NSC staff in 1978, serving both as legal counsel and arms sales policy officer until early 1982, when he left active military service to join the senior staff of the NSC.

Mr. Kimmitt graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point (B.S., 1969) and Georgetown University Law Center (J.D., 1977). He is married to Holly Sutherland Kimmitt. They have two children and reside in Arlington, Va. He was born December 19, 1947.