Background
Lucius Dub was born on April 23, 1897 in Marietta, Georgia, United States. The son of Alexander Stephen and Frances (White) Clay.
army officer corporation executive.
Lucius Dub was born on April 23, 1897 in Marietta, Georgia, United States. The son of Alexander Stephen and Frances (White) Clay.
General Lucius Dubignon Clay graduated from the U. S. Military Academy at West Point in 1918 and was commissioned in the Corps of Engineers.
During World War II, Clay became deputy director of the Office of War Mobilization and Reconversion (1944).
In 1945, he served briefly as deputy to Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, and then as deputy military governor of the U. S. zone in Germany.
In March 1947 he became commander in chief of U. S. occupation forces in Europe and military governor of the U. S. zone in Germany. When the Soviet Union began a blockade of West Berlin in June 1948, Clay organized the successful airlift that supplied the city with food and other essentials.
After retiring from the military, General Clay became active in business and finance as a corporate executive, in Republican politics, and in public service.
His determination and his blunt criticism of the Soviets made him a symbol of the U. S. support for West Berlin.
At the time of the Berlin Wall crisis of 1961, President John F. Kennedy recalled Clay to active duty to symbolize U. S. commitment to the city.
The crisis reached a flashpoint in October 1961, when, with Kennedy's permission to take a strong stance, Clay ordered ten M‐48 tanks to the entrypoint of the wall, “Checkpoint Charlie, ” where they were met with a similar Soviet armored force.
Clay was the father of two sons, both of whom became Generals. Clay's son, General Lucius D. Clay Jr., held the positions of commander-in-chief of the North American Air Defense Command, the Continental Air Defense Command, and the United States element of NORAD, and was also a commander of the U.S. Air Force Aerospace Defense Command. Clay's other son, Major General Frank B. Clay, served in conflicts from World War II through the Vietnam War, and was an adviser to the US delegation at the Paris peace talks which ended US involvement in the Vietnam War.