Former US Defence Secretary Dies at 68

With deep sorrow, we announce Ashton B. Carter passed away Monday evening in Boston after a sudden cardiac arrest at 68 years of age,” said Carter's family in a statement Tuesday.

Carter served as Defence Secretary under President Barack Obama from February 2015 to January 2017.

He was also a public policy professor who led the Belfer Centre for Science and International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School until his death.

Carter “devoted his professional life to national security in the United States and teaching students about international issues”, his family said in the statement.

He was a husband, father, mentor and dear friend. His sudden loss will be felt by all who knew him. ”

President Joe Biden, who, as vice president, worked with Carter during Obama's administration, said in a statement Tuesday that the former Defence Secretary was <x0) a great American with maximum integrity” and “a leader on all major national security issues of our time. ”

Beden said he and Obama were based on Carter's <x0-intellectlectible and Carter's wise advice to ensure military readiness” and that as president he had continued to rely on Carter's expertise through his role at the White House Council for Science and Technology.

When I think of Ash Carter, I think of a man of extraordinary integrity. Sincere. Parimor”, Biden said.

Former President Obama said in a statement Tuesday that he was <x0***-headed”, which appointed Carter as Secretary of Defence in 2014, calling him “a steadfast defender of our men and women in uniform”.

The former president praised Carter for his investments in army improvement and for helping create a programme to dismantle weapons of mass destruction worldwide. But he said Carter's “largest heritage” could be the “brochures of the new leaders he taught, instructed and inspired to protect and use power wisely”.

Today we mourn the death of former Defence Secretary Ash Carter and celebrate a leader who left America”, Obama said in his statement.

Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Tuesday that it was the sad “when he learned about Carter's death and that the entire Department of Defence “contributed to the loss of a high intellect” and the constitutional leader “.

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Carter served presidents of the two parties in the five administrations, with his first political appointment at the Pentagon coming from President Bill Clinton in the early 1990s, when he served as assistant secretary of defence for global strategic issues. Carter held several other roles within the Pentagon, including Deputy Defence Secretary and Undersecretary of Defence for acquisition, technology and logistics.

He also served as a member of the State Secretary's State Policy Board, Defence Science Board and the National Academy for Science and Technology Committee for Counterterrorism.

Carter began his career as a physicist, receiving a basic degree in physics and medieval history from Yale University in 1976. He was given Rhode's prestigious Stock Exchange from Oxford University, where he won his physical doctorate in 1979.

Carter had a long academic career besides his work in the government. He served as professor and director of the Center for Science and International Affairs at the John F Government School. Kennedy at Harvard University. Carter joined Harvard as a professor in 2017 and became director of the Belfer Centre for Science and International Affairs . /Abcnews.al/