Charles G. Boyd, who died on Wednesday at eighty-three years old, was a true American hero and patriot. Chuck, as he liked to be called, was the sole prisoner of war (POW) from Vietnam, where he was held captive for almost seven years, to attain the rank of four-star general. Throughout his life and career, he served his country with valor and distinction. He left a permanent mark on the institutions that he helped to lead, including the Center for the National Interest, where he was chairman of the board from January 2014 to March 2020. His quiet authority, judicious judgment, and unflinching fearlessness will be badly missed. As Center President Dimitri K. Simes observes, “General Boyd was a man of courage, integrity, and strong sense of duty who held eloquently formulated political opinions, but he also was a champion of flexibility and compromise, which made him an impressive leader and a wonderful colleague.” Former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, Iraq, and the United Nations and Center board member Zalmay Khalilzad also emphasizes Boyd’s acuity and ardor to serve his country: “Chuck loved the United States and served it with distinction as an Air Force officer both in combat and in peacetime. He continued to help the nation after his retirement. I observed his patriotism and his sharp intellect as a member and when he chaired the Center for the National Interest.”

At the core of Chuck’s personality was iron determination allied with absolute integrity. Born in Rockwell City, Iowa, on April 15, 1938, he grew up on a farm and was already fascinated as a child by airplanes. In April 1959, he entered the Air Force’s aviation cadet program and carried out bombing missions over North Vietnam and Laos. In 1966, he was awarded an Air Force Cross citation for his bravery in attacking surface-to-air missiles northwest of Hanoi. After several missiles were fired at his aircraft, the citation noted, “Without hesitation, Captain Boyd continued the attack on the hostile missile site. … The selfless act of making repeated attacks through intense ground fire after barely avoiding two missiles was far beyond the normal call of duty.” Upon being hit by anti-aircraft fire, he had to eject from his plane and was taken prisoner by the North Vietnamese.

He emerged from that harrowing experience determined to forge ahead—and he did. He went on to serve as a strategy consultant to Newt Gingrich in the 1990s and became executive director of the U.S. Commission on National Security for the 21^st Century, often referred to as the Hart-Rudman Commission. The final report, which was issued in January 2001, focused on the grave peril that terrorism posed to America. Chuck himself often referred back to the significance of that warning, which, tragically, was not taken seriously enough at the time.

Two other facts regarding Chuck’s remarkable career deserve mention. First, in the mid-1990s, as deputy commander of the U.S. European Command in Stuttgart, Germany, he became concerned early on that NATO expansion could lead to conflict with Russia and wanted to explore opportunities to integrate Russia into the European security architecture—including possibly offering it a path to NATO membership. Second, while being strongly personally opposed to Donald Trump’s candidacy in 2016, Chuck also strongly supported offering Trump an opportunity to deliver a foreign policy speech at the Center, as long as it was clear that it did not constitute any kind of endorsement. In his view, providing a platform to a major presidential candidate was a service to democracy. It was also in the name of service to democracy in 2020 that Chuck departed from his normal principle that senior retired officers should avoid endorsing political candidates and joined several hundred other former civilian and military leaders in endorsing Joe Biden and condemning Trump as a dire threat to American democracy. Whenever I saw him in the office during the Trump years, he would ask, “Tell me what’s going on?” before expressing his own incredulity and indignation toward Trump’s moves, at home and abroad, not to mention his mounting apprehensions about the divisions assailing America itself.

Chuck, who married Jessica Tuchman Matthews, the former president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, in 2005, was someone whose firm sense of rectitude and wry sense of humor endeared him to everyone that he worked with at the Center. There was no one he was too busy to speak with or offer counsel. Former under secretary of defense and vice-chairman of the Center Dov Zakheim has it right: “Chuck Boyd was a classic hero. He was as decent a human being as he was a great military leader. His many years as a POW did not embitter him. Instead, he continued to serve the nation, rising to four-star level. A fundamentally modest man, he inspired those he worked with both in the military and at the Center for the National Interest. He will be sorely missed. Condolences to his wonderful wife Jessica.”

Jacob Heilbrunn is editor of the National Interest.

Image: Wikipedia.