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Gen. Wesley Clark

When retired four-star Gen. Wesley Clark announced his entry into the presidential race Sept. 17, it could be said he was the only candidate drafted for the job. After months of weighing the possibility of entering the race and thousands of supporters gathering in ad hoc committees, he became the last major candidate to enter the crowded field aimed at unseating President Bush in November 2004.

Propelled by his stated opposition to the U.S.-led war in Iraq, Clark's decision to seek the Democratic nomination ended a prolonged period of public speculation over his potential candidacy.

Although an early supporter of President Bush's policies in Afghanistan and in combating terrorism, he spoke out against the military incursion to topple Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. Clark has said he believes President Bush's decision to enter Iraq was a miscalculated step that was taken under false pretense.

"I never thought I'd run for president, but I never thought our country would be in trouble like it is today," he recently told a crowd in Denver.

"Our president misled us into war. ... We're in a mess we didn't have to be in. We're in a mess that is costing the lives of our soldiers almost daily."

In order to improve the situation in Iraq, Clark said he would like to see Iraq administrator Paul Bremer "fired and replaced with a non-American," and believes a NATO force under U.S. command should be placed in charge of military operations in Iraq.

On the domestic front, Clark supports abortion rights and has said he would support same-sex civil unions, although he is opposed to gay and lesbian marriages. He has said he would like to see all Americans provided with health insurance. Clark would also like to "fully fund veteran's health care" and "eliminate the Disabled Veterans Tax."

The "Disabled Veterans Tax" is a term commonly used to describe the fact that federal law does not allow veterans to receive both retirement benefits and disability compensation benefits. Veterans who have provided 20 years of U.S. military service are eligible for retirement benefits from the Department of Defense. Also, those veterans who are disabled due to their military service are eligible for disability compensation benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs. But because of an 1891 law, the veteran's military benefits are reduced on a dollar-by-dollar basis by the amount they receive in disability compensation.

In June 2003, Clark told Tim Russert on NBC's "Meet the Press" that he believes President Bush's tax cuts are unfair.

"You look at the long-run health of the country and the size of the deficit that we've incurred and a substantial part of that deficit is result of the tax cuts," Clark said. "You have to ask: 'Is this wise, long-run policy?' I think the answer is no."

Believing the tax cuts were unsuccessful in creating demand, he instead suggested a "demand stimulus," focusing on those in need, and limited so as to control the deficit.

"We need to put the right kind of demand stimulus back into the economy. A stimulus that's efficient in terms of how much it costs us, in terms of the deficit. A stimulus that's fair in terms of rewarding the people who need it the most, not the wealthy. And a stimulus that's long term, fiscally responsible in terms of not creating huge deficits that our children have to deal with or that we have to deal with ten years out," Clark told the New Democratic Network in June 2003.

Having been mentioned as a possible candidate for the Arkansas Senate in 2002 and then removing his name from the possible candidacy, Clark's bid for the Democratic nomination will be his first attempt to gain elected office. Clark is working with several former Clinton staffers, including 1992 campaign chief of staff Eli Segal.

Clark becomes the third former North Atlantic Treaty Organization chief to run for president, following in the footsteps of Dwight Eisenhower -- elected in 1956 -- and Alexander Haig, who led a failed presidential bid in 1988. Both of them ran on the Republican ticket.

The general who would be president was born Dec. 23, 1944, in Chicago, Ill., and spent his childhood in Little Rock, Ark. Following his graduation from Little Rock's Hall High School, Clark went on to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, at the age of 17, graduating first in his class in 1966.

Following his West Point graduation, Clark was awarded a Rhodes scholarship, earning his master's degree in politics, philosophy and economics from Oxford University.

Clark served in Vietnam from 1969 to February 1970, when he suffered gunshot wounds to the right shoulder, right hand, right hip and right leg. He was awarded the Silver Star for his military service.

From 1971 to 1974, Captain Clark served as an instructor and later an assistant professor of social science at West Point, teaching political philosophy, among other subjects. Then, during 1974 and 1975 he attended the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, earning a masters' degree in military art and science.

Under the leadership of Richard Holbrooke, Clark headed the United States' military team during negotiations resulting in the 1995 Dayton Agreement, which ended the three-year war in former Yugoslavia. Then, in 1996, he earned his first major command -- commander in chief of the U.S. Southern Command in Panama.

It was Clark's next position, as NATO supreme allied commander and commander in chief of U.S. forces in Europe that brought him public notice.

In 1997, when Western nations' diplomatic gestures toward Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic proved fruitless, General Clark spearheaded the NATO's first combat action in its history, a 78-day bombing campaign in Kosovo that removed Serb forces from the breakaway ethnic state.

Although then-Secretary of Defense William Cohen had initially favored Clark to take over NATO's leadership, tensions arose over the handling of the Kosovo campaign. In 1999, The Washington Post reported that prior to the controversial bombing campaign, Clark had pushed for a more aggressive U.S. and NATO stance toward the Yugoslav leader.

Subsequent mistakes during the air campaign -- including the bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade -- increased friction, as did Clark's push for permission to plan a ground invasion should the bombing campaign fail.

Following months of tension with the Pentagon over the conduct of the war, Clark was relieved of his command three months early. Pentagon officials portrayed the move as part of a normal rotation, denying that Clark's leadership style had caused his early removal.

After leaving NATO, Clark returned to Arkansas to write his memoir, "Waging Modern War: Bosnia, Kosovo, and the Future of Combat." He also consulted for Stephens Group Inc., an Arkansas-based investment bank company, and later became managing director. He is currently chairman of a strategic advisory and consulting firm, Wesley K. Clark and Associates.

Clark was one of cable network CNN's stable of military analysts and commentators during the Iraq war; he left the network in June 2003.

The retired general has been awarded a number of military honors, including the Purple Heart and the Silver Star for his service in Vietnam. He is a three-time recipient of the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, and a four-time recipient of the Legion of Merit.

Clark has received more than 20 major military awards from foreign governments, and the British and Dutch governments have bestowed honorary knighthood on him. France named him a commander of the French Legion of Honor. In 2000, then-President Clinton presented Clark with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor.

Clark and his wife Gertrude have been married for 36 years. They live in Little Rock and have one son, a screenwriter in Los Angeles.

-- By Jessica Moore, Online NewsHour