However, unlike Kissinger, Carlucci was willing to work with Socialist Mario Soares not out of any sympathy for Soares' politics, but because from Carlucci's perspective Soares was the "only game in town" to prevent the most militant leftists from assuming power in Portugal. Carlucci managed to convince President Ford of his approach by working directly through Rumsfeld who was, at the time, the White House chief of staff. Carlucci's pay-off came when Soares won the Presidency in 1976, cementing ties with NATO and instituting IMF approved austerity measures.
Such successful machinations in Portugal earned Carlucci a position as Deputy Director of the CIA in the Carter Administration from 1978-1981. When insurgent forces in Iran and Nicaragua in 1979 toppled the Shah and Somoza dictatorships, Carlucci and the CIA had little ability to control the upheavals even though there were various clandestine efforts to thwart the revolutionary forces in these countries. On the other hand, the CIA certainly played a significant role in sponsoring anti-Soviet Mujaheddin, perhaps even suckering the Soviets into their disastrous campaign in Afghanistan.
Carlucci then made the transition to a procurer of new weapons as Deputy Secretary of Defense in the Reagan Administration under Caspar Weinberger from 1981-83. During this time, in response to wide-spread criticism of Pentagon waste and mismanagement, Carlucci developed proposals (known as the "Carlucci Reforms") to rationalize the process of weapons procurement. However, Carlucci's policies did not lower costs. They did, apparently, offer new start-up companies the opportunity to get involved in DoD pork, something that the Carlyle Group would take advantage of later on.
After a brief departure into the world of private business at Sears World Trade from 1983-86, Carlucci returned to become first an Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs in 1987. He then went on to become Secretary of Defense later than year until his resignation in 1989 when he went to work for the Carlyle Group.
As Secretary of Defense he worked closely with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and particularly the Chairman, Admiral William Crowe, Jr. (Crowe is now a chief stock-holder of the parent company of BioPort, the recently FDA approved monopoly holder of an anthrax vaccine. The Carlyle Group also apparently has stock holdings in Crowe's company.) While overseeing some cutbacks in the DoD, particularly military bases in the US, Carlucci was committed to expanding certain military appropriations in the area of new technology as a way of strengthening the US national security state and expanding NATO. Although willing to compromise with Congress on the Strategic Defense Initiative (encountering in the process a rebuke from Reagan), Carlucci maintained a determined stance of US supremacy in nuclear arms and nuclear-war-fighting capability.
While outside of government in the 1990's, Carlucci managed to circulate on the boards of various think-tanks, e.g. the RAND Corporation, and help promulgate reports on national security and defense that urged increases in defense spending and the use of US military might. Nonetheless, he, along with other former Secretaries of Defense, opposed sending ground troops to Bosnia, perhaps because there were no long-term prospects for security or economic advancements.
Certainly, Carlucci's tenure at the Carlyle Group has resulted in an expanded portfolio of defense industries. Among the defense industries that Carlyle holds is United Defense, a maker of missile launch systems for the US Navy. However, Carlyle's reach under Carlucci has expanded into a variety of new technologies in defense and non-defense industries, such as global communications.