About KT

Kathleen Troia “KT” McFarland is a national security commentator and columnist who appears weekly on a number of TV, online and national radio programs. Ms. McFarland held national security posts in the Nixon, Ford and Reagan Administrations, and received the Defense Department’s highest civilian award. She was a Republican candidate for the US Senate from New York in 2006.

Ms. McFarland’s government career began while a freshman at George Washington University, working part-time in the White House Situation Room typing the President’s Daily Brief. She spent seven years in the West Wing of the White House, working her way up to become a key member of Dr. Henry Kissinger’s National Security Council Staff. After the Ford Administration, Ms. McFarland studied at Oxford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with concentrations on nuclear weapons, China and the Soviet Union. She returned to Washington during the Reagan Administration as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee staff. In 1982 Ms. McFarland became the speechwriter to Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger, and later the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs and Pentagon Spokesman.

In 1985 Ms. McFarland left government, married, moved to New York, and became a stay at home mother of five. After the September 11 attacks, Ms. McFarland reentered public life and resumed her career. She became active in New York Republican politics and began speaking and writing on national security issues. She ran  for the United States Senate.

Ms. McFarland is  a Senior Advisor to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a frequent guest commentator on a number of national news programs, including FOX, MSNBC and CNN. She  is a  regular panelist on FOX News’ online news program, The Strategy Room. She hosts the national security video blog, DEFCON-3 by KT, and writes a weekly opinion column for FOX News’s online newspaper. Ms. McFarland is also the national security commentator for several radio shows, including FOX, ABC,  WMAL, WLIU and WVOX. She is a board member of The Jamestown Foundation, the Off the Record Lecture Series, , and a Coalition Member of the Set America Free Foundation.

KT In the News

9/3/2009 - The East Hampton Star
Two Groups Form to Save WLIU

3/3/2006 – NY Times
Clinton Challenger Pulled From Reagan-Era Hat

3/3/2006 – NY Sun
USNA Mom – and Senator?