Harold Brown, the defense secretary in the Carter administration, who ordered a doomed US military operation on the Iranian soil, has died at age 91.
The Rand Corp., a California-based think tank where Brown served as a trustee for over 35 years, said Saturday that he died from pancreatic cancer at his home in Rancho Santa Fe, California a day earlier.
Brown was born in New York City on Sept. 19, 1927. He received an undergraduate degree in physics from Columbia University in 1945 and later a doctorate in physics.

Brown, who served as defense secretary from 1977 to 1981 under Democratic President Jimmy Carter, was the person who ordered Operation Eagle Claw in Iran to release the US Embassy staff held in…