A specialist in American diplomatic and military history, David Frederic Trask is the former chief historian for the U.S. Army Center of Military History and former professor of history at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He graduated with a degree in history from Wesleyan University in 1951, and after service in the US Army from 1952 to 1954, earned a Ph.D. in History from Harvard University in 1958.