Off to New York City for a couple of meetings around the PREPCOM. Drop me a line if you are around.
In the meantime, here is aother entry from Michael Krepon’s shoebox on an argument that was later reprised to disastrous consequences:
Richard Perle on the lulling effect of arms control:
“Democracies will not sacrifice to protect their security in the absence of a sense of danger. And every time we create the impression that we and the Soviets are cooperating and moderating the competition, we diminish that sense of apprehension.”
Perle, an adept infighter and fierce critic of arms control, learned his trade from a master, Senator “Scoop” Jackson, a Democrat from Washington state. No one was better at framing the terms of debate. Perle left a scant paper trail. This quote comes from an interview with Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Roy Gutman, who wrote for Newsday. This quote appeared in a story Gutman filed in February, 1983, at the height of Perle’s machinations while serving in “Cap” Weinberger’s Pentagon.
More recent users of this particular talking point include Bob Joseph in trashing the BWC verification protocol.