[inaudible conversations] good afternoon everyone. I would like to welcome you to this afternoons session of the washington history seminar and for those of you who dont know the seminar is a joint project of the Woodrow WilsonCenters History and Public Policy program and the american Historical Associations National history center. My name is eric arnesen and im from George Washington university. Im the cochair on behalf of the National History center of the seminar. As is our custom i want to thank two people whose behindthescenes effort makes the seminar possible on a weekly basis. At amanda monies and pete. Its their logistical work that allows us to pull this off. I would also like to express thanks to shafer the society of Foreign Relations whose generous contributions support the seminars activities. Todays speaker is Bartholomew Sparrow who is a professor of government at the university of texas. He is the author of multiple works including from the outside in, world war ii and the american state the answer cases of the emergence of the american empire and uncertain guardians, the news media as a political institution. Professor sparrow has been a Woodrow Wilson center fellow end date jones Shorenstein Center fellow as well and hes a rapist recipient of the letter deployed aboard and Franklin Burdett pi sigma award from Political Science association. Today he will be talking on his new book which is published by Public Affairs press called the strategist Brent Scowcroft and the call of National Security. Thank you for having me. A friend in washington if someone is stabbed you in the chest. This is one of scowcrofts jokes and the irony is he has someone who has many friends and is well admired and adored in washington. Its good to be back at the Wilson Center and to be speaking under the auspices of the National History center did my time here in 2009 is a resident fellow was invaluable for making this project possible and i benefited greatly from the intellectual bierman to the many speakers and symposia learning from the other researchers the administrators and the staff. I would like to thank Christian Osterman roger lewis and the others who made this possible. Amanda monies and pete vere sticker in particular. Incidentally when i first considered what i would title the biography there were a few books called the strategist. In the meantime three books have been published in the same title. One is a Police Procedural anothers a financial thriller and a third is advising how to be the leader in business needs. So much for planning. What is interesting though is that few in washington and around the country what is interesting is many in washington and around the country dont think of scowcroft is a strategist that merely as one of Richard Nixon and gerald fords, National Security adviser to george h. W. Bush and a longtime washington insider. For some the title may ring counterintuitively. If hes not a strategist in the sense of the sun tzu were carl von clausewitz neither is he a strategist in his claims to anticommunist manifesto the world analyst in the matter of Henry Kissinger sweeping arguments and world order. In fact several of my interviewees including a former secretary of defense National Security adviser told me they didnt especially think of Brent Scowcroft is a strategist. With one former official saying he regarded schoolcraft is operating between the 40yard lines. Those that knew him most closely u. S. And foreignpolicy officials alike including helmut kohl has spoken admirably of scowcroft strategic sense. Its just that he has kept his strategists largely out of view with a few exceptions. What has been the opeds most noticeably in 2002 in the wall street journal and joining the george w. Bush administration not rush to war against iraq. Kroft has written about 100 opeds most all of them went out of office these provide provided piecemeal and periodic glimpse of him as a strategist. His Strategic Vision is further revealed and coauthor commissioned Study Reports that these two are focused on specific topics and limited by the short length. Even in his coauthor books go kroft has received second billing perhaps because of the tyranny of the alphabet a repression that many of us have experienced. [laughter] thereve also been published interviews with him in Journal Articles he has written. Despite these writings go krofts Global Vision has not been visible on the order of a George CannonRichard Nixon and Henry Kissinger or zbigniew brzezinski. This is where the publication of his memoirs fell since i understand focusing on his philosophy and worldview. Prince go kroft has worked behind the scenes within small groups oneonone in closed meetings. Of particular significance has been scowcrofts relationship to the former National Security adviser secretary of state kissinger with whom he worked closely after the election once ford took office. The two collaborated on all policy decisions between 1973 and 1977 at period in which this kissinger calls go kroft is quote full partner unquote yet because the partnership took place entirely behind doors its gone unnoticed to diplomatic historians and others on the National Security policy at the nixon ford administration. As Vice President fords tudor on Foreign Policy in the months before nixons resignation in the someone who is a general of United States general scowcroft became the most trusted Foreign Policy adviser. The Reagan Administration brought scowcroft to resolve the controversy to investigate the iran contra scandal. Advice on the latter issue was mostly unheeded. He later worked quietly with bush 43s is foreignpolicy team in their second term in office. Giving advice to the Obama White House especially early in the administration. With the british pound collapsing in 1976 secretary of state kissinger and simon stepped in and worked out an arrangement for concessions by britains Prime Minister callahans Labour Government for four billiondollar imf rescue package backed by the United States and supported by germany and france. A great deal of money at the time and the trick here was the panel is sinking and they had to keep negotiations secret away from the press so it didnt invoke a further run on the pound. Another was go krofts advice to president bush in 1989 that the United States and the soviet union both withdraw Ground Forces from central europe. The logic was that nato minus the u. S. Comparison to the warsaw pact and ussr would be to the United States is managed and take away from mikhail gorbachev. The idea provoked a firestorm especially for defense secretary cheney which was eventually a scaled back version of the plan. Rather than literally demand the wall be torn down and scowcroft and his staff wanted to create the underlying conditions that would make the berlin wall no longer necessary so it would fall up its own accord. More significantly Schoolcraft Bush and baker wanted to take the initiative away from gorbachev to think what they will want to go through and what they wanted to achieve them and to provide a set of carrots and sticks that would induce the soviets to a degree which often meant getting the u. K. France and germany to agree. A third example was the decision on the Scowcroft Commission later under bush 41 to push through radical reductions in Nuclear Missiles and to reduce the number of mirth warheads and reconvert or download single warhead icbms. As go kroft prevailed that murph rockets with up to 10 warheads were more attractive as targets and more attractive as weapons they could use in contrast to single warhead icbms. In fact this was some of the logic they used and start to. His call for prudence with respect to attacking iraq his willingness to support the troop surge after 2007. So what does scowcroft exert so much so for years hes been one of the most admired elder statesman of washington. One is his ability to keep his eyes on the ball. United states longerterm interests military Political Economic weather in his capacity as an air force colonel military assistant to the president as deputy of mass security adviser for National Security adviser proper. He had ability to look down the road without the ability to see the moving parts to anticipate other vehicles upcoming curves and obstructions ahead. As a student of World History and International Relations as a graduate of the National War College and is a professor at west point in the air force academy he has been able to analyze the forces at play to get a feel for their tendencies and trajectories and to gauge their possible effects and a skilled chessplayer scowcroft has been good as seeing the pieces on the board and figure out how the opposing players might respond to these were characteristics honed after the tutelage of air force major richard bingen one of the developers of the single integrated Operations Plan siop and well in the pentagon he helps scowcroft learn how the government operated with Research Communities with industry and the scientific communities and other actors. Later working with Kissinger Scowcroft honed his sense of International System and became more comfortable working with the press. All the same a strategist has to be relevant. One can be a superb strategist is a military consultant or analyst at Current Events but if he or she is on the sidelines and his or her ideas are ignored that person cant be considered a strategist. He is renowned for his article in foreign affairs. After his whitehot burst of influence policymakers ignored him for the next five decades. Neither do we think of a strategist over the later period. Another aspect of his strategy is operationally its hard to think of any other policymaker in recent times has been as consistently influential and well respected for his judgment and expertise. I was one slide behind. Excuse me. This trust has distinct roots. One is scowcroft ability to speak credibly to several distinct parties thanks to his range of expertise and experience in International RelationsNuclear Weapons and military affairs and intelligence and economics. Furthermore not only can scowcroft speak on separate issues he is also able to consider how they intersect and interact. Another is his drive coupled with his ability. One, his superior officers made was his ability to keep growing with no discernible upper ceiling. He would have clearly received a fourstar as Alexander Hague and colin powell had he not retired from air force and became National Security adviser in november of 1975. Third is his cordial and respectful personality. Another frequent comment was how easy u. S. To work with. He impresses his bosses not only with this initiative to go the extra mile but his ability to be a Team Player Even if the ultimate decision goes his own way. He has strong views was willing to be persuaded by new evidence and strong argument and he listens. As one Bush Administration colleague put its scowcroft doesnt want anything. He can be very serious reserved and compartmentalized. He is also affable and used to play pranks on his colleagues. He was not above making offcolor jokes. He got along well with others and had a good sense of how Association Reporters academics military officers foreign leaders or young people. Some implications of the subtitle Brent Scowcroft and the call of National Security. It feels odd to be writing about the life of someone who participates in politics and runs his own business. He was in saudi arabia for king abduls funeral. Other prominent political figures who are still very much with us so the question becomes becomes here i can unequivocally say yes. For the first part of my subtitle the name Brent Scowcroft. As a buyer for wanted to examine the Brent Scowcroft roots. This restricts lineages and back on as member by wellestablished family. Joe pingree Brent Scowcrofts greatgrandfather was one of the captains of the tract part of omaha and another Richard Ballantine was a captain of a Mormon Company missionary in india and the founder of the mormon sunday schools. Both em pingree were polygamists. A third greatgrandfather John Scowcroft arrived later by train and founded a Successful Company of food and dry goods wholesale merchants helped by the fact that a notch of poor for rail rail traffic throughout the west where freight trains had to change engines and passengers had to switch from Union Pacific to Central Pacific trains or vice versa traveling east to west. You cant go anywhere without coming to ogden town leaders posted. During prohibition al capone said ogden was too rough for him in. Scowcrofts father managed the Family Business and he was close to his father and mother by all accounts happy and active childhood the youngest of three children and the only son. With his sisters being four in seven years so but he was some ways an only child. Acknowledging you never heard his parents fighting he commented the experience growing up gave him a distorted view of his fellow humans. What do these pleasant stories and nice family photos have to do is scowcroft is an air force officer Business Consultant and senior statesman . What they convey is how secure scowcroft was growing up, secure material, secure socially insecure psychologically. He had no status anxiety in other words and i wasnt because of a sense of deprivation or other contrarian things that motivated him to leave ogden for west point and join the army air corps. This very sense of security would make a surprise attack on pearl harbor and travails of the u. S. Military Academy Following the near fatal crash of his north american aviation mustang at the age of 24 that much more searing. Then barely a month after the crash he received word that his father died of a heart attack at the age of 57. Lying in a hospital bed he decided he didnt want to be in a Family Business that wants to study and be in a position to influence National Security policy. The fact that the strategist has a further implication. Biography is as one political scientist rights provides no consensual grammar for the selection organization and presentation of data. This makes it tough to study someone that didnt write things down it does not boasted achievements and records are partially available. I read the many histories and inside accounts of u. S. National Security Policy individual president s president ial demonstrations and researched journalism on people issues regions and countries. In order to bring perspective to the documents and the scholarly analyses i conducted for interviews with the general and more than 100 interviews with his colleagues and associates friends and relatives. To an extent biographies and exercise imagination as John Lewis Gaddis comments. It is being in someone elses world. Fully capturing that vision is a fools errand to be sure but just as surely as possibly he is accurate and thorough as possible and to be fair. Being fair means not just selecting the positive that some biographies to order the negative as other biographers do but describing