43 of the Nation’s Most Eminent Military Leaders Insist That The U.S. Must Be Able — and Allowed — to Dominate Outer Space

Open Letter to President Released at High-Level Center Roundtable

(Washington, D.C.): Forty-three distinguished military leaders joined forces today to urge
President Clinton “to heed the recommendations of the National Defense Panel with respect to
assuring an American capability to ‘deny our enemies the use of space.'” These retired flag
officers — representing each of the armed services and a wide variety of military specialties and
command experiences — stressed to Mr. Clinton that: “Your leadership will be essential in
assuring the means necessary to provide space dominance and in rejecting budgetary and
arms control arrangements that would jeopardize that required capability.”

The illustrious signatories on this Open Letter to the President (see the attached) include former
members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Commanders-in-Chief (CINCs) and dozens of officers who
previously held major service and/or Defense-wide commands. Their letter underscores concerns
broadly shared not only by retired military leaders, but also by those in uniform today about the
Administration’s apparent inattention to the critical use the U.S. military currently makes
of outer space for communications, intelligence and precision locating. Such concerns are
especially acute among those visionary enough to appreciate that this dependence is expected to
grow considerably in the years to come.

Like the congressionally mandated, blue-ribbon National Defense Panel (NDP) before them, the
authors of the Open Letter to the President appreciate that it is, in the words of the NDP, a
“major strategic interest of the United States” to exercise “unrestricted use of space.” It is now
clear, however, that unrestricted American use of space will not be enough in the event of
future hostilities. Both the NDP’s members and the Open Letter’s signatories understand
that the United States must be able to exercise control of outer space, as well.

As the latter wrote the President, who has reportedly started negotiations with the Russians aimed
at negotiating limitations on anti-satellite weapons: “Even assuming one could craft a verifiable
ban, for example, on anti-satellite weapons (which appears altogether unlikely), if such an accord
rendered the United States unable to neutralize hostile spacecraft in time of war, it would
not be consistent with our national security requirements.“

The Open Letter to the President was publicly released at a High-Level Roundtable Discussion of
“The Need for American Space Dominance” sponsored today in Washington by the Center for
Security Policy. This meeting featured remarks by former Secretaries of Defense James
Schlesinger and Caspar Weinberger and by a number of the signatories of this letter.