Letter to Senator Leahy

1 July 1998

Honorable Patrick Leahy
United States Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510-4502

Dear Senator Leahy:

Thank you for responding to the “Open Letter to the Senate”. I am very interested in your
reaction and I am quite disappointed that you think the letter is a “glaring misstatement”.

I do understand the belief and the goal that you express in your letter, i.e., the international
ban
that you state both the Congress and the Administration share. Unfortunately, I do not share a
desire for the same goal. As with so many arms control theories, they will most likely disarm U.S.
forces while failing to dissuade our potential enemies.

My purpose in signing letters opposing this ban was two-fold. First, to support the entire
active
duty command hierarchy who had, collectively and unanimously, appealed to President Clinton
not to sign the Ottawa Landmine Convention. In my opinion, their judgment requires military
respect and when a few of my misguided retired colleagues chose to oppose them, I chose to join
them.

Secondly, because the National Military Strategy is based on our power to project forces into
crises areas, I believe they should be deployed with all of the tools we can provide them. Initial
entry forces are always small, relative to the enemy they may be facing. We cannot deny them the
use of anti-personnel mines if their use contributes to the security of the force, and today and for
the foreseeable future that is the case.

I understand the desire for alternative means and will be happy to endorse them and urge their
adoption if they become available. But I object to target dates, expressions of clear intentions and
promises to conform because they have a way of becoming deadlines and self-fulfilling
requirements that work to the detriment of our forces.

I assure you, Senator Leahy, that my compassion for the populations threatened by existing
mines
that are scattered throughout the world is no less than that of those wishing to ban them. I
understand that the convention wants to prevent future occurrences of the same problem. I just
do not want U.S. forces, put in harm’s way, to be denied tools that they employ responsibly, that
contribute neither to the world’s current problem nor the resolution thereof.

Sincerely,

/signed/

FREDERICK J. KROESEN
General, USA Retired