AN OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT CLINTON

January 15, 1998

Hon. William J. Clinton
The White House
Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear Mr. President:

As you know, the congressionally mandated National Defense Panel has just issued its report
entitled Transforming Defense: National Security in the 21^st Century. This blue-ribbon
commission (whose members included several of our most distinguished fellow retired flag
officers) sought to address what it considered to be “the greatest danger”: “an unwillingness or an
inability to change our security posture in time to meet the challenges of the next century.”

We can think of few challenges likely to pose a greater danger to our future security posture than
that of adversaries seeking to make hostile use of space — or to deny us the ability to dominate
that theater of operations.

The stakes in this area were already clear six years ago. In Operation Desert Storm, Coalition
forces enjoyed the uncontested use of space-based assets. As a result, they had a unique
capability to assess and prevail on the battlefield. If the enemy had the benefit of similar
capabilities (or the means to deny us some or all of these assets) that objective would have been
achieved, if at all, with far greater loss of American lives.

What was true in 1991 will be even more so in the years ahead. Our experience tells us that the
contribution made to U.S. national security in the future by space-based reconnaissance,
communications, navigation and other systems will only continue to grow. We agree
wholeheartedly, moreover, with the National Defense Panel in their conclusion that the decades to
come will see great advances in the abilities of potential adversaries to exploit space for
aggressive purposes and to interfere with our operations in outer space.

Against this backdrop, we are deeply concerned about your recent line-item veto of three
technology development programs that will bear directly upon our military’s future ability to
exercise control of space in wartime. The Clementine II, Kinetic-Kill Anti-Satellite and Military
Space Plane programs are the technological seed corn for such crucial capabilities as space-based
missile defenses, neutralizing enemy satellites and having prompt, reliable and inexpensive access
to and use of space. In our judgment, these are missions the United States military must be
prepared to perform.

It is especially worrying if, as some press reports suggest, your decision was prompted by the
prospect that our equities in space could be protected through an arms control agreement with the
Russians (and/or others). 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.

For these reasons, we urge you to heed the recommendations of the National Defense Panel with
respect to assuring an American capability to “deny our enemies the use of space.” 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.

Sincerely,

James A. Abrahamson
Lieutenant General, U.S. Air Force (Ret.)
Former Director, Strategic Defense Initiative Organization

Walter E. Boomer
General, U.S. Marine Corps (Ret.)
Former Assistant Commandant

Al Burkhalter
Vice Admiral, U.S. Navy (Ret.)
Former Director, Intelligence Community Staff

Raymond C. Davis
General, U.S. Marine Corps (Ret.)
Former Assistant Commandant and Medal of Honor Recipient (Korea)

Russell E. Dougherty
General, U.S. Air Force (Ret.)
Former Commander, Strategic Air Command

Vincent E. Falter
Major General, U.S. Army (Ret.)
Former Deputy to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Atomic Energy

John Foss
General, U.S. Army (Ret.)
Former Commanding General U.S. Army Training & Doctrine Command

Earl Fowler
Vice Admiral, U.S. Navy (Ret.)
Former Commander, Naval Sea Systems Command

David E. Frost
Vice Admiral, U.S. Navy (Ret.)
Former Deputy Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Space Command

Harry A. Griffith
Lieutenant General, U.S. Army (Ret.)
Former Director, Defense Nuclear Agency

Joseph Hoar
General, U.S. Marine Corps (Ret.)
Former Commander-in-Chief,U.S. Central Command

Charles Horner
General, U.S. Air Force (Ret.)
Former Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Space Command

William D. Houser
Vice Admiral, U.S. Navy (Ret.)
Former Deputy Chief of Naval Operations, Air Warfare

James H. Johnson
Lieutenant General, U.S. Army (Ret.)
Former Commanding General, First U.S. Army

P.X. Kelley
General, U.S. Marine Corps (Ret.)
Former Commandant, U.S. Marine Corps

Thomas W. Kelly
General, U.S. Army (Ret.)
Former Director of Operations, Joint Chiefs of Staff

Frederick J. Kroesen
General, U.S. Army (Ret.)
Former Commander, U.S. Army, Europe

Richard L. Lawson
General, U.S. Air Force (Ret.)
Former Deputy Commander-in-Chief, U.S. European Command

Charles D. Link
Major General, U.S. Air Force (Ret.)
Former Commander, Third Air Force

John Michael Loh
General, U.S. Air Force (Ret.)
Former Commander of Air Combat Command

Jarvis D. Lynch
Major General, U.S. Marine Corps (Ret.)
Former Commander of Marine Corps Recruiting Depot at Parris Island, SC

David M. Maddox
General, U.S. Army (Ret.)
Former Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Army, Europe

Wesley McDonald
Admiral, U.S. Navy (Ret.)
Former Supreme Allied Commander, Atlantic

Thomas H. Miller
Lieutenant General, U.S. Marine Corps (Ret.)
Former Deputy Chief of Staff for Aviation, Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps

Riley Mixson
Rear Admiral, U.S. Navy (Ret.)
Former Director, Air Warfare

Thomas S. Moorman
General, U.S. Air Force (Ret.)
Former Vice Chief of Staff, U.S. Air Force

Gordon Nagler
Vice Admiral, U.S. Navy (Ret.)
Former Deputy Chief of Naval Operations, Command and Control

Malcolm O’Neill
Lt. General, U.S. Army (Ret.)
Former Director, Ballistic Missile Defense Organization

John L. Piotrowski
General, U.S. Air Force (Ret.)
Former Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Space Command

Bryce Poe II
General, U.S. Air Force (Ret.)
Former Commander, Air Force Logistics Command

Robert C. Richardson
Brigadier General, U.S. Air Force (Ret.)
Former Deputy Commander, Field Command Sandia Base, Defense Support Agency

J. Milnor Roberts
Major General (USA, Ret.)
Former Chief of Army Reserve

Bernard A. Schriever
General, U.S. Air Force (Ret.)
Former Commander, Air Force Systems Command

John A. Shaud
General, U.S. Air Force (Ret.)
Former Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe

John K. Singlaub
Major General, U.S. Army (Ret.)
Former Chief of Staff, U.S. Forces Korea

Lawrence A. Skantze
General, U.S. Air Force (Ret.)
Former Vice Chief of Staff, U.S. Air Force

Keith A. Smith
Lieutenant General, U.S. Marine Corps (Ret.)
Former Deputy Chief of Staff for Aviation, Headquarters Marine Corps

Donn A. Starry
General, U.S. Army (Ret.)
Former Commander, U.S. Army Readiness Command

Gordon Sumner, Jr.
Lieutenant General, U.S. Army (Ret.)
Former Chairman, Inter-American Defense Board

Bernard E. Trainor,
Lieutenant General, U.S. Marine Corps (Ret.)
Former Deputy Chief of Staff, Plans, Policy and Operations

Jerry L. Unruh
Vice Admiral, U.S. Navy (Ret.)
Former Commander, Third Fleet

Louis C. Wagner, Jr.
General, U.S. Army (Ret.)
Former Commander, Army Materiel Command

J.D. Williams
Vice Admiral, U.S. Navy (Ret.)
Former Deputy Chief of Operations, Naval Warfare