Letter from Jeremy Stone, Alton Frye and Arnold Kanter; Supporting Halperin Nomination And Promoting ‘Write-In’ Campaign

When the late Vince Foster accused Washington of making a “sport” out of destroying people’s
reputations, he was, unfortunately, all too accurate.

Even before Morton H. Halperin was formally nominated to be Assistant Secretary of Defense for
Democracy and Peacekeeping, he was confronted with a press release, littered with innuendo and
falsehood, which showed the zest of which Foster complained. Its title was “If you liked Lani
Guinier, you’ll love Morton Halperin.”

The Center which blew this trumpet then proceeded to distort Halperin’s views in a subsequent
hardball campaign that already has been picked up in the media and that will likely peak in public
hearings in mid-September.

For example , in one op-ed piece the Center’s Director referred to Halperin “playing a role in the
unauthorized publication of classified documents which became known as ‘the Pentagon
Papers’…”. In fact, there is nothing in any record to suggest Halperin contributed in any way to
the disclosure of these papers.

Halperin was accused of having “held forth about the need to end all government security
classification…” which is documentably false — utterly absurd to anyone who knows Halperin.

Most inflammatory, it was said that Halperin had engaged in activities to “…aid and abet Philip
Agee and others in their efforts to reveal publicly the identities of American covert operatives…”.
In fact, Halperin’s testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee shows that he supported
legislation that would make Agee’s disclosures criminal. Indeed, as Director of the Washington
Office of ACLU, he made possible the “Agent’s Identities Protection Act” criminalizing such
behavior by reaching an agreement with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) on the legislation
proposed by the Reagan Adminstration!

Because Morton Halperin is known personally to so many former high officials in both
Democratic and Republican Administrations who are prepared to endorse his character, it will not
be easy to destroy his reputation. But, obviously, your help would be useful in defending him.

You are among those who have personally exchanged views with Morton Halperin over the three
decades of his lively participation m the national security community: as prolific author at
Harvard, deputy assistant secretary of defense for arms control, senior member of the Nixon
Administration National Security Council, staff member at Brookings, Director of the Center for
National Security Studies and Director of the Washington Office of the ACLU.

Accordingly, now that Halperin has been formally nominated, we wondered whether you, like
quite a few former Cabinet officials who are preparing to do so, would like to speak up in his
behalf and, in so doing, lend a hand in maintaining the standards of decency and manners so
important to the proper functioning of our Government.

If so, we recommend two options:

a). Send a letter addressed jointly to Senator San Nunn, Chairman of the Senate Armed
Services Committee (c/o Senate Armed Services Committee, Washington, D.C. 20510-6050) in defense of Morton’s integrity, patriotism, competence, intelligence and
general suitability for the position at issue; in this case, send us a copy, if you wish–to
307 Mass. Avenue, N.E., Washington, D.C. 20002–so that we can ensure that your
views are circulated in timely fashion. Or consider sending your letter to any Members
of the Committee you know personally or calling them.

Sincerely,

Alton Frye
Arnold Kanter
Jeremy J. Stone

Frye, who has worked for RAND, Harvard University and for Senator Edward Brooke, is now
National Director of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Kanter, whose experience in Government spanned the Carter, Reagan, and Bush Administrations,
served as Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs from 1991-1993.

Stone, who has worked for RAND, SRI, Hudson Institute, and Harvard University, is President
of the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), founded in 1945 by Manhattan Project atomic
scientists and sponsored by, among others, 45 Nobel Prize winners.

Senator Sam Nunn
Senate Armed Services Committee
U.S. Senate
Washington, D.C.

Dear Senator Nunn:

Morton H. Halperin is a patriotic American of integrity, unusual intelligence and competence and
broad experience in the Defense Community over three decades: at Harvard, in the Defense
Department, on the National Security Council, and in the non-profit sector.

We consider him well qualified and wholly suitable for this Administration for the position for
which he has been nominated by President Clinton: Assistant Secretary of Defense for Democracy
and Peacekeeping.

Sincerely,

Sign Name:

Print Name:

Type current position and/or former positions held in the defense and intelligence communities:

PROVIDE ANY COMMENTS OR SUGGESTIONS HERE:

*Currently, the Members of the Armed Services Committee are: (Democrats) Sam Nunn; J. James
Exon; Carl Levin; Edward M. Kennedy; Jeff Bingaman; John Glenn; Richard C. Shelby; Robert C.
Byrd; Bob Graham; Charles S. Robb, Joseph L Lieberman and Richard Bryan; (Republicans)
Strom Thurmond ; John Warner; William S. Cohen; John McCain; Trent Lott; Dan Coats: Robert
C. Smith; Dirk Kempthorne, D.M. (Lauch) Faircloth, and K. Bailey Hutchison.