REMARKS BY FORMER SENATOR MALCOLM WALLOP AT THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION

“How could anyone hope but to rejoice as America
and her democratic allies emerged triumphant from the
Cold War and its persistent hot spots. Americans had
ponied up billions of dollars to contain Communism,
support democracy and defend our allies. Behind the Iron
curtain lay nations, lives and environments in tatters.
America had emerged as the world’s remaining super power.
What a moment! We could lead, promote peace and
economic freedom. We could and did defend our interests
in the Gulf War. We could and did demonstrate purpose,
commitment and power. Yet with the Gulf War America’s new
world role collapsed.

“It had in fact been collapsing from the very
first moments of the Bush presidency. And, sadly, it was
visible from the very first moments. As fascination
with Gorbachev began to become our policy and ‘stability’
became our God — the End of History zealots began to
dismantle the greatest military machinery ever assembled.
Who now needed military might? It was dismantled
mindlessly. We had not the first thought of what
America’s role or interests were in this newly liberated
world. No one thought to ask. Worse still it became the
order of the day to have summits and conjure up new
slogans. These made long periods of thought unnecessary.

“Arms control agreements, ever the substitute
for difficult political commitment to military
superiority, became more frequent and less objective. One
treaty after the other, START I, INF, START II, CSCE
rolled in to shore up political fortunes and to be the
excuse for summits. In the vacuum of serious thought the
American right and American left gradually moved in
opposite directions to the same conclusion. We didn’t
need much since we had no external interests.
Isolationism had returned.

A Meeting With President Bush

“My alarm became so intense I asked for a
meeting with President Bush. We met with John Sununu and
Brent Scowcroft. I explained the need for a New Doctrine
to replace containment. Historically America has
foundered without such a purpose and moved pretty
directly with one.

“What was happening without a doctrine was that
there was no architecture for foreign policy and hence
for defense spending. Members were taking things out of
the budget and leaving things in, and only seniority or
domestic politics affected the outcome. A military
purpose was not needed. Not only was the defense budget
in free-fall but its structure was totally amoebic —
changing by the hour.

“My pleas for a new doctrine were met with
polite but undisguised amusement. It was explained to me
that containment was needed because the Soviets had
exploded their nuclear bomb and ‘nothing like that is
around now.’ In 15 polite minutes I was dismissed and the
fall continued.

“The Gulf War came as the last elements of
America’s great power in Europe still remained. We were
prepositioned. Our Navy, though diminished, was still
strong and the Air Force still had lift, bomber, fueling
and fighter capacity. For a moment our dream held, but we
learned no lesson.

“We piled out of the Gulf for the States. The
military personnel came home often as not to discharge.
Equipment came home. Europe emptied. The ‘New Strategy’
became the new slogan. But the strategy was designed to
do nothing for American foreign policy because there was
none. We seemed ashamed of our power.

“…President Clinton came to town with no
policy in place. They were quite content to ignore
policy. It was after all ‘The economy, stupid!’ The
declining relevance of the nation state is more easily
digestible if there are no national interests. If we are
just another band of global inhabitants, we need fear
nothing if the U.N. is there.

“No great nation can remain great, free and
prosperous without strength, purpose and courage. Today
America has the latter, some of the former, and none of
the middle.

“No free and informed nation will sustain armed
involvement without just cause. No cause can be seen to
be just unless it lies in the national interest. No
national interest can be trumped up for an occasion.
Unless it will have been embraced by the informed public,
nothing can sustain it. A multinational effort will never
be undertaken unless one element is willing and able to
proceed on its own. NATO was nothing without America in
the Gulf. With us she was purposeful.

“The Administration’s timidity about expanding
NATO despite Russian growls has diminished our stature in
NATO, NATO’s stature in America, America in Russian eyes
and, most importantly, the security link that anchors
Germany to NATO.

“A foreign policy without a defense is but a
prayer. A defense capability for no foreign policy is a
fool’s war or a despot’s paradise.

The Case for a New Doctrine

“I submit there is a need for a new doctrine. We
do not wish nor need to be the world’s policeman, but a
world with no police is a dangerous place. We have no
architecture and therefore we have nothing to argue. The
result: This building with no floors has been unnerving.

“A bottom-up review whose basis was the bottom
line. Aspin had no view. Clinton has no view. Perry has
no power. Congress reflects it. [Chairman of the House
Budget Committee John] Kasich reflects it with his
dangerously budget-driven approach. He has no one to
account to.

“Absent a doctrine there are only circular
arguments. Nothing direct supports or challengers. With
no defined defense role his freeze takes on a logic of
its own….Thus it was that little alarm was raised, and
none in the public arena, when defense is proposed to be
underfunded by $150 billion. With no national purpose, it
is out of the political mind. Nobody knows what it cannot
do, because no one has designed what it is supposed to
do.

“What would such a doctrine contain?

“First, the safety of the Homeland is the
paramount obligation. This means the Strategic Defense
Initiative.

“Second, America has an interest in a world at
peace if only for economic reasons. If we cannot provide
the pillar of security for Europe and the Rim their
economic strength will drive their rearmament. Our
economic presence is sustained by our military presence.

“Third, we are a trading nation needing market
as well as access to supplies. Safe sea lanes, airways
are essential.

“Fourth, we are a communicating nation and that
means safe access to space.

“Fifth, we are a nation of travelers and
scholars. This requires our citizens’ confidence in our
ability to protect them.

“Sixth, we are a nation of conscience with an
interest in freedom. Not to impose it, but surely to
support it. We were and are told that democratic
liberation was an absurd part of the Cold War — but had
we not? What then?

Clinton’s Anti-Doctrine

“The Clinton Administration is uncertain of the
power of power and therefore of its use. They have become
an abuser of power, ceding its command, threatening its
use and then shirking from it. These actions invite
challenge and cynical responses — the latter not just
military but diplomatic as well. Note Korea, Iraq and now
Russia.

“The reasons for the Clinton Administration’s
uncertainty are obvious. Absent a policy, they don’t know
whom to support. They use armed forces for domestic
political purpose as in Somalia and Haiti and maybe the
Golan Heights. Their schizoid view of the military is
that it is detestable as a national instrument but
acceptable as a political instrument. As a consequence to
no fault of their own, the military is the less able
because it has no purpose. The Vice President regrets the
loss of lives in service to the United Nations. The
career becomes merely a job and therefore gays are
acceptable because no combat role is contemplated.

“Our allies can’t trust us and our enemies can
be miscalculating. The cost is to be measured in blood.
The ABM treaty is unilaterally sought to be made
multilateral. Our purpose is to defend allies but not
American citizens. Force is not an American tool but
American force is a multilateral tool. This is not
sustainable in a democracy.

“They are, as [Heritage Foundation Vice
President] Kim Holmes has called them, ‘Strategic Doves’
and ‘Humanitarian Hawks.’ They believe there to be no
U.S. interest worthy of force and no television picture
worth ignoring. Yet even these ‘Humanitarian Hawks’ get
cold claws when the going gets rough. This not only
confounds the reputation of the military but it draws
scorn on American purpose and policy. It invites
challenges and we see them in Iraq, Iran, Korea, and one
has to say it — Japan, who grows weekly less certain of
American resolve. Their support of North Korea is no
accident.

“Secretary Perry and President Clinton have
decided to save money by using the UN as the
force-multiplier. They seem to think the UN can save at
the budget box….But Secretary Perry forgets two
absolutes. One — it is not within the charter of the UN
and [two] even if it were, the collective ability to make
decisions is universally impossible.

“Our foreign policy seems as much as anything to
want to buy cooperation, democracy and tranquillity. A
poorish tool at any time, an idiotic one in times of
deficit. There remains no substitute for clear-eyed
policy goals with the courage to pursue them. It was the
one thing missing in the Gulf — a defined statement of
purpose. The quitting started early with no other
judgment than that of the press to satisfy. Through it,
we lost the opportunity to reduce Saddam to Quadaffi
status and elevate the Iraqi people.

Conclusion

“So now the job of statecraft is to return an
American greatness for an American reason. The world
cannot do without it and neither can we. Three times
in this century we turned our back on greatness and three
times the world returned to darkness, war and suffering.
Americans paid in blood and treasure for politics as a
substitute for statecraft.

“American security demands it. Jefferson defined
it: ‘We are not to be expected to be translated from
despotism to liberty in a featherbed. Whenever hostile
aggressions require a resort to war we must meet our duty
and convince the world we are just friends and brave
enemies.’

“From its very inception our country has found
great leaders in times of great need. If we are to remain
a beacon to the world, great and secure at home and
prosperous into the future, now is such a time.”