Summary of Casey/Hoover Symposium on the Winning of the Cold War Offers Lessons About The Conduct of Clinton’s War

(Washington, D.C.): President Clinton’s failure to conceive, articulate and execute a strategy
for
dealing with Serbia’s Communist dictator, Slobodan Milosevic, is becoming more palpable by the
day. As the costs of such a failure — measured in terms of national prestige, treasure and interests
— inexorably continue to mount, it is instructive to contrast this President’s conduct with that of
his predecessor, Ronald Reagan, who successfully confronted a far more dangerous and
formidable adversary: the Soviet Union at the height of its Cold War power.

Eloquent testimony to Mr. Reagan’s principled strategic vision and his unwavering
commitment
to its realization — qualities so markedly absent in today’s White House — is offered by the Center
for Security Policy in a summary released today of the proceedings
of an impressive symposium
on “The Fall of the Berlin Wall: Reassessing the Causes and Consequences of the End
of
the Cold War.” The symposium was held on 22 February at Washington’s Willard Hotel
under
the sponsorship of the Center’s William J. Casey Institute and the
Hoover Institution for
War, Revolution and Peace.

Before an audience of over 300 former Reagan Administration officials and other security
policy-practitioners, scholars, industry leaders and members of the press, several of the key
architects of
President Reagan’s strategy for defeating the “Evil Empire” offered extraordinary insights into the
roots of that strategy and the steps taken to effect its implementation. Among those participating
were: Hon. Richard V. Allen, Candidate Reagan’s chief foreign policy advisor
and President
Reagan’s first National Security Advisor; Hon. William P. Clark, President
Reagan’s second
National Security Advisor, former Deputy Secretary of State and former Secretary of the Interior;
Hon. Edwin Meese III, former Counselor to the President and Attorney
General under President
Reagan; Dr. Fred Ikl, President Reagan’s Under Secretary of Defense
for Policy; and the Casey
Institute’s William J. Casey Chair, Hon. Roger W. Robinson, Jr. Mr. Robinson
was formerly
Senior Director of International Economic Affairs at the Reagan NSC.

The symposium was preceded by an elegant luncheon at which the family of the late William
J.
Casey presented Mr. Casey’s papers to the Hoover Institution archives. The luncheon featured
introductory remarks by Herbert Hoover III, Chairman of the Board of
Overseers at the Hoover
Institute; Mr. Meese and Mr. Casey’s daughter, Bernadette Casey Smith.
Following a moving
tribute to her father, Mrs. Smith was joined by her mother, Mrs. Sophia Casey,
in formally
turning over the former CIA Director’s personal papers to the Hoover Institution.

The Casey papers constitute a particularly rich collection, documenting half-a-century of key
events in American history — many of which were critically shaped by this extraordinary man
during a lifetime of public service and brilliant success on Wall Street. The collection will become
a permanent part of the Hoover Institution Archives, the largest private repository in the world on
social, economic, and political change.