The Coalition to Protect Americans Now

March 23, 2000

The Honorable George W. Bush
George W. Bush for President
2600 Lake Austin Boulevard
Number 7208
Austin, Texas 78703

Dear Governor Bush:

Today marks the 17th anniversary of President Reagan’s announcement of his Strategic Defense Initiative, a fitting occasion to commend you for your remarks to date on the pressing need to protect our families from ballistic missile attack. Your commitment to realize President Reagan’s dream of saving lives, rather than avenging them, is necessary because the United States still lacks the deployed capability to destroy even one incoming missile.

We believe that this lack of protection places America’s families and the Nation’s vital interests unacceptably at risk today. And the danger of such a missile attack is increasing inexorably. For example, the People’s Republic of China has threatened American cities with nuclear destruction over Taiwan. North Korea is poised to acquire ballistic missiles of sufficient range to reach much, if not all, of the American homeland. Russia, China and North Korea are assisting other rogue states to obtain weapons of mass destruction and the missiles with which to deliver them to ever-longer distances. U.S. intelligence believes that more than 25 countries have or are acquiring weapons of mass destruction and their delivery systems.

Despite this clear and present danger — to say nothing of President Clinton’s signature last August on legislation declaring U.S. policy to require the deployment of an effective National Missile Defense “as soon as technologically possible” — the Clinton-Gore Administration persists in deferring a decision to deploy such a defense. Even if Mr. Clinton does make that decision later this year, it will take at least five years to construct the limited missile defense system in Alaska that he appears to espouse. This deployment may well prove to be too late, as well as too little, to provide the kind of anti-missile protection that Americans not only expect, but deserve.

Fortunately, we do not have to accept this dangerous “window of vulnerability.” If directed to do so — and freed from the restraints of a treaty signed twenty-eight years ago with the Soviet Union (a country that ceased to exist in 1991) — the U.S. military could rapidly develop and bring on-line a sea-based anti-missile system based on the Navy’s Aegis fleet air defense system. Such a system could provide interim protection for our people and their forces and allies overseas until such time as more comprehensive ground-, air- and/or space-based defenses become available. In this case good policy is also good politics: polls show nearly three-quarters of the American people support the deployment of missile defenses and by similar margins will choose candidates who pledge to deploy such systems.

The Clinton-Gore Administration, however, insists that the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty remains in force and precludes the United States from having any effective defense of its territory and people. Worse, it is actively pursuing a new treaty with Russia that would foreclose U.S. options to build competent anti-missile protection.

The Coalition to Protect Americans Now believes that the United States can ill-afford to wait for five years (or longer) to begin deploying missile defenses for the American people. Neither can it safely agree to a new arms control agreement entailing additional limitations on its options for protecting the men, women and children of America.

Accordingly, we call upon you to make the following two pledges defining elements of your campaign and, upon your election, of your presidency:

1) the immediate initiation of the deployment of a sea-based defense as a starting point for more comprehensive anti-missile protection for the American people; and

2) the rejection of the Clinton-Gore Administration’s premise, embodied in the obsolete ABM Treaty and underpinning its efforts to negotiate a new treaty restricting U.S. missile defenses — namely, that any other country may exercise a veto over this country’s ability to defend its people.

Governor Bush, we thank and depend on you for your leadership on this issue.

Sincerely,

Hon. Caspar Weinberger
former Secretary of Defense, and Chairman, Forbes

Amb. Jeane Kirkpatrick
former U.S. Representative to the United Nations, and Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute

Hon. Edwin Meese, III
former U.S. Attorney General, Ronald Reagan Distinguished Fellow in Public Policy, The Heritage Foundation

Hon. William Clark
former National Security Advisor and Secretary of Interior

Steve Forbes
Publisher
Forbes

Hon. William Schneider
former Under Secretary of State, and Member, The Commission to Assess the Ballistic Missile Threat to the United States

Hon. Paula J. Dobriansky
former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, and Vice President/Washington Director, The Council on Foreign Relations

Amb. Henry Cooper
former Director, Strategic Defense Initiative Organization, and Chairman, High Frontier

Lt. Gen. Edward Rowny, USA (Ret.)
former U.S. Ambassador to START Talks

Hon. Michelle Van Cleave
former Associate Director, Office of Science and Technology for National Security, and President, National Security Consultants, Inc.

Hon. Gerald Solomon
United States Representative (Retired)

Hon. Malcolm Wallop
United States Senator (Retired)

Midge Decter
former President, Committee for the Free World

Norman Podhoretz
former Editor, Commentary

Jeffrey Taylor
Director of Government Relations
Christian Coalition

Gary Bauer
former White House Domestic Policy Advisor, and Chairman, Campaign for Working Families

Hon. William Graham
former White House Science Advisor, and Member, The Commission to Assess the Ballistic Missile Threat to the United States

Adm. Leon ‘Bud’ Edney, USN (Ret.)
former Supreme Allied Commander, Atlantic

Adm. Wesley McDonald, USN (Ret.)
former Supreme Allied Commander, Atlantic

Adm. J.D. Williams, USN (Ret.)
former Deputy Chief of Naval Operations, Naval Warfare

Hon. Bruce Weinrod
former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense

Hon. Kenneth deGraffenreid
former Senior Director of Intelligence Programs, National Security Council, and Professor, Institute of World Politics

Phyllis Schlafly
President
Eagle Forum

Anita Blair
Former Chairman, Congressional Commission on Military Training and Gender-Related Issues, and President, Independent Women’s Forum

Grover Norquist
President
Americans for Tax Reform

David Keene
Chairman
American Conservative Union

Paul Weyrich
President
Free Congress Foundation

L. Brent Bozell, III
President
Conservative Victory Committee

Morton C. Blackwell
Chairman
Conservative Leadership PAC

Terrance Scanlon
President
Capital Research Center

James Martin
President
60 Plus Association

Amy Ridenour
President
The National Center for Public Policy Research

C. Preston Noell
President
Tradition, Family, Property, Inc.

Tom DeWeese
President
American Policy Center

Major F. Andy Messing, Jr., USA (Ret.)
Executive Director
National Defense Council Foundation

Larry Arnn
President
The Claremont Institute

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.
former Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense, and President, Center for Security Policy

Barbara Ledeen
Director of Policy
Independent Women’s Forum

Brian Kennedy
Vice President
The Claremont Institute

Roger W. Robinson, Jr.
former Senior Director of International Economic Affairs at the National Security Council, and William J. Casey Chair, Center for Security Policy

Jeffrey T. Salmon
George C. Marshall Institute

Dr. Edward Teller
former Senior Strategic Defense Advisor to the White House

Diana Denman
former Co-Chair, U.S. Peace Corps Advisory Council

Elaine Donnelly
President
Center for Military Readiness

Hon. Charles M. Lichenstein
former Alternate U.S. Representative to the United Nations for Special Political Affairs, and Distinguished Fellow, The Heritage Foundation

Dr. Daniel Pipes
Director
Middle East Forum

Kim R. Holmes
Vice President and Director, Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute
The Heritage Foundation

Christopher A. Wysocki
President
Small Business Survival Committee

David Rothbard
President
Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow

Harry Valentine
President
Capitol Hill Prayer Alert

Abby Moffat
Trustee
Kathryn and Shelby Collum Davis Foundation

Lewis Uhler
President
National Tax Limitation Committee

George Landrith
Executive Director
Frontiers of Freedom

Kevin Kearns
President
U.S. Business and Industrial Council

Tom Mead
Executive Director
Coalition to Protect Americans Now

Telly Lovelace
Vice President
Coalition on Urban Renewal and Education

Adrian Cronauer
National Vietnam and Gulf War Veterans

Joan Hueter
President
American Council for Immigration Reform

W. Thomas Kelly
President
Savers and Investors League

Gordon S. Jones
President
Association of Concerned Taxpayers

Hon. Richard V. Allen**
former National Security Advisor