Wohlstetter — The Ultimate Pocket-Book Election Issue: Clinton Is Inviting Costly International Conflicts

(Washington, D.C.): The editorial page
of the Wall Street Journal
rendered a great public service yesterday
by publishing a seminal article by
Professor Albert Wohlstetter on the state
of the world — and its implications for
the United States in Election ’96, and
beyond. Dr. Wohlstetter’s
characteristically brilliant and
provocative essay concludes: “The
role of Mr. Clinton’s comprehensive peace
process in spreading pan-national
disorder and genocide should be the main
issue in the presidential campaign. It
affects our pocketbooks, our safety and
our conscience.”

Albert Wohlstetter is a certified
national treasure as a recipient (along
with his wife Roberta — a distinguished
national security analyst and author in
her own right) of the Presidential Medal
of Freedom. The Center for Security
Policy is also proud that Dr. Wohlstetter
accepted its “Freedom Flame”
award in 1993 in recognition of his more
than five decades of service to the
Nation’s public policy.

Albert Wohlstetter’s latest
contribution, entitled “The Cold War
is Over and Over and…” is but the
most recent evidence of his unparalleled
strategic vision and his courageous
willingness to speak truth to power,
however unwelcome it might be. While
his principal critique is reserved for
President Clinton’s reckless misconduct
of American security policy, Dr.
Wohlstetter also offers a scathing
assessment of the myopic view of some of
Robert Dole’s campaign planners who
insist that the Republican candidate
focus exclusively on the crime, drugs and
tax cut issues.

Perhaps the most telling insight in
the latter regard is his observation that
presidential mismanagement of the
U.S. national security and foreign policy
portfolios can have real and devastating
implications for the American economy and
electorate. These implications
could well overshadow the benefits hoped
for from this tax plan or that
budget-balancing scheme; in fact, they
could wind up more than neutralizing
any such benefits. As Dr. Wohlstetter
puts it:

“Neither Mr. Clinton’s nor
Mr. Dole’s economic plan is likely to
show a clearly visible substantial
effect any time soon. Nothing like
the sudden and drastic effects of
potential wars. These might vary from
large world-wide oil shocks like that
of 1973 to the destruction of an
American city by a sea-launched
cruise or ballistic missile.”

The Center understands that
yesterday’s essay is intended to be the
first of a series by Dr. Wohlstetter
exploring at greater length specific
concerns about the likely strategic
repercussions of botched U.S. policies
concerning Iraq, the Balkans and Russia
and the former Soviet Republics. It
anticipates that these op.ed. articles —
like “The Cold War is Over and Over
and…” — should be considered required
reading for the entire American body
politic.

– 30 –