Deputy Secretary, United States Department of Defense

JOHN M. DEUTCH, Chair

Deputy Secretary, United States Department of Defense

John, thank you very much for a stimulating start to the day. I understand we will not have time to take questions for John this morning. Perhaps you can catch him at the break. I did speculate during the course of your very stimulating talk the fact that President Reagan used to "talk about trust, but verify," and it seems to me, if there is a slight twist on that, that what President Clinton and you and others are doing is building trust through transparency, cooperation, and verification. It is that building of trust that has been going on through transparency and cooperation that really makes the whole system sing. Ultimately, that whole process moves forward on the sure foundation of technical verification. That is the enabling force that technology can provide. We very much appreciate your talk this morning, and we will catch up with you as time goes on.

I have been waiting for this opportunity all my life and certainly for the last two years to moderate and regulate this distinguished group. I am going to thoroughly savor every moment of this session. I plan to run it with an iron fist and want to tell you about the way we propose to use the next 90 minutes.

What we have here is an absolutely remarkable case in America diplomatic history, where two legislators some years ago, actually during the prior Administration, I believe saw there was a different way to think about our security relationship with our old adversary, the Soviet Union, as well as the importance at growing down on weapons of mass destruction in that region of the world, and took a far-reaching and bipartisan approach to that problem. It has been remarkably important in my judgment in terms of the history of this country a different approach. To bring us to realization required a young man from California to come in and help implement it as quickly and rapidly as possible. It is the story of this program that is our subject this morning.

Our plan is to hear from our three speakers, and after that time to open the session to discussions, to address the issue about where this program goes from here, some of its difficulties, and some ways of making it stronger. I hope that all of you will participate and address your questions to our distinguished panelists. I would like to begin with Senator Lugar, the great senator from Indiana who is going to speak to us about this program. Thank you, sir.


Senator Richard G. Lugar
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