Difference between revisions of "Fred C. Iklé"

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[[Fred C. Iklé]] was US Undersecretary of Defense for Policy during under [[Ronald Reagan]].<ref>[http://csis.org/expert/fred-c-iklé Fred C. Iklé], Center for Strategic and International Studies, accessed 14 March 2010.</ref>
 
[[Fred C. Iklé]] was US Undersecretary of Defense for Policy during under [[Ronald Reagan]].<ref>[http://csis.org/expert/fred-c-iklé Fred C. Iklé], Center for Strategic and International Studies, accessed 14 March 2010.</ref>
  
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==Background===
 
From 1964 to 1967, Iklé was a professor of political science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.<ref>[http://csis.org/expert/fred-c-iklé Fred C. Iklé], Center for Strategic and International Studies, accessed 14 March 2010.</ref>
 
From 1964 to 1967, Iklé was a professor of political science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.<ref>[http://csis.org/expert/fred-c-iklé Fred C. Iklé], Center for Strategic and International Studies, accessed 14 March 2010.</ref>
  
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==Reagan Administration==
 
According to Frances Fitzgerald, [[Caspar Weinberger]]'s lack of experience in the portfolio meant that the appointments to the Department of Defense were heavily influenced by Senate republicans and conservative campaign advisors. Iklé's appointment was one product of this, as were the appointments of [[John Lehman, Jr.]] and [[Richard Perle]]. All three had been allies in the seventies and involved with the [[Committee on the Present Danger]].<ref>Frances Fitzgerald, Way Out There in the Blue: Reagan: Star Wars and the End of the Cold War, Touchstone, 2000, p.294.</ref>
 
According to Frances Fitzgerald, [[Caspar Weinberger]]'s lack of experience in the portfolio meant that the appointments to the Department of Defense were heavily influenced by Senate republicans and conservative campaign advisors. Iklé's appointment was one product of this, as were the appointments of [[John Lehman, Jr.]] and [[Richard Perle]]. All three had been allies in the seventies and involved with the [[Committee on the Present Danger]].<ref>Frances Fitzgerald, Way Out There in the Blue: Reagan: Star Wars and the End of the Cold War, Touchstone, 2000, p.294.</ref>
  

Revision as of 11:22, 14 March 2010

Fred C. Iklé was US Undersecretary of Defense for Policy during under Ronald Reagan.[1]

Background=

From 1964 to 1967, Iklé was a professor of political science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[2]

Reagan Administration

According to Frances Fitzgerald, Caspar Weinberger's lack of experience in the portfolio meant that the appointments to the Department of Defense were heavily influenced by Senate republicans and conservative campaign advisors. Iklé's appointment was one product of this, as were the appointments of John Lehman, Jr. and Richard Perle. All three had been allies in the seventies and involved with the Committee on the Present Danger.[3]

Iklé complained about the CIA's Office of Soviet Analysis after it revised down its estimate of Soviet military spending in 1983.[4]

SDI

In 1985, Iklé told the Senate Armed Services Committee: "The Strategic Defense Initiative is not an optional program, at the margin of the defense efffort. It's central, at the very core of our long term policy for reducing the risk of nuclear war."[5]

In April 1985, after a Pentagon report raised doubts about the admissibility of SDI under the ABM Treaty, Iklé and Perle hired Philip Kunsberg, a New York lawyer with no experience of arms control, who reached a contrary opinion.[6]

Afghanistan

From early 1985, Iklé was an influential member of the Policy Review Group which controlled US covert action in Afghanistan.[7] At one meeting that spring he suggested that US planes should drop weapons into Afghanistan by parachute.

Someone asked: What if the Russians begin shooting down the U.S. planes and ignite World War III? "Hmmm," Iklé answered, according to Thomas Twetten, a senior officer in the CIA's clandestine service. "World War III. That's not such a bad idea." If he said such a thing , Ikle said later, he must have been kidding. But Twetten remembered "a roomful of dumbstruck people."[8]

Iklé and Michael Pillsbury visited Islamabad on 30 April 1985 to brief ISI chief General Akhtar Abdur Rahman on the planned expansion of US covert action in Afghanistan.[9]

Affiliations

Conferences

External Resources

Notes

  1. ↑ Fred C. Iklé, Center for Strategic and International Studies, accessed 14 March 2010.
  2. ↑ Fred C. Iklé, Center for Strategic and International Studies, accessed 14 March 2010.
  3. ↑ Frances Fitzgerald, Way Out There in the Blue: Reagan: Star Wars and the End of the Cold War, Touchstone, 2000, p.294.
  4. ↑ Frances Fitzgerald, Way Out There in the Blue: Reagan: Star Wars and the End of the Cold War, Touchstone, 2000, p.330.
  5. ↑ Frances Fitzgerald, Way Out There in the Blue: Reagan: Star Wars and the End of the Cold War, Touchstone, 2000, p.243.
  6. ↑ Frances Fitzgerald, Way Out There in the Blue: Reagan: Star Wars and the End of the Cold War, Touchstone, 2000, p.295.
  7. ↑ Steve Coll, Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001, Penguin, 2005, p.126.
  8. ↑ Steve Coll, Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001, Penguin, 2005, p.128.
  9. ↑ Steve Coll, Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001, Penguin, 2005, p.126.
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