Paul Dundes Wolfowitz, who promoted the Office, was not a political hack:
Paul Dundes Wolfowitz, the current Deputy Secretary of Defense (and assistant to Richard Bruce Dick Cheney, is considered to be one of the most prominent and "hawkish" (neo-conservatives). He is the principal author of the "Wolfowitz doctrine", also known as the Bush doctrine.
He is a long time member of the Project for the New American Century think tank and was one of the signers of the January 26, 1998 PNAC letter sent to President William Jefferson Clinton.[1] He is believed to be a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. His expertise is with the Middle East and Asia.
Wolfowitz has ties to Northrop Grumman. He is also on the board of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and is a former Dean at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University, Wolfowitz is currently listed as an instructor at the school.
Also see Wikipedia article: Paul Wolfowitz and dkosopedia article: Paul Dundes Wolfowitz
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The following was taken from the November/December 2003 issue of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists's article "Neocons: The men behind the curtain" by Khurram Husain. See full article for more on Wolfowitz.
Albert Wohlstetter "left Rand for academia in 1962, eventually settling down at the University of Chicago in 1964. It was here that he met a bright young graduate student in political science—Paul Wolfowitz. Wolfowitz was drawn to Wohlstetter's intellect and temperament and began working under his supervision.
"Wolfowitz picked up where Wohlstetter left off. Where Wohlstetter had warned of preparing for a rearmed Russia and a nuclear China, Wolfowitz considered the third dimension along which nuclear strategy would evolve: proliferation.
"Wolfowitz wrote his dissertation on nuclear proliferation in the Middle East. He argued that the United States needed to look beyond simply defending traditional allies against the communist bloc. Areas with natural resources vital to the U.S. economy ought to be as much a part of a strategic defense umbrella, and anybody with the capability to threaten those areas must be regarded with concern. In true Wohlstetter fashion, Wolfowitz argued that even the hint of nuclear weapons in the Middle East would be a matter of the gravest concern.
"In 1969, in the thick of the ABM debate, Wohlstetter summoned Wolfowitz and Richard Perle, another protégé, to help him gather the information he needed to wage the Safeguard campaign. Housed in the offices of Sen. Henry Scoop Jackson, a Washington State Democrat and military hawk, Wolfowitz and Perle conducted interviews and drafted a report.
"Wohlstetter's two young acolytes were quickly immersed in the world of Washington politics. Wolfowitz entered government service as a junior officer in the Middle East section of the Defense Department and quickly rose through the ranks to head the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency under Presidents Gerald R. Ford and Jimmy Carter."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"He is a veteran of both the Ronald Reagan and George Herbert Walker Bush Administrations. At the beginning of the Reagan Administration, he served as Director of Policy Planning for the Department of State and then as Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs. In 1986, he was appointed U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Indonesia. Under President George Herbert Walker Bush, Wolfowitz served as Undersecretary of Defense for Policy. He is graduate of Cornell University. He received both his Master's degree and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago." ...Wolfowitz, Ph.D., is Dean and Professor of International Relations at The Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington; and was "Reagan's Man in Indonesia".
From 1973-1977, Wolfowitz held a variety of positions in the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency including Special Assistant to the Director for the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks. From 1977 to 1980, he was Director of Policy Planning for the Jimmy Carter State Department, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense. From 1982 through 1986, he was Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs. From 1986 to 1989 Wolfowitz was the U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Indonesia. During the Bush administration, Wolfowitz was Dick Cheney's Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, the principal civilian official responsible for strategy, plans and policy.
Wolfowitz, a "hawkish" conservative military analyst under Ronald Reagan, had in the 1990s, during the Clinton presidency formulated a new foreign policy with regard to Iraq and other "potential aggressor states", dismissing "containment" in favor of "preemption"; strike first to eliminate threats. Clinton, along with Bush Senior, Colin L. Powell, and other former Bush administration officials, dismissed calls for "preemption" in favor of continued "containment." This was the policy of George Walker Bush as well for his first several months in office. Many saw Wolfowitz'z plan as a "blueprint for US hegemony" and his "preemption" policy remained contained until the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 revived hawkish advocacy for defending by attacking.
disinfopedia.org |
