Engineer Memoirs
The Shah couldn't afford the ships, anyway. I don't know how that all would have
come out. But the only place that I saw that the ceiling ever had any possible effect was
in this Iranian ship sale.
Just to finish up this subject, actually, what I did--I don't remember that I ever got any
explicit instructions, but it was the way I viewed my mission--was to make absolutely
certain that we spent the ceiling.
The reason for that was that the Defense Department was very concerned that if we
failed to spend as much as the ceiling allowed, the amount by which we underran would
be subtracted from the ceiling for the succeeding year. They could see a squeeze going
on. They felt strongly that we needed the ability to make these sales in order to pursue
U.S. policy.
Everybody in the Pentagon thought from the word go we were going to need it. Then
Camp David came along and the thing was thrown in the ash can. It was not thrown in
the ash can physically because the ceiling remained on the books. But they stopped
making speeches about it and talking about it. By the time you get into 1980, the Carter
administration was using arms transfers to pursue its foreign policy as much as any
government that we've ever had.
Q:
So they learned?
A:
Yes.
Q:
They never said they learned, but they did?
A:
They never said they learned. Carter may have felt in his heart that it was still wrong.
But he did what he had to do.
Q:
What is the role of the defense firms themselves? Do they play a role in generating
foreign demand?
A:
They certainly do. And that was one of the controversial aspects of the Carter policy.
Under the Carter policy, they had what was called the "leprosy letter." This letter was
a letter that was sent to all the ambassadors giving guidance on restricting contractor
activity that might lead to arms sales, and specifically the embassy was not to do
anything on behalf of a contractor who was there for the purpose of selling arms.
They were not to help him arrange appointments or provide any other courtesies if his
purpose was selling arms. This upset everybody, including some of the embassies
because the embassies perceived that the trade in arms was important as a political
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