Ernest Graves
She was one of the leaders in formulating the Carter policy which was announced on
May 19, 1977, that the transfer of arms would be considered an exceptional tool of
foreign policy and would be used only in exceptional circumstances. The policy paper
propounded a whole series of restrictions on the transfer of arms.
They pursued that pretty hard at the beginning of the administration as we may have
discussed earlier. But when it came to the Camp David negotiation, it became clear, and
I am sure people like [Cyrus] Vance, probably [Zbigniew] Brzezinski, Brown, made it
clear to President Carter what he was up against. Of course, the President was
intimately involved in the negotiations himself.
He made his trip to the Middle East, conducted the Camp David talks himself. He was
smart enough to see that this was really the quid pro quo in terms of U.S.
assistance--to make each of these countries feel the security, not only the physical
security of the additional arms, but the symbolic and psychological security of the tie
to the United States. If Israel felt that it could count on U.S. arms and Egypt felt that
it could count on U.S. arms, then the uncertainties of this peace arrangement were
diminished for them.
It's a classic example of the way in which military aid is an important factor in our
relations with other governments and has political implications far beyond any
increment of military capability. Once the Carter administration had done this, used the
aid in this way, they began to see that that was the way to get things done, and it tended
to spill over into their relations all over the world.
Q:
Forced them to look at and modify their initial--
A:
Interestingly enough, they never modified any of their pronouncements. They just
stopped talking about them.
Q:
They just modified their practice, is that what it comes to?
A:
When there were press or other media inquiries about what was going on, they would
duck it. The policy enunciated in 1977 was still on the books when the Reagan
administration came into office. I immediately started urging the people of the new
administration to change this. That wasn't their highest priority and they didn't get
around to it until the summer.
Q:
Secretary Brown did make this offer in September or October of 1978, and when did
DSAA start to get involved in it?
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