Memoirs
hope that we could develop this program to help the American construction and engineering
industry and also to help the quality of life throughout the world.
Unfortunately, the ability of the Chief of Engineers or even the Corps to expand this program
depended a great deal on funding and internal support. There was in the Corps, and in the
Executive Branch of government, a feeling that the talent of the Corps of Engineers had been
established to perform only those missions which were funded by the United States
government and primarily within the United States. These missions might be neglected if the
foreign program became too demanding of manpower assets. As a result, the international
initiative was constrained.
I mentioned the Suez Canal earlier, and there was a typical example where for just a few
thousand dollars the United States could have had a very major role in reconstruction of the
corridor from Port Said in the north down to Suez City at the southern end of the canal.
In addition to the constraints placed on the Corps because of manpower diversion, there was
a further constraint placed on the U.S. construction industry by U.S. tax laws. Whereas other
nations were actually subsidizing the construction industry seeking international work, our
government was tilting the playing field to the disadvantage of our industry. There was more
to it than just the people doing the work. In the Saudi program, as we will probably discuss
later, in addition to the work, all the materials and supplies were produced in the United
States. If we put up 10,000 homes, there were 10,000 refrigerators, 10,000 stoves, et cetera,
made in the United States.
The erosion during the 1970s of U.S. involvement in the international construction and
engineering fields was dramatic. In the
American contractors performed 90
percent of the work in Saudi Arabia. By 1980, I'd say
percent of it was by American
contractors. The Koreans with Korean government support took over most of the major jobs.
Morrison Knudsen lost an 0 million job to Sam Whan in Saudi Arabia. The Japanese
whipped American dredgers in dredging the Suez Canal and other areas of the world. The
Dutch government financed their contractors and actually financed some of the jobs to help
their contractors get work.
So the international initiative may have been a great idea in many ways, but the ability of the
Corps of Engineers to ensure American participation in the international arena became more
and more difficult. Even though our initiatives in this area increased, overriding counterforces
came into play. Ironically, the desire to have American effort never diminished on the part of
the countries which looked to the Corps. Unfortunately, the ability of the American
engineering and construction industry to respond became so constrained that the program
began to atrophy.
Q ..
During the 1970s the Corps came under a lot of criticism, especially from the environmental
community.
A
Somewhere in this dialogue we've got to talk about the Corps' image and reputation in the
public arena. In 1970 there were no problems finding articles critical of the Corps of
Engineers. It was a little frustrating because I believed then as now that as people know the
Corps better, opposition diminishes proportionately. The better they knew us, the better they
liked or at least understood us. So we had a real challenge in developing such an
understanding.
I felt it was important to take advantage of every opportunity to speak to every group which
asked us, whether they were opponents or friends. I welcomed appearances before the Sierra
Club, the Wildlife Federation, Friends of the Earth, Ducks Unlimited, whatever. Sometimes
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