Dupes

by Paul Kengor

  100. David Remnick, “Dead Souls,” New York Review of Books, December 19, 1991, 79.

  101. Trofimenko in Hofstra Conference, 136.

  Chapter 20: “Star Wars”: The SDI Sabotage

  1. This is the subject of my book The Crusader. In particular, see parts 2 and 3.

  2. The three crucial NSDDs that solidified this effort between May 1982 and March 1983 were NSDDs 32, 66, and 75.

  3. G. Dadyants, “Pipes Threatens History,” Sotsialisticheskaya Industriya, March 26, 1983, 3, published as “New Directive on USSR Trade ‘Threatens History,’” in FBIS, March 29, 1983, A6–7. Also: Two releases from the Moscow Domestic Service were released at 1940 and 2015 GMT on March 17, 1983. Transcripts are published as “ȈEconomic, Military Blackmail’” and “Directive 75 ’Subversive’ Anti-Soviet Plan” in FBIS, March 18, 1983, A8–9.

  4. Dadyants, “Pipes Threatens History.”

  5. Reagan, An American Life, 237–38.

  6. Meyer was special assistant to the CIA director from 1981 to 1987 and vice chair of the National Intelligence Council, a prestigious seat at the CIA, where he observed the full scope of the Reagan strategy against the USSR. I would list Meyer along with Roger Robinson at the National Security Council as the top behind-the-scenes players, with the major out-in-front figures being Bill Clark, Caspar Weinberger, Ed Meese, and Bill Casey. Robinson often used the phrase “take-down,” as did Clark. I write about this in both The Judge and The Crusader.

  7. Interview with Herb Meyer, February 29, 2008.

  8. Ibid.

  9. Ibid.

  10. Ibid.

  11. See, for example, Reagan, “Remarks to Administration Supporters at a White House Briefing on Arms Control, Central America, and the Supreme Court,” November 23, 1987; Reagan, “Remarks at a Luncheon Hosted by the Heritage Foundation,” November 30, 1987; and Reagan, “Remarks to the Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis at a Conference on the Strategic Defense Initiative, March 14, 1988,” Presidential Papers, 1988, 331.

  12. Interview with Meyer, February 29, 2008.

  13. For a sample of testimonies, see Kengor, The Crusader, 300–2.

  14. Alexander Bessmertnykh speaking on “Reagan,” The American Experience, PBS, 1998. Note: This book could be filled with such testimonies, from the Russian in the street, to military officials, to apparatchiks, to the Soviet ministry, to Gorbachev. I cut twenty pages of testimonies from this chapter.

  15. See Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, “Retrospective on the End of the Cold War,” A Conference Sponsored by the John Foster Dulles Program for the Study of Leadership in International Affairs, Princeton, NJ, February 25–27, 1993; and Bruce Olson, “SDI, Chernobyl Said to Break Cycle of Nuclear Buildup,” Executive News Service, February 26, 1993. His remarks are also published in Wohlforth, ed., Witnesses to the End of the Cold War, 31–32.

  16. Trofimenko in Hofstra Conference, 138.

  17. “They are in very bad shape,” wrote Reagan in his diary on March 26, 1982, “and if we can cut off their credit they'll have to yell ‘Uncle’ or starve.” Reagan, An American Life, 316.

  18. Anatoly Dobrynin, In Confidence (New York: Random House, 1995), 591.

  19. Donald Regan, For the Record (San Diego, CA: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1988), 297.

  20. Kenneth W. Thompson, ed., Leadership in the Reagan Presidency, Pt II: Eleven Intimate Perspectives (Lanham, MD: United Press of America, 1993), 52.

  21. George Wilson, “Senate Refuses to Slash ‘Star Wars’ Funding,” Washington Post, June 5, 1988, A30; and Tom Burgess, “Differing Viewpoints on SDI,” San Diego Union-Tribune, October 22, 1986, A10.

  22. See Lou Cannon, “President Seeks Futuristic Defense Against Missiles,” Washington Post, March 24, 1983, A1; Hedrick Smith, “Would a Space-Age Defense Ease Tensions or Create Them?” New York Times, March 27, 1983; Francis X. Clines, “Democrats Assert Reagan Is Using ‘Star Wars’ Scare to Hide Blunders,” New York Times, March 25, 1983; David B. Wilson, “How Reagan's ‘Star Wars’ Got Its Name,” Boston Globe, January 27, 1985; and Morris, Dutch, 477. For further documentation on Kennedy's statement, see Congressional Quarterly: “Reagan on Defense in Space,” Historic Documents of 1983 (Washington, DC: CQ Press, 1984), 306. Among these, David B. Wilson, a columnist for the Globe’s op-ed page, claimed credit for coining the term “Star Wars” in an earlier application (March 1982) he made to missile defense. He speculated whether the phrase may have been “consciously or unconsciously borrowed” by Kennedy or his staff, though he could not confirm it. (Wilson, unlike Kennedy, didn't use the phrase as a pejorative.) Either way, it was Kennedy who first used the term in response to Reagan's proposal.

  23. Lou Cannon, almost certainly with some measure of regret, once advanced this unsustainable argument, which at best is pure speculation, with no documentable attestation either from Reagan's writings or statements or from any of those who worked with or advised Reagan on SDI. See Cannon, President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime, 251. Another book that makes reference to Reagan, Brass Bancroft, and their “Inertia Projector” was Way Out There in the Blue by the New York Times’s Frances FitzGerald. See Frances FitzGerald, Way Out There in the Blue: Reagan, Star Wars, and the End of the Cold War (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000), 22–23, 40, 47–49. The FitzGerald book is of the genre that saw Reagan as a dunce not to be taken seriously. In fact, Reagan's thinking on SDI is clearly rooted in other sources, particularly a 1967 meeting with physicist Edward Teller at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and a 1979 visit to NORAD, among others. See Kengor, The Crusader, 177–80.

  24. See Clines, “Democrats Assert Reagan Is Using ‘Star Wars’ Scare to Hide Blunders.” The dateline on the story is listed as “Washington, March 24.” The hardcopy version ran March 25. The reporter wrote and filed the story on March 24, as did the editor who submitted the headline. This was the same day as Kennedy's comment.

  25. Quoted in Clines, “Democrats Assert Reagan Is Using ‘Star Wars’ Scare to Hide Blunders.”

  26. McGrory wrote this in her syndicated column that followed the Reagan speech. It was distributed in most newspapers on March 27–28, 1983. See also Mary McGrory, “The Stars Spoke on Capitol Hill,” Washington Post, May 5, 1988.

  27. Quoted in McGrory, “The Stars Spoke on Capitol Hill.”

  28. Sagan said this publicly at a scientific colloquium, speaking as part of a panel discussion. The laughter in the middle and end of his quote was loud. This is captured on film in the documentary In the Face of Evil: Reagan's War in Word and Deed, done in 2005 by American Vantage Media in association with Capital Films, produced by Tim Watkins and Stephen K. Bannon, based on Peter Schweizer's book Reagan's War.

  29. Herb Meyer speaking at the Third Annual Ronald Reagan Lecture, Grove City College, Grove City, PA, February 5, 2009.

  30. In 1970 the CIA helped Bezmenov leave India, where he had been stationed on diplomatic assignment. He eventually made his way to Canada and by the mid-1980s was working as a writer and political analyst in Los Angeles under the name Tomas D. Schuman. See Jay Mathews, “Group Sets Safety Net to Snatch Defectors at Olympic Games,” Washington Post, April 14, 1984, A1. Bezmenov was born in 1939. According to online sources, he died in 1997.

  31. Interview by G. Edward Griffin, Soviet Subversion of the Free Press: A Conversation with Yuri Bezmenov (Westlake Village, CA: American Media, 1984). The entire hour-plus video is available online at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2307456730142665916#.

  32. Bezmenov discusses Kennedy approximately forty-five minutes into the interview.

  33. Bezmenov did not give the date of the wedding or the photo. It isn't completely clear from his comments whether Bezmenov arranged or was present for this particular wedding. The Soviets staged weddings throughout the Cold War. See “Comrades Have Lovely Soviet Wedding; But Irked Party Finds It Was a Fraud,” New York Times, March 10, 1958.

  34. Tracking down Kennedy's visits to Mo
scow is difficult. Articles from the New York Times during this period show that he was in the Soviet Union in 1974, 1978, and 1986: Clyde Haberman, “After Six Years, the Soviets Set Exit Date for Leviches,” New York Times, November 24, 1978; Wayne King and Warren Weaver Jr., “Travels with Kennedy,” New York Times, February 1, 1986; and Bernard Gwertzman, “Kennedy Starts Soviet Visit Looking for a Resolution of Emigration Cases,” New York Times, February 5, 1986.

  35. The other two journalists were Harrison Salisbury and David Brinkley, with Brinkley being the odd man among an otherwise very left-of-center group.

  36. “Guide to Subversive Organizations and Publications (and Appendices), revised and published December 1, 1961, to supersede Guide published on January 2, 1957 (including Index),” 117–18.

  37. Kincaid has posted the document at his website, along with supporting background material. See “Cronkite Named as Soviet Target by FBI in ‘Active Measures’ Document,” May 17, 2010, posted at www.usasurvival.org, specifically: http://www.usasurvival.org/docs/cronkite.pdf.

  38. “Teddy, the KGB and the Top Secret File,” Sunday Times (London), February 2, 1992.

  39. The only sources that talked about the revelation were conservative talk-radio outlets. No matter how much we tried, from my own efforts to those of publicists, we could not get mainstream news outlets to touch the story, even in a critical way. The sole exception was the CN8 cable news outlet, based in Philadelphia. CN8 went so far as to get a response from Kennedy's office, which did not deny the legitimacy document, arguing instead with its “interpretation.” It was not clear if that referred to my interpretation or Chebrikov's interpretation. Chebrikov is dead.

  40. See my discussion of this earlier episode in Chapter 18.

  41. See, for example, Martha Bebinger, “Edward Kennedy, the Senate's Last Lion, Is Dead at 77,” wbur.org, August 26, 2009; and Peter S. Canellos, ed., Last Lion:The Fall and Rise of Ted Kennedy (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2009).

  42. In March 1983, speaking at a “nuclear freeze” rally in Washington, Senator Kennedy said: “I wish that we had an administration that was more concerned with preventing nuclear war and less concerned in preparing for nuclear war.” Frank Warner, “New Word Order,” Morning Call (Allentown, PA), March 5, 2000, A1.

  43. Edward M. Kennedy, “A State of Disunion,” Rolling Stone, March 15, 1984, 11–12. It is not clear whether Kennedy meant a “wider war” in Central America, which he mentioned in the previous sentence, or a “winnable nuclear conflict” generally, which he referred to in the next sentence.

  44. “Soviet Treaty Violations: Hearing Before the Committee on Armed Services,” United States Senate, 98th Congress, Second Session, March 14, 1984 (Washington, DC: GPO, 1984), 1.

  45. Steven R. Weisman, “Now, Talk of New Strains Among the Top Aides,” New York Times, March 31, 1983.

  46. Reagan, “The President's News Conference, January 9, 1985,” Presidential Papers, 1985, vol. 1, 26.

  47. In addition to Helen Thomas at UPI, Washington Post White House correspondent Loy Cannon used the phrase. See, for example, Lou Cannon, “Too Many Simple Answers,” Washington Post, October 28, 1985, A2.

  48. Reagan, “The President's News Conference, January 9, 1985.”

  49. See Kengor, The Crusader, 66–68.

  50. Adelman quoted in Knott and Chidester, At Reagan's Side, 105.

  51. Here I am drawing from pages 182–84 of The Crusader.

  52. “Moscow TV's 30 June ‘Studio 9’ Program,” transcript published in FBIS, July 3, 1984, CC6.

  53. Viktor Olin, commentary for Moscow World Service, December 18, 1984, transcript printed as “Olin Views U.S. Signing of ‘Star Wars’ Contracts,” in FBIS, December 19, 1984, AA4.

  54. The two TASS statements are published as “Concern Over ‘Star Wars’ Plans Expressed,” in FBIS, February 1, 1985, AA8–9.

  55. F. Aleksandrov, “How the ‘Star Wars’ Are Being Prepared,” Krasnaya Zvezda, March 8, 1985, 5, printed as “U.S. Preparation, Research for SDI Discussed,” in FBIS, March 12, 1985, AA5.

  56. “’Studio 9’ Program Discusses ‘Star Wars,’” May 25, 1985, transcript printed in FBIS, May 29, 1985, AA1–12.

  57. See Valentin Falin, “Fact and Fancy,” Izvestia, April 10, 1985, 5, printed as “Izvestia's Falin Muses on SDI Issue, Part 1,” in FBIS, April 15, 1985, AA3–5.

  58. TASS statement in English, October 28, 1985, printed as “Reagan Takes ‘Simplistic’ Attitude to Problems,” in FBIS, October 30, 1985, A5.

  59. The author that the New Times quoted was Thomas S. Powers, a frequent contributor to the Los Angeles Times on foreign and security policy. Yuri Gudkov, “False Promises and the Nuclear Reality,” New Times, September 1985, 3–5, printed as “U.S. Strategic Doctrine Encourages Arms Escalation,” in FBIS, October 7, 1985, AA5–10.

  60. TASS statement by Vladimir Matyash, October 16, 1985, printed as “Reagan Uses ’Clever Tricks’ to Explain SDI,” in FBIS, October 16, 1985, AA5.

  61. Moscow Domestic Service statement by Boris Adrianov, October 23, 1985, printed as “Commentator Sees ‘Nothing Defensive’ About SDI,” in FBIS, October 28, 1985, AA1–2.

  62. Reagan quoted by Philip B. Kunhardt Jr., Philip B. Kunhardt III, and Peter W. Kunhardt, The American President (New York: Riverhead Books, 1999), 296. Reagan also protested that the term “Star Wars” conjured “an image of destruction,” when, in fact, “I'm talking about a weapon, non-nuclear … [that] only destroys other weapons, doesn't kill people.” See Reagan, “Interview with Morton Kondracke and Richard H. Smith of Newsweek Magazine, March 4, 1985,” Presidential Papers, vol. 1, 1985, 261.

  63. Reagan, “Interview with Morton Kondracke and Richard H. Smith of Newsweek Magazine, March 4, 1985.”

  64. Reagan, “Remarks in an Interview with Representatives of Soviet News Organizations, Together with Written Responses to Questions, October 31, 1985,” Presidential Papers, 1985, vol. 2, 1332.

  65. Reagan, “Interview with Representatives of the Wire Services, November 6, 1985,” Presidential Papers, 1985, vol. 2, 1349.

  66. Interview with Bill Clark, February 28, 2008.

  67. Keyworth interviewed by Donald Baucom, September 28, 1987, RRL, OHT, folder 37, box 8, 40.

  68. Lukhim quoted by Robert McFarlane in his memoir, Special Trust (New York: Cadell & Davies, 1994), 235.

  69. See Trofimenko in Hofstra conference, 138–45; and Andrew E. Busch, “Ronald Reagan and the Defeat of the Soviet Empire,” Presidential Studies Quarterly, Summer 1997, 455–62.

  70. For a compilation of quotes from these individuals, see Kengor, The Crusader, 300–2.

  71. George Shultz, Turmoil and Triumph (New York: Scribner, 1993), 264, 690, 699, 709.

  72. Viktor Olin, writing for the Moscow World Service, December 18, 1984, stated that some sensible American authorities protested the militarization of space that the rash “hotheads” in the Reagan administration were allegedly pursuing. Among them were “the former Defense Secretaries [Robert] McNamara, [Harold] Brown, and [James] Schlesinger; disarmament expert Gerard Smith; diplomat and historian George Kennan; and many others [who] have warned that attempts by the administration to secure superiority in space are doomed to failure because they will inevitably cause countermeasures. As a result, the arms race will be sped up dramatically, and the war threat will take on yet another dimension.” Among these experts, the Soviets especially appreciated the counsel of Carter defense secretary Harold Brown: “The former U.S. Defense Secretary Harold Brown has given a warning that if the United States deploys an antimissile defense system, it can hardly count on reaching an agreement with the Soviet Union on strategic arms limitation.” Despite such prudent advice, noted Moscow, the Reagan administration had “so far given no signs of being ready to heed these warnings.” This was the message from Moscow: If only Ronald Reagan's team, including Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger, would listen to Jimmy Carter's team, especially Defense Secretary Harold Brown, then U.S.-Soviet relations would
be much better. And if Reagan refused to listen to the likes of President Carter's defense secretary, there would be no missile limitations. See Olin commentary for Moscow World Service, December 18, 1984.

  73. See Kengor, The Crusader, 198–99.

  74. Seweryn Bialer and Joan Afferica, “Reagan and Russia,” Foreign Affairs, Winter 1982/83, vol. 61, no. 2, 249–71. See pages 262–63 specifically.

  75. With apologies to the occasional Columbia grad who got it right, such as Arnold Beichman—who got it right in spades. See Paul Kengor, “The Beichman Library Closes,” American Spectator, March 1, 2010. Beichman had a bachelor's degree, master's degree, and doctorate from Columbia. See Dennis Hevesi, “Arnold Beichman, Political Analyst, Dies at 96,” New York Times, March 3, 2010.

  Chapter 21: September 11, 2001

  1. President George W. Bush, “Address to the Nation on the Terrorist Attacks,” Washington, DC, September 11, 2001.