Star Spangled Security: Applying Lessons Learned over Six Decades Safeguarding America

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Star Spangled Security Applying Lessons Learned Over Six Decades Safeguarding America Harold Brown with Joyce Winslow Brookings Institution Press Washington, D.C. www.brookings.edu Cover art: IStockImages.com Jacket by Sese-Paul Design “ From the government of science to the science of government, Harold Brown has always put his country and its principles first. This book, like his counsel to me as my secretary of defense, offers keen insight into how to ensure national security in a turbulent world. He offers practical ways to redress the widening inequalities in our society and to revive our economy. Harold helped to maintain a strong nation at peace while in office, and here we can benefit again from his wisdom— along with unusual stories of political personalities that make delightful reading. The reader will understand within a few pages why I awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom.” —PRESIDENT JIMMY CARTER “ Harold Brown is the most unique of statesmen: a scientist, a Cold War warrior, and a secretary of defense under President Carter whose intimate knowledge of our nuclear deterrent was matched only by his clear-eyed patriotism. Star Spangled Security is a fascinating and rewarding look at the last sixty years of American defense and diplomacy.” —PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON “ Star Spangled Security is part memoir, part history, and part guide to contemporary issues in world affairs. Harold Brown’s wisdom shines through on every page of the clearly written text. A brilliant study of high-level decisionmaking, the book provides insights on every aspect of security while blending compelling historical portraits with thoughtful and often passionate advice for the future.” —SECRETARY OF STATE MADELEINE ALBRIGHT “ Harold Brown has played an indispensable role in American policymaking and thinking about nuclear issues for the entire nuclear age. At once scientist and policymaker, academic and handson operator, he distills his experiences and offers a roadmap in this thoughtful and very readable book. It deserves widespread attention.” —SECRETARY OF STATE HENRY KISSINGER “I covered Harold Brown and have been waiting thirty years for this book and all it delivers. There is surely no one else who knows as much about national security, who could hold his own arguing thermonuclear warhead design with Edward Teller and whose talent for one-liners skewers complex problems. He’s mellowed over time, but fortunately not a lot. His journey from wunderkind to wise man shows—from his pessimism about Afghanistan (‘technology cannot overcome corrupt governments’)—to his apprehension about China (‘getting to 2030 without a frightening confrontation will be a major achievement’).” —DAVID MARTIN, CBS NEWS CORRESPONDENT H arold Brown served as U.S. secretary of defense when the Soviet Union posed an existential threat with superior conventional force capability and a daunting nuclear weapons arsenal. No one could have been better suited to deter the Soviets during that most dangerous period in the Cold War. A physicist, Brown had previously led Livermore Laboratory and its development of the Polaris missile warhead. By age 33 he was director of Defense Research and Engineering, and he later served as secretary of the U.S. Air Force early in the Vietnam War. In the Carter administration, Brown reinvigorated the NATO alliance, promoted AWACs, increased U.S. conventional force capabilities, and developed a new generation of nuclear weapons and delivery systems. As a senior negotiator of SALT II, he also helped set their limits. Brown was the first American secretary of defense to visit China; as principal interlocutor he forged military-to-military relations. During his tenure, the Soviets invaded Afghanistan; the Iranian revolution resulted in the capture of American hostages; President Carter achieved the Camp David Peace Accords; and the Panama Canal Treaties—that still protect U.S. interests—were rewritten. Brown’s role in each was integral. Star Spangled Security provides lessons from the past to inform the future: from Afghanistan to Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons; from international alliances and interests the U.S. needs to consider in a changing world to specific ideas for jumpstarting technological innovation that could boost American security and our economy today. Based on his twelve years of top-tier government service and nearly fifty more as a president of Caltech, a board member of a dozen corporations, the chair of recent, comprehensive studies of Chinese military capability, U.S. Intelligence , and technological innovation, and as the past chair and a current member of the Defense Policy Board that advises sitting secretaries of defense, Brown offers wise counsel to any American voter as...