Fred Iklé
Dr. Fred Charles Iklé (August 21, 1924 – November 10, 2011[1]) was a United States Department of Defense official during the presidency of Ronald Reagan who is credited with a key role in increasing U.S. aid to anti-Soviet rebels in the Soviet War in Afghanistan. He successfully proposed and promoted the idea of supplying the rebels with anti-aircraft Stinger missiles, overcoming CIA opposition. Iklé was director for the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency in 1973-1977 and later Under Secretary of Defense for Policy. Iklé was a Distinguished Scholar with the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).[2] Iklé's expertise was in defense and foreign policy, nuclear strategy, and the role of technology in the emerging international order. He was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the International Institute for Strategic Studies.[1]
Iklé's war
As an under secretary of defense, Iklé led the effort to lobby for National Security Decision Directive 166 ("Expanded US Aid to Afghan Guerrillas"), signed by Reagan in March 1985.[3] When he visited Pakistan in April 1985, Iklé found that the CIA was still pursuing the war in a halfhearted manner.[4] "We began to understand that what to us was a very big deal back in Washington, from the point of view of the president, is a second order priority handled by one GS [civil service officer]," according to Michael Pillsbury, Iklé's deputy.[4]
Iklé sponsored a proposal to supply the rebels with Stinger shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles.[5] The Stinger proposal was at first strongly opposed by the CIA, the U.S. State Department, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff.[5] CIA Deputy Director John McMahon, who resisted the proposal, was the target of a letter-writing campaign by conservative groups.[6] At a meeting on December 6, 1985, Iklé asked McMahon if the CIA needed Stingers. "I decided then and there that I had enough of carrying water for the Joint Chiefs and I said 'Fred, I'll take every Stinger you can send me,'" McMahon recalled.[6] Despite McMahon's apparent change of heart, the CIA again vetoed the Stinger proposal at an interagency meeting in mid-February 1986.[7] President Reagan signed an executive order to supply the Angolan guerrilla group UNITA with Stingers on February 18, and the CIA finally agreed to supply them to the Afghan rebels on February 23.[7] McMahon resigned soon afterward.[8] The decision to supply the Stinger to the Afghan rebels is often viewed as the turning point of the war.[8]
He is mentioned in chapter 14 of the novel Fail-Safe as someone working with the Air Force to reduce the chance of war by accident.
Later life
Iklé remained at the Defense Department until 1988, when he joined CSIS. Iklé served as a Commissioner on the National Commission on Terrorism, which produced the Report of the National Commission on Terrorism in June 2000, and he served for nine years as Director of the National Endowment for Democracy.
He also co-chaired the bipartisan Commission on Integrated Long-Term Strategy, which published Discriminate Deterrence in January 1988.[9] In 1975 and 1987, Iklé received the highest civilian award of the Department of Defense, the Medal for Distinguished Public Service. In 1988, he was awarded the Bronze Palm.
Iklé has served as chairman of the Board of the Telos Corporation and as a director of the Zurich-American Insurance Companies. He was a Director of CMC Energy Services and served as Governor of the Smith Richardson Foundation and as a Director of the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea.
He was the author of several books and numerous articles on defense, foreign policy, and arms control, including How Nations Negotiate and Every War Must End. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and spoke French and German.
Iklé's latest work Annihilation From Within[10] was published November 2006 by Columbia University Press.
Further reading
List of publications: http://csis.org/images/stories/Misc/ikle_pubs.pdf
Books:
- Ikle, Fred Charles Annihilation From Within (Columbia University Press 2006)
- Ikle, Fred Charles Every War Must End (Columbia University Press, 1971, 1991, 2005 with new prefaces)
- Ikle, Fred Charles How Nations Negotiate (Harper and Row, 1968)
- Ikle, Fred Charles The Social Impact of Bomb Destruction (University of Oklahoma Press, 1958)
External links
References
- ^ a b CSIS news release (2011-11-11). "CSIS Mourns the Loss of Fred C. Iklé". Center for Strategic and International Studies. Retrieved 18 January 2012.
- ^ CSIS experts
- ^ Heymann, Philip B., (2008) Living the policy process (2008), pp. 38–39.
- ^ a b Heymann, pp. 46–47.
- ^ a b Heymann pp. 42–43, 77.
- ^ a b Heyman, p. 75.
- ^ a b Heyman, p. 80.
- ^ a b Jack Wheeler, "'Charlie Wilson and Ronald Reagan's War'
- ^ "Fred Iklé: A man who helped win the Cold War, and future wars too". Wall Street Journal. 2011-11-15. Retrieved 18 January 2012.
- ^ [1]