Second Annual Security Cooperation Conference - Rudy de Leon address - Transcript

DISAM Journal, Summer, 2000

[Remarks delivered by Deputy Secretary of Defense Rudy de Leon, to the Second Annual Security Cooperation Conference, July 11, 2000.]

Thank you very much for the chance to be here. I want to thank you, General Michael Davison, for the chance to be here today and to speak before this group. You do challenging work. The general and I were just talking as we walked in the door that we've never quite seen a transaction with the complexity and the fidelity that we had to have regarding the F-16s to the United Arab Emirates, which is now coming to conclusion.

But I also think when you look at security assistance and the sale of U.S. military equipment, there is one thing that each of you from the general to those of you who work in this area every day, brings to this job and that is integrity. In other parts of the world defense munitions sales is an area not known for its integrity. But you have really given our government a very capable, hard working and honest system, and you give our contractors who are competing with their systems every day a level playing field. That is a major accomplishment.

So I want to thank General Davison for his introduction, for the kind words, and I want to thank you, General, for your leadership in confronting the challenges that bring us here today. As you know, the General will soon be taking leave of his position and will be leaving his beloved Army after more than three decades of service.

Some of you know that the general hails from a long line of distinguished Davisons in the Army, a legacy recognized in Davison Airfield at Fort Belvoir. General, like your father and grandfather before you, you too have served this nation with great honor, whether as a young platoon leader in Vietnam, as a Cold War commander in Europe, or as a builder of bridges with other nations in your current capacity. So on behalf of the Department of Defense, in fact in behalf of our entire nation and all of those who have benefited from your leadership, I want to thank you for your lifetime of service to our country.

General Tome Walters is the incoming director of Defense Security Cooperation Agency to whom we look to carry on the great work that General Davison is engaged in, we look forward to working with you; Deputy Director Robert Keltz, without whom so much of the progress of recent years would have been impossible, we thank you for your effort; industry partners that are here; representatives from our allies and friends; ladies and gentlemen.

I thought I might begin this morning by recalling some lessons of history. As you know, two weeks ago the U.S. and our allies marked the 50th anniversary of the start of the Korean War. There was a ceremony out on the National Mall, and immediately before that I hosted a luncheon with General Brad Smith, who on June 25, 1950 was a lieutenant colonel doing occupation duty in Japan when the call came from Douglas MacArthur himself informing him that he would have to deploy his unit to Korea.

Then--Lieutenant Colonel Smith's group is now known as Task Force Smith, and while their heroism and commitment is unchallenged and a legacy for us today, the one point that was clear as we hosted this luncheon and went around the table were the challenges of moving equipment and not having the right equipment in the field. It was, if you will, the modern day version of interoperability.

So that was a lesson for us today: that now, just as then, seemingly distant dangers can suddenly come upon us; that now, just as then, failure to invest in our warriors and their weapons and those of our allies is to invite great risk to the safety of our forces and the security of our nation; that now, just as then, we need strong partnerships with other nations backed by strong forces to preserve peace and deter, and if necessary, defeat aggression.

In recent years, those enduring lessons have on many occasions been drowned out by those who may question America's engagement, alliances and partnerships abroad and by those who question the continued need for the myriad of programs that undergrid our engagement. That includes programs such as foreign military sales.

Questions about foreign military sales FMS, as everyone here knows, reached a critical mass a few years ago. I know that in his remarks yesterday General Davison cited some of the reasons. Indeed, we need only recall some of the headlines from that time to remember how severe the critiques had become.

Said one defense publication, "FMS is too cumbersome, inefficient, and driven by outdated security regulations." Wrote another, "A group of countries want to abandon FMS."

Then there was this stark prediction: the "program could die." Then finally a critique, "FMS remains very much a Cold War restrictive mindset. It is cumbersome, time consuming, and heavily rule bound."

I would point out that the last quote came from my predecessor, Dr. John Hamre, who was one of the key people who helped spur the effort to give General Davison and his leadership team the authority they needed to address these very concerns.