Paul H Nitze, Cold Warrior, arms control adviser, dies
By: BARRY SCHWEIDWASHINGTON - Paul H Nitze, who pursued a hard-line approach toward the Kremlin as he helped shape US diplomatic and military strategy during the Cold War, is dead at 97.
He died last week at his home in the Georgetown area of Washington.
Nitze's long career, which began with success on Wall Street as
a young investment banker and included government service under
eight presidents, was capped last April in Bath, Maine, as he
witnessed the christening of a warship bearing his name.
President Ronald Reagan awarded Nitze the Presidential Medal of
Freedom, the highest civilian honour in the United States, in
1985.
A self-described "hard-nosed pragmatist", Nitze as director of
the State Department's policy planning staff in 1950 helped frame
the strategy of building up US forces to keep the Soviets contained
in Eastern Europe.
He wrote in a 1950 national security paper that the Soviets were
"animated by a new, fanatic faith, antithetical to our own, which
seeks to impose its absolute authority over the rest of the
world".
"I didn't think we should go to war with the Soviets and I don't
think they wanted to go to war with us," Nitze said three decades
later.
"But how do you conduct things so that the Soviets would be
deterred from foreign expansion and be forced to look inward at
their own problems?" The Johns Hopkins School of Advanced
International Studies in Washington was founded in 1943 by Nitze
and the late former Secretary of State Christian Herter.
At the school's annual banquet earlier this month, Secretary of
State Colin Powell paid tribute to his long government service.
Recalling their time working together in the Reagan
administration, when Powell was national security adviser, Powell
said sitting with Nitze at the same table "was like having Moses at
the table".
Last week, Powell issued a statement remembering Nitze as a
personal mentor and "a giant of US foreign and defence policy and
an inspiration" to State Department employees.
Nitze, a conservative Democrat, was a natural fit for Ronald
Reagan's Republican administration that began in 1981 because they
both opposed President Jimmy Carter's 1979 Strategic Arms
Limitation Treaty (SALT) with the Soviet Union.
Along with a few other prominent conservative Democrats,
organised as the Committee on the Present Danger, they contended
the treaty could not be verified and would enable the Soviets to
strengthen their nuclear arsenal.
Carter withdrew the SALT II treaty when the Soviets invaded
Afghanistan in 1979.
The hard-line Democrats, convinced their party had drifted
leftward, swung to support Reagan, himself a former Democrat.
Nitze took charge of negotiating reductions in intermediate
range missiles with the Soviet Union in 1981 for Reagan, who had
changed direction to support arms control accords.
The negotiations were marked by a July 1982 "walk in the woods"
near Geneva, Switzerland, with the Soviet negotiator, Yuli
Kvitsinsky, that produced a compromise breakthrough, but the treaty
was not concluded at the time.
Born in Amherst, Massachusetts, the son of William Albert Nitze,
a Romance languages scholar, Nitze grew up in Chicago, graduated
from Harvard University in 1927 and worked for 12 years as an
investment banker at Dillon Read & Co, before taking his first
government post in 1940 in the Franklin D Roosevelt
administration.
In 1986, reflecting on the Soviet Union, which was to
disintegrate five years later, Nitze said negotiating with the
Soviets was like working with a defective vending machine.
"You put your quarter in, but you don't get anything out," he
said.
"You can shake it.
You can talk to it.
But you know it won't do any good.
It just won't talk back to you."
- Nampa-AP
Nitze's long career, which began with success on Wall Street as a
young investment banker and included government service under eight
presidents, was capped last April in Bath, Maine, as he witnessed
the christening of a warship bearing his name.President Ronald
Reagan awarded Nitze the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest
civilian honour in the United States, in 1985.A self-described
"hard-nosed pragmatist", Nitze as director of the State
Department's policy planning staff in 1950 helped frame the
strategy of building up US forces to keep the Soviets contained in
Eastern Europe.He wrote in a 1950 national security paper that the
Soviets were "animated by a new, fanatic faith, antithetical to our
own, which seeks to impose its absolute authority over the rest of
the world"."I didn't think we should go to war with the Soviets and
I don't think they wanted to go to war with us," Nitze said three
decades later."But how do you conduct things so that the Soviets
would be deterred from foreign expansion and be forced to look
inward at their own problems?" The Johns Hopkins School of Advanced
International Studies in Washington was founded in 1943 by Nitze
and the late former Secretary of State Christian Herter.At the
school's annual banquet earlier this month, Secretary of State
Colin Powell paid tribute to his long government service.Recalling
their time working together in the Reagan administration, when
Powell was national security adviser, Powell said sitting with
Nitze at the same table "was like having Moses at the table".Last
week, Powell issued a statement remembering Nitze as a personal
mentor and "a giant of US foreign and defence policy and an
inspiration" to State Department employees.Nitze, a conservative
Democrat, was a natural fit for Ronald Reagan's Republican
administration that began in 1981 because they both opposed
President Jimmy Carter's 1979 Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty
(SALT) with the Soviet Union.Along with a few other prominent
conservative Democrats, organised as the Committee on the Present
Danger, they contended the treaty could not be verified and would
enable the Soviets to strengthen their nuclear arsenal.Carter
withdrew the SALT II treaty when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in
1979.The hard-line Democrats, convinced their party had drifted
leftward, swung to support Reagan, himself a former Democrat.Nitze
took charge of negotiating reductions in intermediate range
missiles with the Soviet Union in 1981 for Reagan, who had changed
direction to support arms control accords.The negotiations were
marked by a July 1982 "walk in the woods" near Geneva, Switzerland,
with the Soviet negotiator, Yuli Kvitsinsky, that produced a
compromise breakthrough, but the treaty was not concluded at the
time.Born in Amherst, Massachusetts, the son of William Albert
Nitze, a Romance languages scholar, Nitze grew up in Chicago,
graduated from Harvard University in 1927 and worked for 12 years
as an investment banker at Dillon Read & Co, before taking his
first government post in 1940 in the Franklin D Roosevelt
administration.In 1986, reflecting on the Soviet Union, which was
to disintegrate five years later, Nitze said negotiating with the
Soviets was like working with a defective vending machine."You put
your quarter in, but you don't get anything out," he said."You can
shake it.You can talk to it.But you know it won't do any good.It
just won't talk back to you."- Nampa-AP