Former Presidential Advisor And Others Reminisce Over End of Cold War

By Ravi Bhatia - Talk Radio News Service

Brent Scowcroft, former National Security Adviser to Presidents Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush, reflected on the final days of the Cold War at a discussion hosted by the German Marshall Fund at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. on Monday.

“We wanted to encourage the liberalizing regimes, especially in Poland and in Hungary,” he said. “But we wanted to do it at a pace which would not bring about Soviet reaction as happened in Germany in ‘53, Hungary in ‘56, Czechoslovakia in ‘68. We didn’t know exactly what that was, but we were sort of feeling our way. How much should we encourage Eastern Europe? How much should we be cautious?”

Scowcroft spoke in a panel that included Hans-Dietrich Genscher, former Foreign Minister of the Republic of Germany, and Robert Kimmitt, former United States Ambassador to Germany. BBC World News Washington Correspondent Katty Kay presided over the discussion, which was held in honor of the upcoming 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, which occurred on Nov. 9, 1989.

A barrier separating Eastern and Western Germany, the Berlin Wall symbolized the Iron Curtain between Western Europe and the Soviet Union-dominated Eastern Bloc. The fall of the wall tends to be synonymous with the reunification of Germany and the end of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union.

[Mikhail Gorbachev, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1989] believed one can reform socialism,” said Genscher. “Later, he had to learn that you could not reform socialism, you could only overcome socialism. That happened in 1989.”

Introducing The New Nuclear Pandemic

By Celia Canon- Talk Radio News Service

Americans should be more concerned by the proliferation of nuclear weapons from North Korea to other states or non-state actors, rather than focus on a direct N.Korean nuclear attack on the Western World.

Such was the conclusion of former Secretary of Defense William Perry when addressing the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) on U.S nuclear weapons policy today.

“When we are concerned about proliferation, for example from N.Korea to Iran, we are concerned with the possibility that nuclear terrorists might be a bomb... The greater danger is that the bomb or the fissile material leak from one of these countries.” said Perry.

On Monday, N.Korea announced that it had successfully detonated and underground nuclear bomb, and on Tuesday, it launched two short-range ballistic missiles. As a result, the Obama administration may be facing an unexpected turn in the nuclear debate.

The topic is gaining momentum as talks between the U.S and Russia on the renewal of the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (Start) are feared to be unsuccessful.

That N.Korea has nuclear capabilities and is testing missiles has fanned the flames on the necessity to reconsider the reduction in the Department of Defense FY2010 budget.

Perry was joined by Brent Scowcroft, former assistant to the President for National Security Affairs who explained that “a great danger in nuclear terrorism lies with the civilian nuclear power and the loose fissile material that comes with that.”

Scowcroft appealed to the security dilemma to provide a link between N.Korea or Iran acquiring a nuclear power and nuclear terrorism.

“If we don’t put a cap on proliferation now, we could easily face 30 or 40 countries with that capability, That is not a better world,” said Scowcroft, adding that “If [Iran and N.Korea] are free to enrich uranium to weapons grade, then you have others who want to do it just for protection or whatever and then you have a tremendous danger of terrorists getting hold of fissile material and then its relatively easy.”

The U.S government had already started to deal with this problem under the Bush junior administration, as Perry explains: “For one thing I support the initiative of the previous administration called the Proliferation Security initiative (PSI) and the recent moves to strengthen this initiative.”

Former President George.W. Bush said that PSI’s aim is "to keep the world's most destructive weapons away from our shores and out of the hands of our common enemies."

The initiative is limited to controlling alien ships in one’s waters to search for weapons. Airways are however not part of the PSI.

Senate leaders want negotiations with Iran

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee heard testimony today of two experts on foreign policy dealing with Iran: Zbigniew Brzezinski, former national security adviser to President Carter, and Gen. Brent Scowcroft, former national security adviser to Presidents Ford and George H.W. Bush. Their purpose was to advise on the strategy which the United States should take when dealing with negotiations with Iran.

Dr. Brzezinski stated in his testimony that a nuclear Iran would be a “disaster,” as would a military collision with Iran. He then noted that there are two ways to approach negotiations: The first is to design the negotiation to fail, and to make Iran appear to blame. This would be achieved by setting preconditions, threatening with sanctions and force, calling for regime change and labeling the Iranian government as a “terrorist entity.” The second approach to negotiation is to, “Seek to engage the Iran in a process in which there emerges the possibility of some consentual arrangement.”

Gen. Scowcroft stated that the real threat from a nuclear Iran is the road to nuclear dissemination in the region. If Iran gets nuclear capability, Turkey, Egypt and other countries in the region will want to follow suit. He noted that in the past, the U.S. and even Israel have had good relations with Iran, and it is important not to view the current situation as permanent. When asked if he thought that negotiations would actually work, he stated, “It seems to me that it is worth a try because in the process of trying, if the United States is really sincere, we are likely to get on board people who suspect now who say we’re sitting off in the corner throwing rocks at them and asking for sanctions; not trying to solve the problem.”

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) concluded the hearing with the sentiment of productive negotiations, stating, “We’ve got to be smart, restrained, thoughtful and skilled in our diplomacy so that we have an opportunity to really pursue every avenue with the greatest potential for success.”