THE ROCKEFELLER UNIVERSITY

pro bono hwmanis generis

1230 YORK AVENUE - NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10021-6399

OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT

eatery 17, 1988

Dr. Frank Press

President

National Academy of Sciences
Washington

Dear Frank:

I’m writing you in a mood still affected by the meeting that Elie Wiesel and Francois
Mitterand sponsored in Paris. I had cautioned Elie about making a "club" of the laureates --
we were spared Shockley, but Yalow and Josephson almost made up for it. Nevertheless it
all came off far better than I expected. And it left me more puzzled than ever, how does one
best "mobilize intellect" pro bono humanis generis? That is the very core of The Academy:
and I know there are no simple answers.

My homework prior to Paris was to read "Albert Einstein: On Peace". I strongly

commend it to you, if you’ve not studied it. But I warn you it left me in the gloomiest spirits |
imaginable. Or was it a reflection that START will necessitate a revision of RISOP and Cc
SIOP? R220

The Ikle-Wohlstatter report also came out not too badly. It still has its share of
troglodytisms (and believe me, I fought hard on many more); but it may in fact spark a new
wave of thinking, one that says we have solved the problem of central deterrence, let’s go on
to other concerns. The reactions in Europe have been quite intense: the report is seen there as
an abandonment of extended deterrence: you might think they were reacting to McNamara,
Bundy and Kennan. We do of course have difficult problems of sustaining Alliance cohesion
in the face of a) continued Soviet conventional force in Europe, b) maintaining Germany’s
military dependence on NATO, c) the denuclearization of central Europe, d) Germany’s
reluctance to accept any doctrine of conventional defense except within one millimeter of the
Easat-West border, and e) Gorbachev’s carefully orchestrated peace offensive [better that than
a belligerent one]; not to mention the US-European-Japanese economic competition and
disarray. So “Integrated Long Range Strategy" has a long way to go.

My implicit Faustian bargain is to not attack the report publically; so I do point to what I
regard as useful conceptual advances, and apologize privately about my d’rothers, mainly of __
omission. I don’t recall if I’ve sent you that, or the other enclosure (the talk I gave at Paris.) :
3

Kare Pore

I do miss a chance for more leisurely tete-a-tete. I hope we can catch one another in a —
different mood than rushing to catch the shuttle. 7
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