LETTER FROM DAVID L. BOREN TO WILLIAM H. WEBSTER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90G01353R000600070007-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 7
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 30, 2013
• Sequence Number: 7
• Publication Date: July 26, 1988
• Content Type: MEMO

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DAVID L BOREN. OKLAHOMA, CHAIRMAN
WILLIAM S. COHEN, MAINE. VICE CHAIRMAN
LLOYD BENTSEN. TEXAS WILLIAM V. ROTH. JR., DELAWARE
SAM NUNN. GEORGIA ORRIN HATCH. UTAH
ERNEST F HOLLINGS. SOUTH CAROUNA FRANK MURKOWSKI, ALASKA
BILL BRADLEY, NEW JERSEY ARLEN SPECTER. PENNSYLVANIA
ALAN CRANSTON. CALIFORNIA CHIC HECHT, NEVADA
DENNIS DoCONCINI. ARIZONA JOHN WARNER. VIRGINIA
HOWARD M. METZENSAUM, OHIO
ROBERT C. BYRD. WEST VIRGINIA. EX OFFICIO
ROBERT DOLE. KANSAS, EX OFFICIO
SVEN E HOLMES. STAFF DIRECTOR AND GENERAL COUNSEL
JAMES H. DYKSTRA. MINORITY STAFF DIRECTOR
KATHLEEN P. MeGHEE. CHIEF CLERK
40/0"=.7.3:5;i--
Unita' tatts Ernate
SELECT COMMITTEE ON INTELUGENCE
WASHINGTON, DC 205104475
July 1, 1988
The Honorable William H. Webster
Director of Central Intelligence
Central Intelligence Agency
Washington, D.C.
Dear Judge Webster:
Enclosed please find a copy of a letter from Senator
William Proxmire regarding information with respect to world
arms transfers. It would be my hope that we could discuss
this matter at our next scheduled meeting.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sin rely,
.404kodftot
David L. Boren
Chairman
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? WILLIAM PRCiXMIRE ?
WISCONSIN
ibited *atm *nate
WASHINGTON, DC 20510
June 13, 1988
The Honorable David Boren, Chairman
Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
Washington, D.C. 20510
The Honorable Louis Stokes, Chairman
House Permanent Select Commmittee
on Intelligence
Washington, D.C. 20515
Dear David and Lou:
? On June 9, I gave a speech on the Senate floor on the subject
of arms transfers to developing nations. The idea for the speech
grew out of a Memorial Day column in the New York Times by James
Reston in which he cited a report that stated that the world was
engaged in 25 wars in 1987. Most of these conflicts took place
in underdeveloped parts of the world.
In preparation for that speech I sought information detailing
the value of the arms exported to these nations at war and the
countries that were the main suppliers of these arms. I
consulted the annual Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (ACDA)
publication on this issue, titled World Military Expenditures and
Arms Transfers 1987, but I was unable to find this information.
In fact, the most detailed breakdown of nation-to-nation arms
transfers was a table that cumulatively covered the period 1982-
1986, but it did not even include all the arms exporting nations.
I contacted ACDA to get some answers but much to my surprise,
I was told that this type of detailed information was classified
and unavailable to the public. Consequently, I was forced to use
aggregate figures that detailed the value of the arms transfers
from the communist and non-communist world to various regions of
the world for the ten-year period of 1977-1986.
I question the decision to keep classified this important
information. I propose that the U.S. declassify a list of all
the world's arms exports to countries at war. I believe that
this would provide the basis for negotiations with the Soviets on
limiting or eliminating the export of arms to nations at war. It
also would provide a year-by-year public record of the major arms
exporting and importing nations, and the types of arms being
transfered.
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I am interested in the reasons that the U.S. government cites
for keeping this detailed arms transfer information classified.
I would like to see ACDA publish a yearly report citing the
total arms exports of all nations, the recipient nations of
these shipments, and the types of weapons transferred. As
Chairmen of the Senate and House Intelligence Committees, could
you inquire of the administration the justification for
classifying this detailed information on global arms transfers
and relay to me their response?
With best wishes,
Sincera1
Proxmire, . .S.
WP:kl
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? ?
Senate
THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 1988
(Legislative day of Wednesday, June 8. 19881
The Senate met at 9:30 arn., on the
expiration of the recess, and was
called to order by the Honorable Joni,
BREAUX. a Senator from the State of
Louisiana.
PRAYER
The Chaplain, the Reverend Rich-
ard C. Halverson. DD., offered the fol-
lowing Prayer:
Let us pray:
Blessed is the nation whose God is
the Lord ? ? It?Psalm 33:12.
Eternal God, just and holy in all
Thy ways. thank You that our Pound-
ing Fathers took seriously the words
of the psalmist?that nation is blessed
whose God is the Lord. The profes-
sional athlete calls it fundamentals--
the sociologist calls it roots?but by
whatever name it is indispensable to
self-understanding, self-worth and dig-
nity, self-realization and progress. Per-
sonally and collectively. Our Founding
Fathers debated long and hard as to
the relation between church and
state?but whatever their views, they
believed earnestly that virtue and
faith in God were indissoluble. They
crafted our political system in the con-
viction that a Creator God endowed
human rights, which are inalienable?
and to secure which is the mandate of
a government which receives fts power
from the consent of the governed.
Help us. Righteous Father, to see that
at the heart of present frustration
with imponderable social evil is discon-
nection from our spiritual/moral
roots?that to return to these funda-
mentals which guided and nurtured
our unprecedented blessing as a nation
Is essential to our preservation. Hear
us and awaken us, 0 Lord, our God.
Amen.
APPOINTMENT OF ACTING
PRESIDENT PRO TEMPORE
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The
clerk will please read a communication
to the Senate from the President pro
tempore (Mr. STernttsl.
The legislative clerk read the follow-
ing letter:
U.S. SCUTT.
PRESLIENT PRO TEM:PORI,
Washington, DC June 9,2938.
To the Senate:
Under the provisions of rule I. section 3.
of the Standing Rules of the Ser.ate.
hereby appoint the Honorable JCILII
Sentra a Senator from the State of Louisi-
ana, to perform the duties of the Chair.
Joss C. Simons.
President pro tempore.
Mr. BREAUX thereupon assumed
the chair as Acting President pro tern-
pore.
RECOGNITION OF THE
MAJORITY LEADER
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tem-
pore. Under the standing order, the
majority leader is recognized.
Mr. BYRD. Mr. President. I ask
unanimous consent that my time be
reserved until later.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tern-
pore. Without objection, it is so or-
dered.
RECOGNITION OF THE
REPUBLICAN LEADER
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tem-
pore. Under the standing order the
Republican leader is now recognized.
Mr. DOLE. I make the same request.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tern-
pore. Without objection, it is so or-
dered.
MORNING BUSINESS
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tern-
pore. Under the previous order there
will now be a period of morning busi-
ness not to extend beyond the hour of
10 a.m. with Senators permitted to
speak therein for not to exceed 5 min-
utes each.
The Chair recognizes the Senator
fro isconsin, Mr. Peoxarrez.
UR MOST DISGRAt.r ruL FED-
ERAL WASTE: ARMS TO DEVEL-
OPING COUNTRIES
Mr. PROXMIRE. Mr. President, re-
cently, senior New York Times colum-
nist James Reston observed a chilling
fact. On last Memorial Day, when
many of us were speaking in our home
States about the blessings of peace,
much of the world was engaged in
deadly and heartbreaking wars. How
many wars were going on last year?
Answer: 25. That is the report of a
Washington research institute called
World Priorities. Reston reports that
Ruth Leger Sivard, who signed the
resort asserts that more wars were
fought in 1987 than in any previous
year on record. Of course, practically
all of these 25 wars are still going on.
Already. World Priorities estimates
that 3 million people-75 percent of
them civilians?have died in these
wars. It also estimates that in all the
wars since the end of World War II in
1945. the death total exceeds 17 mil-
lion.
This wholesale and largely senseless
killing has been going on In Latin
America, the Middle East, Africa, and
Asia. The location Of these wars tells
us something. North America has been
spared this bloodshed. So has Europe.
The killing, the tratnna, the misery of
war has been entirely imposed on the
people of-the underdeveloped world.
But the efficient, deadly weapons to
fight many of these wars came from
the United States and the Soviet
-Union. from France and Poland. from
West Germany and Czechoslovakia.
Much of the cost of these weapons was
extracted from the already impover-
ished developing countries and all of
the profits from fabricating these
weapons of death went to developed
countries like the United States and
the Soviet Union.
The huge war casualties measure
only a part of the misery imposed on
these countries. People in these devel-
oping countries are desperate for cap-
'tat They suffer greedy Inadequate
housing. Many are literally starving.
Most are able to afford only the most
nulimentary kind of health care. For
them, war has been especially cruel.
War has taken from these people
much of the pathetically limited re-
sources they so urgently need to
scrape a bare living from the soil. War'
has brought widespread burning of
their homes. It has brought the killing
of their livestock. War has directed
the energies of their youngest and
strongest manpower from constructive
work to killing equally poor and miser-
able neighbors.
So what can we do about this gro-
tesque situation? Reston proposes as a
starter that the major nations that
dominate world communications pub-
lish an annual tally of those who have
been killed in war in the preceding
year. This is a wise beginning. I pro-
pose that we go further. I propose
that the United States declassify a list
of all the world's arms exports to
countries at war. We should report
this along with a record of the number
of human beings killed in each s ar
the preceding year.
? This -bullet" symbol identifies statements or insertions which are not spoken by a Member of the Senate on the floor.
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S 7460 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD ? SENATE
On the basis of this kind of data. the
United States would provide the basis
for public and congressional as well as
administration support for negotia-
tions with the Soviet Union and other
major arms exporters to stop export of
arms on all sides. We should strive for
a mutally agreed elimination or limita-
tion on arms exports to countries at
war. Obviously, much of our export
business is based on the fear or suspi-
cion that the warring side we oppose
in Central America or Africa is receiv-
ing heavy arms shipments from the
Soviet Union. Similarly, much of the
Soviet shipment of arms to warring
nations is based on a reciprocal fear
that if they do not get there first. the
United States or other NATO coun-
tries vrill. Just possibly, with the new
sensitivity in the Soviet Union to the
public advantage in promoting peace,
an intense campaign by this country
could help remove Soviet weapons
from Cuba ? and Nicaragua as we
remove American weapons from the
Contra& In Angola, we could press for
the evacuation of the 35,000 Cuban
troops now serving there and the mas-
sive Soviet weaponry in return for our
ending the arming of the Angolan
rebel Savimbi.
Mr. President, the cost of the lethal
weapons that have poured into devel-
oping countries to provide the instru-
ments of death is appalling. In the 10
years from 1977 thru 1988. according
to data provided to me by the State
Department. the United States and
other non-Communist countries have
shipped $140.1 billion in Weapons into
developing countries! The' Soviet
Union and its Communist allies have
pumped in even more, a grim total of
$167.5 billion in weapons of war.
The non-Communist world has pro-
vided in this 10-year period $13.3 bil-
lion in weapons of war to Latin Amer-
ica. with the United States accounting
for a surprisingly small percentage of
that amount-32.3 billion. Both West
Germany and Prance provided more
than the United States in the 10 years
from 1977 through 1988. The Commu-
nist nations moved even more weapons
Into Latin America than the free
world?providing $14.9 billion worth,
with nearly 90 percent of that. or
$13.2 billion, coming from the Soviet
Union.
In East Asia. the impoverished but
warring developing countries received
$23 billion of war materials from the
non-Communist countries, including
more than two-thirds of that sum
from the United States?a total of
$18.8 billion. The Communist coun-
tries shipped $19.3 billion of wcapons
and ammunition into developing coun-
tries of East Asia with more than 90
percent. $18.4 billion, coming from the
Soviet Union.
In Africa. the Ccmmunist countries
really swamped the impoverished war-
ring nations with $44.5 billion of mili-
tary weapons, a total of $37.4 billion.
or 80 percent, came from the Soviet
Union. while the free world provided
far less?$17.3 billion of military weap-
ons. A total of $2.2 billion or less than
15 percent came from the United
States.
In that terrible cauldron of death
and violence?the Middle. East?the
free world poured almost $77 billion of
military weapons, of which $28.4 bil-
lion, or about one-third, came from
the United States. The Communist
world shipped $87.9 billion of military
weapons into the violent Middle East
with about 75 percent or $51.2 billion
coming from the Soviet Union.
Mr. President, altogether, this is an
unsurpassed monument to mankind's
revolting stupidity. In the name of
communism and the brotherhood of
the world's workers, the Communist
countries, led by the Soviet Union, are
depressing the living standards of
their own countries by diverting their
limited resources to the 25 or so wars
that bedevil the poorest pecple on
Earth. And, in the name of freedom,
we are nearly matching this disgrace-
ful performance during a fiscal year
crisis that cries out for us to cut all
spending, and certainly, to cut spend-
ing to 'till more impoverished people.
Does anyone really believe that this
flood of deadly weapons will truly ad-
vance either brotherhood or freedom?
Mr. President. I ask unanimous con-
sent that the column to which I re-
ferred by James Reston from the New
York Times be printed at this point in
the RECORD.
There being no objection, the article
was ordered to be printed in the
RECORD, as follows:
25 WARS Au &rm. Genic os
(By James Reston)
Vissfintcrorr.?On -Memorial Day, or. as
the British call it, Remembrance Day, there
were many solemn tributes to the dead of
past wars. But what we forgot to remember
Is that in the real world, below the summit
meeting, 25 wars are still going on.
That's not a typographical error 25 is the
number, as tabulated by a Washington re-
search institute called World Priorities.
Ruth Leger Ward, who signed the study,
concedes the difficulty of getting an accu-
rate casualty toll in these wars, but she esti-
mates that they have already taken the
lives of three million people, four-fifths of
them civilians.
She also noted the following: "The United
States and the Soviet Union together spend
about $1.5 billion a day on military de-
f ense. . . . The developing countries spend
almost four times as much on arms as on
health care of their people. Yet 20 percent
of their children die before their fifth birth-
day."
She went on: "To protect Kuwaiti oil
tankers in the Persian Gulf costs the United
States Navy an extra $365 million a year
above normal operating coats."
More wars, she said, were fought in 1987
than in any previcus year on record.
Her catalogue of present wars follows:
Latin America?Colombia. about 1.000
deaths a year since 1958; El Salvador. 65.000
deaths since 1979; Guatemala. 138,000 since
1966: Nicaragua. 30,000 since 1961, and Peru.
10.000 since 1981.
The Middle East?Iran-Iraq. 377,000 lives
In eight years: Lebanon. 52,000 since 1982.
(The study docs not inctude countries where
June 9, 19SS
uprisings have taken fewer than 1.000 lives
a year. 113 in Israel.)
Africa?Angola and Namibia. 213.000 since
1975. In addition, the Angolan war is linked
to a smaller conflict in which 5.000 people
have been killed in the south West Africa
People's Organization fight to expel South
African troops from Namiba: Chad. 7000
since 1980; Ethiopia. 500.000 by sar and re-
lated famine since 1980; Western Sahara.
10.000 since 1975: Mozambique. 400.000
since 1981 (plus 850,000 more refugees).
Also in Africa?South Africa. 4.000 since
1985: the Sudan, 10.000 since 1984, and
Uganda. 102,000 since 1981.
Asia?Afghanistan, 14.000 So % let troops
and 85000 Afghans since 1979; Burma. 2.000
since 1983; separatist violence in India. 3,000
since 1984: Indonesia (there are no reliable
estimates in the fighting over East Timor):
Cambodia. 24.000 since 1979; Laos and Viet-
nam. 30,000 since 1979; the Philippines.
60.000 since 1970. and Sri Lanka, 6.000 since
1984.
This study estimates that over all, since
the end of World War II in 1945, the death
total in all wars, rebellions and uprisings of
various sorts have taken the lives of 17 mil-
lion people, about half the deaths of the
last said conflict.
The Economist of London, commenting on
this study, notes that, outside the Persian
Gulf war, all wars between nations have dis-
appeared. The magazine also notes progress
In the present evacuation of Soviet troops
from Afghanistan and the United States-
Soviet efforts to reduce atomic weapons.
The World Priorities study said: "Present
nuclear arsenals, scattered worldwide, alone
represent over 26,000 times the explosive
force of all armaments used in World War
II."
But there are other- problems. Many of
the present wars are fueled by the Unitet
States. the Soviet Union and other industri-
al nations, and the technology to produre
nuclear weapons continues to spread.
Also, the news of the present wars is limit
ed by indifference, censorship, as in the
Iraq-Iran conflict, and unwillingness on the
part of the major governments to share
what information they have on these wart
with the public.
To a large extent, therefore, these are
"the forgotten wars." neglected even Jr:
those countries that preach the preciou:
value of every human life.
Much was said at the Reagan-Gorbachee
summit conference in Moscow about avoid
ing future nuclear wars, but little If any
thing about trying to end present wars
fought with everything from clubs anc
stones to poison gas. Or even about reducint
the flow of military weapons to the combat
ants.
At least, the major nations that dominate
the communications of the world could pub
lish an annual tally of the world's dead.
As It is now, if a war is not on televisior
It's not happening.
Mr. PROXMIRE. Mr. President,
suggest the absence of a quorum ar.c
yield the floor.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tem
pore. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded tt
call the roll.
Mr. REID. Mr. President. I as:
unanimous consent that the order fc
the quorum call be rescinded.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro te.rr.
pore. Without objection, it is so c:
dered.
The Chair recognizes the Senatc
from Nevada. Senator REID.
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