[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 79 (Monday, June 9, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Page S5429]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      TRIBUTE TO DR. DAVID ABSHIRE

 Mr. THOMPSON. Mr. President, it is with great pleasure that I 
recognize today a fellow Tennessean, Dr. David Abshire, who last month 
received the Distinguished Graduate Award before the Corps of 4,000 
Cadets at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
  Dr. Abshire has a long and distinguished record of service to 
America. Not only has he served as an Army officer, an Assistant 
Secretary of State, our Ambassador to NATO, and as a special counselor 
to the President, but he also played an integral role in founding and 
building the Center for Strategic and International Studies [CSIS].
  Mr. President, in addition to recognizing Dr. Abshire's impressive 
list of past accomplishments, I am particularly appreciative of the 
work he and the staff at CSIS are doing. Recently, Dr. Abshire and the 
CSIS staff have developed an innovative approach to working with 
individual States, counties, and cities in order to maximize the 
benefits of job creation, investment, exports, and economic growth 
stemming from a more global economy. I am gratified that Dr. Abshire 
has chosen Tennessee as the State in which to begin this effort. His 
work with Governor Sundquist and my office is greatly appreciated.
  I applaud Dr. Abshire for his dedicated service to America and 
Tennessee, and on his recent recognition at West Point. I ask to have 
printed in the Record the full West Point citation on this outstanding 
soldier, scholar, diplomat, and institution builder.
  The citation follows:


                            david m. abshire

       Throughout his forth-six years of national service, 
     institution building, and extraordinary scholarship. David M. 
     Abshire has exemplified outstanding devotion to the 
     principles expressed in the motto of the United States 
     Military Academy: Duty, Honor Country.
       Dr. Abshire began a lifetime of public service upon his 
     graduation from West Point in 1951. After infantry branch 
     training, he was assigned to Korea, where serving in combat 
     as a front line infantry platoon leader and company 
     commander, he was cited for valor.
       In 1955, he left the Army to enroll in the graduate program 
     at Georgetown University from which he received a Ph.D., with 
     honors, in History in 1959.
       He then joined the staff of the House Minority Leader and 
     subsequently became Director for Special Projects at the 
     American Enterprise Institute in 1961. While there, he 
     conceived the idea and, together with Admiral Arleigh Burke, 
     organized the founding of the Center for Strategic and 
     International Studies. Since its inception, Dr. Abshire has 
     been the principal architect and institution builder of what 
     has become widely recognized as a world leading public policy 
     institution. Over the years, he was has recruited world 
     statesmen and strategists to the Center's ranks, and has 
     involved a wide range of Members of Congress and corporate 
     leaders, in working groups to solve national and 
     international problems.
       Throughout his tenure as President, the Center produced 
     incisive studies that have been instrumental in formulating 
     national public policy. An early study was pivotal in the 
     drafting and passage of the Goldwater Nichols Act. In 1992, 
     the Center produced the report of the 58-person Nunn/Domenici 
     Commission on Strengthening of America. In March of 1997, the 
     Center published a definitive study of Professional Military 
     Education, providing much needed scholarly rationale 
     supporting the military educational system and, in 
     particular, validating the roles of West Point and the other 
     Service Academies as the linchpins of that system.
       As a public policy practitioner, Dr. Abshire has held a 
     series of high-level Presidential appointments.
       He served as Assistant Secretary of State for Congressional 
     Relations from 1970 to 1973 and played a pivotal role in 
     maintaining bipartisan Congressional coalitions that 
     sustained the U.S. military effort in Vietnam. He negotiated 
     the compromise to the Cooper-Church Amendment that otherwise 
     would have seriously restricted military operations in 
     Southeast Asia. He also developed the Congressional 
     compromise that insured the survival of Radio Liberty and 
     Radio-Free Europe under a public board, in the face of an 
     attempt to cut off CIA funding and let the Radios die. These 
     stations thus continued to play a key role in the Cold War 
     battle to open East European and Russian society
       President Ford, in 1974, appointed him as the first 
     chairman of the U.S. Board for international Broadcasting. As 
     President Carter later wrote:
       ``You have rendered a distinguished service in getting the 
     Board solidly established as sponsor of Radio Free Europe and 
     Radio Liberty and in representing these important 
     institutions to the Congress and the American public. . . .''
       In 1974, President Gerald Ford also appointed Dr. Abshire 
     to the Congressional Commission on the Organization of the 
     Government for the Conduct of Foreign Policy.
       In 1980, Dr. Abshire was asked by President-elect Ronald 
     Reagan to chair the transition of administrations in the CIA, 
     State and Defense Departments. Subsequently, he was asked to 
     serve on the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. 
     In 1983, he was appointed U.S. Ambassador to NATO. As 
     Ambassador, Dr. Abshire was the point man all NATO for 
     building allied support for the deployment of the U.S. 
     Pershing II missiles in Europe to counter the threat of 
     Soviet nuclear blackmail
       In awarding Ambassador Abshire the Department of Defense 
     Medal for Distinguished Public Service, Secretary Weinberger 
     said:
       ``Throughout a period of great flux in inter-allied and 
     East-West relations, he was the source of an astonishing flow 
     of imaginative and resourceful ideas geared to the resolution 
     of difficult alliance issues.
       ``Ambassador Abshire's cogent and innovative proposals for 
     enhancing NATO arms cooperation have already transformed that 
     crucial area of alliance activities. Ever mindful of the 
     central importance of parliamentary and public opinion, he 
     worked tirelessly to build an effective and lasting 
     partnership with Congress. . . .''
       In 1987, Dr. Abshire was personally asked by President 
     Reagan to serve as Special Counselor to the President with 
     Cabinet rank for the purpose of organizing White House and 
     departmental responses to the Iran Contra investigations to 
     insure that there was no cover up. After much previous 
     criticism, the integrity of his effort earned Dr. Abshire 
     bipartisan credit for restoring the credibility in the 
     Administration at a difficult time for the Presidency.
       As a private citizen, he has served as a member of the 
     Board of Directors of Procter & Gamble and the Ogden 
     Corporation, and on the Advisory Board of BP America.
       In the realm of scholarship, he has written five books and 
     edited three others on a wide range of domestic and 
     international issues. He has been a strong promoter in his 
     writings and at CSIS of the study of strategy and history.
       Dr. Abshire is a Trustee of Baylor School (Chattanoga, 
     Tennessee). He is also co-founder of the Trinity National 
     Leadership Roundtable in Washington, a former Vice-Chairman 
     of Youth for Understanding, and a board member of the Army 
     War College Foundation.
       He has been decorated by the chiefs of state of Belgium, 
     Italy, Finland, Korea, and the United States.
       Soldier, institution builder, public servant, author, 
     scholar, diplomat and counselor to Presidents, Dr. Abshire 
     was rendered a lifetime of extraordinary service to his 
     country and to the international community of freedom loving 
     nations.
       Accordingly, the Association of Graduates takes great pride 
     in presenting the 1997 Distinguished Graduate Award to David 
     M. Abshire, Class of 1951.

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