Max Kampelman

Max Kampelman is a retired diplomat and Cold War-era arms control negotiator who has supported the work of several neoconservative-led advocacy groups that have been instrumental in pushing militarist U.S. policies as part of the “war on terror.” Such groups include the Project for the New American Century (PNAC), the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, and the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Highly regarded for his past work in trying to forge arms control agreements (despite his support for several hardline anticommunist groups in the 1970s and 1980s), he participated in a study that promoted the idea of new U.S. nuclear weapons, yet he has more recently pushed for global nuclear disarmament.

Kampelman’s career spanned the Cold War, during which time he shifted between his private law practice at the firm Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson (now Fried Frank), and various government jobs, including serving as a legislative aide for several years to Sen. Hubert Humphrey (D-MN) and in various diplomatic posts under presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. 1 Kampelman is best known for his work as Reagan’s chief arms control negotiator, serving from 1985 to 1989 as head of U.S. negotiating teams that worked with the Soviet Union on nuclear and space weapons issues. He also served as ambassador to the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe from 1980 to 1983 and as counselor to the State Department from 1987 to 1989.

Kampelman also supported the work of some advocacy groups that emerged in the 1970s to push for hardline, anti-Soviet policies and that served as building blocks for the then-burgeoning neoconservative political faction. Among these were Social Democrats USA, a group that splintered from the Socialist Party USA in 1972 2; the Coalition for a Democratic Majority (CDM), which was created in the early 1970s by disgruntled Democrats who were angered by the emergence of antiwar elements in the party, and the Committee on the Present Danger (CPD), a group that helped push for an end to détente with the Soviet Union and many of whose members joined the Reagan administration. (For more on CDM, see Right Web Profile: Penn Kemble; for an account of the work of CPD, see Anne Hessing Cahn, Killing Détente: The Right Attacks the CIA, Pennsylvania State University Press, 1998.)

When the Cold War ended, Kampelman’s advocacy work continued. He collaborated with PNAC, the influential neoconservative letterhead group, and signed its 2002 letter to President George W. Bush criticizing Chinese rule in Hong Kong. 3 In 2001, he collaborated with the hardline National Institute for Public Policy (NIPP) in producing an influential policy document aimed at promoting aggressive new nuclear weapons policies, including the creation of less powerful, “usable” bombs. According to a 2002 World Policy Institute report, “In general, the NIPP report calls future security threats to the U.S. unknown and unpredictable. Therefore, the report concludes that the U.S. must maintain its nuclear arsenal, and the ability to design, build and test new nuclear weapons. The report asserts that conventional weapons are inadequate replacements for nuclear weapons because they do not have the same ‘destructive power.’ As a solution the report recommends the development of ‘low-yield, precision-guided nuclear weapons.’ In other words, a nuclear weapon the U.S. can actually use.” 4

Kampelman also supports the work of a number of other organizations known for their militarist “war on terror” agendas and support of policies in line with Israel’s Likud Party, which is largely supportive of the settler movement and has opposed peace efforts aimed at creating a Palestinian state. He is a “Distinguished Advisor” to the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, 5 a member of the Board of Advisors of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, 6 and a member of a new version of the Committee on the Present Danger created after the 9/11 attacks to promote a hardline agenda for the “war on terror.” 7 Kampelman is also chairman emeritus of the Board of Trustees of Freedom House, 8 a U.S.-government-funded group that has been criticized for being an instrument of propaganda.

Despite his support of hardline policies, Kampelman has become a proponent of not just nuclear disarmament, but of total global nuclear elimination. In an April 2006 New York Times op-ed, Kampelman wrote that despite having witnessed “two successful titanic struggles by civilized society against totalitarian movements, those against Nazi fascism and Soviet communism,” he has “never been more worried about the future for my children and grandchildren. … The number of countries possessing nuclear arms is increasing, and terrorists are poised to master nuclear technology with the objective of using those deadly arms against us.” To confront this challenge, he argued that President George W. Bush must take the lead promoting disarmament. He wrote, “To this end, President Bush should consult with our allies, appear before the United Nations General Assembly and call for a resolution embracing the objective of eliminating all weapons of mass destruction. He should make clear that we are prepared to eliminate our nuclear weapons if the Security Council develops an effective regime to guarantee total conformity with a universal commitment to eliminate all nuclear arms and reaffirm the existing conventions covering chemical and biological weapons.” 9
Shortly after penning this op-ed, Kampelman helped lead a Hoover Institution forum on nuclear disarmament. Other participants included an elite group of former policy makers: Henry Kissinger, William Perry, Sam Nunn, and George Shultz. At the October 2007 conference, Kampelman repeated many of the same points he mentioned his New York Times op-ed. According to a Hoover Institution press release, “The theme of former U.S. ambassador Max Kampelman’s remarks was the importance of moving from ought to is. He compared the goals of the Reykjavik II conference to those of the U. S. Constitution. Kampelman said that the principles of the Constitution may have seemed idealistic when they were introduced, but the founders had a vision that what ought to be would eventually become reality. Kampelman believes that pursuing zero tolerance of nuclear weapons is a goal the U.S. government should energetically pursue to prepare for the future. ‘What ought calls for is to get rid of nuclear weapons,’ he declared.” 10

President Bill Clinton awarded Kampelman the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1999, and President Ronald Reagan awarded him the Presidential Citizens Medal in 1989. 11

Kampelman's books include Entering New Worlds: The Memoirs of a Private Man in Public Life (1991), and The Communist Party vs. The C.I.O: A Study in Power Politics (1957).

Affiliations 12

Education 15