.
“Countries are free to buy American arms….The question is how they pay for it. If the American taxpayer finances them, this would be a direct subsidy to the arms industry.”…“The Congressional Budget Office [in 1997] says the cost may reach $125 billion over 15 years, with the United States [taxpayers] paying up to $19 billion.”...US offered “five-year leases of F-16 and F-18 fighter jets, free of charge” to Hungary, Poland, and Czech Republic. In 1997, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland received $30 million from a $60 million [US taxpayer funded] Pentagon grant program." ...As 42 million Americans live below the poverty line.
6/29/1997, “Arms Makers See Bonanza In Selling NATO Expansion," NY Times, Jeff Gerth, Tim Weiner
‘‘NATO enlargement is in our national interests,” President Clinton said this month at West Point’s commencement. ”But because it is not without cost and risk, it is appropriate to have an open, full, national discussion before proceeding.”
The [Clinton] Administration says the cost of a few nations’ joining NATO
may reach $35 billion over 10 years,
with the United States paying about $2 billion.
But the Congressional Budget Office says
the cost may reach $125 billion over 15 years,
with the United States [taxpayers] paying up to $19 billion….
Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland all project rising military budgets in coming years, though that spending is still a small portion of their economies, according to a Senate Foreign Relations Committee
report by Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., a Delaware Democrat who supports NATO expansion.
Hungary expects that joining the alliance will increase its military spending by about 35 percent. Poland projects a 20 percent rise, though a United States Information Agency survey in Poland found that
three-quarters of the people favored
spending more money on health and education,
Critics of NATO expansion say
weapons spending
could create political and economic problems in Central Europe.
”It’s extraordinarily unwise for these countries to shoulder these costs when they must pay the costs of meeting their social needs," said Jack Matlock, a former United States Ambassador to Moscow.
”These countries are free to buy American arms,” he said.
”The question is how they pay for it.
If the American taxpayer finances them, this would be a direct subsidy to the arms industry.
If they pay for them themselves, it could lead to real distortions in these countries’ own budgets.”
The prospect of soaring arms spending by potential NATO nations, particularly Romania,
also worries the International Monetary Fund, whose billions of dollars of loans in the region are
conditioned on fiscal restraint, according to the fund’s officials.
This month, the fund’s managing director, Michel Camdessus, raised the issue of military spending in Central Europe with Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin, according to a senior Treasury official.
At the same time, the fund’s staff, in its annual review of the United States economy, reminded the Clinton Administration of its past promises to help prevent ”excessive military spending” in emerging economies, including Central European nations. The fund’s staff urged the United States to handle arms sales ”in a way that avoids encouraging unproductive expenditures and heightening security tensions.”
A senior Treasury official said the United States shared those concerns and had ”urged NATO candidate countries to be cautious about buying big-ticket items.”
Still, to entice those same nations to buy American weapons,
the Pentagon has laid out a smorgasbord of
grants, discount loans and free leases.
The Air Force and the Navy
have offered Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland
five-year leases of F-16 and F-18 fighter jets,
That offer came after the three nations asked the Pentagon about the individual prices and
availability of more than $8 billion in jets, according to documents obtained by Arms Trade News.
Eight billion dollars exceeds the three nations’
combined annual defense budgets.
Last month [1997], Romania became the first country to tap into a $15 billion
defense export loan guarantee fund,
like [Lockheed Martin chief executive] Mr. Augustine.
The Romanians want the money to buy $23 million in unmanned reconnaissance planes.
And this year [1997], Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland
received $30 million
from a $60 million [US taxpayer funded] Pentagon grant program.
Beyond Congress, the White House and the Pentagon,
NATO expansion is
a hot issue in the growing subculture of nonprofit organizations,
where interest groups form associations
with civic-sounding names to advance their causes.
[Lockheed executive] Mr. [Bruce L.] Jackson set up
his U.S. Committee to Expand NATO committee last November [1996]….
[Bruce L. Jackson is president of the U.S. Committee to Expand NATO, giving intimate dinners for Senators and foreign officials. By day, he is director of strategic planning for Lockheed Martin Corporation, the world’s biggest weapons maker. Mr. Jackson says he keeps his two identities separate, but his company and his lobbying group are fighting the same battle. Defense contractors are acting like globe-hopping diplomats to encourage the expansion of NATO, which will create a huge market for their wares.]
One of its founders, Greg Craig, recently became the State Department’s director of policy planning.
Now the Romanians, hoping to win NATO membership in the next round of candidates,
are helping to set up
two nonprofit foundations in Washington to advance their cause, said Ambassador Geoana.
Financial support for at least one of the foundations will come from Bell Helicopter, Lockheed Martin and other arms makers,
the Ambassador and company officials said.”
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