Perry, William J.
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- William J. Perry (BS 1949, MS 1950) is the Michael and Barbara Berberian Professor Emeritus at Stanford. An expert on international security, arms control, and strategic defense, he served as the U.S. Secretary of Defense from February 1994 to January 1997. This oral history focuses largely on his early life, education, experience in the defense industry at Sylvania’s Electronic Defense Laboratory and at Electromagnetic Systems Laboratory, and his work at Stanford’s Center for International Security and Arms Control, now the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC). In the first interview session, Perry talks about his family background and growing up in western Pennsylvania. Always displaying keen interest in the wider world, he recalls monitoring international affairs from a young age, especially the events of the Second Sino-Japanese War and the drama of British naval ships pursing the German Admiral Graf Spee. Perry describes meeting his future wife, Leonilla Mary Green, in high school and traces the path that led him to study engineering at Carnegie Tech and join the Army Corps of Engineers. Trained as a surveyor, he describes a mission in postwar Japan and the devastation he witnessed there. After his time in the army, Perry explains, he finished his undergraduate education in mathematics, transferring from Carnegie Tech to Stanford in his senior year and completing his master’s degree in mathematics with the help of the GI Bill. Perry recalls the professors in the Stanford Department of Mathematics, especially George Pólya who strongly influenced his way of dealing with problems and people. Life as a married student with a new baby, coursework, teaching responsibilities, and working for the Department of Electrical Engineering made for a circumscribed social life while at Stanford, explains Perry. With the goal of being a math professor, Perry decided to pursue a PhD, but financial considerations led him from Stanford to Penn State where he was also able to work as an instructor while completing coursework. Now the father of four young children, Perry describes “living close to the edge” financially during this busy time. To make ends meet, he took a half-time job at local defense contractor HRB, where John McLucas hired him to work on a new communications electronics system for the US Army Signal Corps. Perry concludes the first interview session by describing his decision to abandon his goal of becoming a math professor in order to pursue a career as an applied mathematician in the defense industry. In 1954, he accepted a job at Sylvania’s Electronic Defense Laboratory (EDL) in Mountain View, California, influenced greatly by its proximity to Stanford. Perry discusses his work at EDL on electronic countermeasures directed against Soviet missiles, especially ICBMs. In the second interview session, Perry discusses how he and colleagues from Sylvania founded the Electromagnetic Systems Laboratory (ESL), a defense contractor that pioneered the use of digital technology. Perry describes the nature of ESL’s work for the government, the importance of the company’s proximity to semiconductor manufacturers such as Fairchild, and the unique spirit of Stanford and the Silicon Valley--“the idea that anything’s possible and you should try to do it.” The story of how he and colleague Lou Franklin used the Stanford radio telescope (aka the Stanford Dish) to gain information about a Soviet radar system is a highlight here. He describes the difficult decision to move to Washington DC to become under secretary of defense in the Carter administration, charged with introducing digital technology to the Defense Department. He describes elements of this “Offset Strategy” and ruminates on the liabilities that can accompany leadership in both industry and military realms. Returning from Washington in 1981, Perry narrates his foray into the venture capital arena, and the invitation to come back to Stanford as co-director of CISAC and professor in Engineering-Economic Systems. Perry describes CISAC’s role in developing dialogues with China and the Soviet Union, advising Russia and Eastern European countries on defense plant conversion, and helping the United States to develop a program to secure and dismantle weapons of mass destruction. Perry also shares his thoughts about the importance of institutes and centers such as CISAC. In the third interview session, Perry describes the sequence of events that led to him become deputy secretary and then secretary of defense, elaborates on his work with CISAC, and discusses teaching at Stanford. Perry speaks about his involvement with Professor John Lewis and CISAC during the center’s early days and describes Galvez House, CISAC’s first home on campus. He recalls his work with Wolfgang Panofsky and Sidney Drell on arms control and discusses some of the consequences of SALT I and his argument against the Reagan administration’s Strategic Defense Initiative. He recalls Mikhail Gorbachev’s visit to Stanford, describes his work on Russia with Ash Carter of Harvard, and speaks about using track II diplomacy to pursue issues he had begun working on in Washington. Perry also describes a challenging assignment he received upon his return to Stanford at the behest of the dean of the School of Engineering, John Hennessy--combining three departments in the School of Engineering into one functioning unit. Perry offers his views of Hennessy as dean and then as Stanford president and describes the unpublished manuscript they co-authored forecasting the state of technology in 2000. The interview concludes with Perry describing his work on the William J. Perry Project, which includes a book, YouTube videos, and an online course designed to inform audiences about nuclear weapons in today’s world and dramatize the ways that a nuclear war might start.
Description
| Type of resource | mixed material |
|---|---|
| Date created | May 20, 2016 - July 29, 2016 |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Perry, William James | |
|---|---|---|
| Contributing author | Taubman, Philip | |
| Publisher | Stanford Historical Society |
Subjects
| Subject | William J. Perry |
|---|---|
| Subject | Stanford University > Center for International Security and Arms Control |
| Subject | Electromagnetic Systems Laboratory |
| Subject | Electronic Defense Laboratory |
| Subject | Stanford Historical Society |
| Subject | oral histories |
| Subject | interviews |
| Subject | higher education |
| Subject | professors |
Bibliographic information
| Related item |
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| Location | https://purl.stanford.edu/kx234cg2420 |
Access conditions
- Use and reproduction
- The materials are open for research use and may be used freely for non-commercial purposes with an attribution. For commercial permission requests, please contact the Stanford University Archives (universityarchives@stanford.edu).
- Copyright
- Copyright © The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. All rights reserved.
Preferred citation
- Preferred Citation
Perry, William J. (2016).
Oral History. Stanford Historical Society Oral History Program Interviews (SC0932).
Department of Special Collections & University Archives, Stanford University Libraries,
Stanford, Calif. Available at:
https://purl.stanford.edu/kx234cg2420
Collection
Stanford Historical Society Oral History Program interviews, 1999-2022
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- universityarchives@stanford.edu
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