The Vulcans - Origin

Origin

During the summer of 1998, George W. Bush met with Condoleezza Rice at the behest of George H.W. Bush at the Bush estate in Kennebunkport, Maine. Rice had been director for Soviet and East European Affairs of the National Security Council under Brent Scowcroft during George H. W. Bush's administration and Scowcroft had been guiding her career ever since, ensuring she came to the attention of Bush Sr. "Eventually he was quite taken with her," Scowcroft recalled in an interview by James Mann for his book Rise of the Vulcans (2004). According to Coit D. Blacker, Rice and George W. Bush also "bonded at Kennebunkport" in August 1998. The several days of discussions that followed resulted in Rice agreeing to take charge of foreign policy for George W. Bush’s upcoming presidential campaign. Later that year Paul Wolfowitz, a former protégé of George Shultz and Dick Cheney, was taken on as well. Wolfowitz had also served as foreign policy advisor to Bob Dole during the 1996 U.S. presidential election.

In early 1999, a team largely drawn from the middle echelons of the first Bush administration began to act as foreign policy advisors to George W. Bush.

  • Richard Armitage, former Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs.
  • Robert Blackwill, former member of the United States National Security Council.
  • Stephen Hadley, former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Global Strategic Affairs.
  • Scooter Libby, former Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Policy.
  • Richard Perle, former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Global Strategic Affairs.
  • Condoleezza Rice, former member of the United States National Security Council.
  • Paul Wolfowitz, former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy.
  • Dov Zakheim, former Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Strategy, Plans, & Forces.
  • Robert Zoellick, former Counselor of the United States Department of State.

In early 1999, the Vulcans held their first meeting in Austin, Texas, which was attended by Cheney and Shultz. The group communicated regularly afterward.

During 1999 and 2000, a second group was formed under the leadership of Donald Rumsfeld to deal specifically with the subject of missile defence. While distinct from the Vulcans, it did include Rice, Wolfowitz, Hadley and Perle alongside Shultz and various scientists, including Martin Anderson of Stanford University and Lowell Wood of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

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