William J. Perry

William James Perry (born October 11, 1927) is an American mathematician, engineer, businessman, and civil servant who was the United States Secretary of Defense from February 3, 1994, to January 23, 1997, under President Bill Clinton.

He graduated from Butler Senior High School in 1945 and served in the United States Army as an enlisted man from 1946 to 1947, including service in the Occupation of Japan.

Perry received his B.S. (1949) and M.A. (1950) degrees from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in mathematics from Pennsylvania State University in 1957.

Perry later received a commission in the United States Army Reserve through ROTC, serving from 1950 to 1955.

From 1954 to 1964 Perry was director of the Electronic Defense Laboratories of Sylvania/GTE in California, and from 1964 to 1977 president of Electromagnetic Systems Laboratory (ESL), Incorporated, an electronics firm that he founded.

He was instrumental in demonstrating the technical feasibility of extracting Signals intelligence on the Soviet Union from the overall Rf background with the then proposed Rhyolite/Aquacade surveillance program.

In 1967 he was hired as a technical consultant to the Department of Defense.

He was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 1970 for contributions to communications theory, radio propagation theory, and computer technology in the design of advanced systems.

He is also a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

From 1977 to 1981, during the Jimmy Carter administration, Perry served as Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, where he had responsibility for weapon systems procurement and research and development.

Among other achievements, he had an influence on the development of the AirLand Battle doctrine, and was instrumental in the development of stealth aircraft technology, specifically the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk.

Later in the 1980s he held positions as founder and chairman of Technology Strategies Alliances, professor in the School of Engineering at Stanford University, and served as a co-director of the Preventive Defense Project at the Stanford University Center for International Security and Cooperation.

On leaving the Pentagon in 1981, Perry became managing director until 1985 of Hambrecht & Quist, a San Francisco investment banking firm "specializing in high-tech and defense companies."

He was appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1983 to serve on the President's Commission on Strategic Forces.

He was also a member of the Packard Commission.

He also served as Deputy Secretary of Defense (1993–1994) and Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (1977–1981).

Perry is the Michael and Barbara Berberian Professor (emeritus) at Stanford University, with a joint appointment at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and the School of Engineering.

He is also a senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution.

He is the co-founder of the Palo Alto Unitarian Church and serves as director of the Preventive Defense Project.

He is an expert in U.S. foreign policy, national security and arms control.

Perry returned to the Pentagon as Under Secretary of Defense after being nominated by Bill Clinton on February 3, 1993,

Perry's boss as Undersecretary, Les Aspin, was not a good fit for the job and within a year tendered his resignation.

Perry succeeded him after a two-month search.

The same day of his confirmation hearing, Perry was confirmed by a unanimous (97-0) vote to become Defense Secretary.

He entered office with broad national security experience, both in industry and government and with an understanding of the challenges that he faced.

A hands-on manager, he paid attention both to internal operations in the Pentagon and to international security issues.

He worked closely with his deputy secretaries (John M. Deutch, 1994–95, and John P. White, 1995–97), and he met regularly with the service secretaries, keeping them informed and seeking their advice on issues.

He described his style as "management by walking around."

Perry adopted "preventive defense" as his guide to national security policy in the post-Cold War world.

During the Cold War the United States had relied on deterrence rather than prevention as the central principle of its security strategy.

Perry outlined three basic tenets of a preventive strategy: keep threats from emerging; deter those that actually emerged; and if prevention and deterrence failed, defeat the threat with military force.

In practical terms this strategy relied on threat reduction programs (reducing the nuclear complex of the former Soviet Union), counter-proliferation efforts, the NATO Partnership for Peace and expansion of the alliance, and the maintenance of military forces and weapon systems ready to fight if necessary.

To carry out this strategy, Perry thought it necessary to maintain a modern, ready military force, capable of fighting two major regional wars at the same time.

The formulation of the Defense budget and shepherding it through Congress was one of Perry's most important duties.

The problem of how to deal with a large projected Defense budget shortfall for the period 1995–2000, an issue that weakened Perry's predecessor Les Aspin and contributed to his resignation, persisted when Perry took office.

Immediately on presenting his 1995 budget request, which he termed "a post-Cold War budget," Perry stated that Defense required a few more years of downsizing and that its infrastructure needed streamlining as well.

Among Perry's numerous awards are the Presidential Medal of Freedom (1997) and the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun (2002), awarded by Japan.

Born in Vandergrift, Pennsylvania, Perry attended, but did not graduate from Culver Military Academy.

In 2013 he founded the William J. Perry Project, a non-profit effort to educate the public on the current dangers of nuclear weapons.

Perry also has extensive business experience and serves on the boards of several high-tech companies.