Lawrence J. Korb Discusses Defending America on a Balanced Budget

What is the price of freedom? Are we paying more than we should? Lawrence J. Korb, senior advisor to the Center for Defense Information and former assistant secretary of defense under Ronald Reagan, discussed “Defending America on a Balanced Budget: Is it Possible?” at the library Monday night.

The , in conjunction with the World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh, brought Korb to share his thoughts and ideas on defense and a balanced budget. It was not his first time in the Steel City. He is a former dean of the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh.

Korb, a commentator and contributor to "The News Hour with Jim Lehrer,” “Nightline,” “60 Minutes,” and others, said, “After 9/11 the baseline military budget went over a trillion dollars comparatively. After 2001 the defense department went undisciplined.”

The affable and charismatic speaker discussed the exorbitant cost of American defense, listing dollar amounts in the billions and trillions. 

“(The military budget) is the highest since World War II. The baseline budget is (comparatively) $100 billion more than during the Cold War.”

The congenial Korb spoke to an audience of veterans, library patrons and a group of students from Thomas Olszewski’s World Cultures class at Canon-McMillan High School.

Some of his opinions were controversial. He joked, “Nixon was the last liberal president.” He followed that comment by citing examples.

“Nixon maintained a high public approval rating, until his obvious troubles. He also cut defense spending by about a third and withdrew our troops from Vietnam.” He outlined several other liberal policies of the Republican president.

Korb is no stranger to controversy. He has worked for both political parties. Though he spent years working for Reagan and the first President Bush, he's also worked with President Barack Obama.

The former assistant secretary of defense is a proponent of University of Chicago’s professor John Mearsheimer and his strategic concepts on Offshore Balancing.

“There are 80,000 U.S. Troops in Europe and 30,000 U.S. Troops in Korea. We could easily cut back on our troops around the world." He noted, “Europeans are cutting their defense budgets. They have us.”

He also cited Peter Beinart's book, "The Icarus Syndrome: A History of American Hubris." Korb explained, for the younger members of the audience, the mythical Icarus who whose wings melted when he flew too close to the sun, and how political scientist Peter Beinart uses Icarus' character flaw, hubris (pride), as the basis for his study of three major foreign-policy blunders that Beinart claims America made over the past century.

Korb spoke about the Cold War and the balance of power during that tumultuous period. He said, “Back then we had MAD, or Mutual Assured Destruction. Now, with China, we have MAD, Mutual Assured Depression.”

He went on to talk about the American debt to China. “When China wanted Taiwan, we started to amass our ships in the Pacific Rim, but then China said it would take its currency from the dollar and go to the Euro. Game over.”

After his brief 30-minute lecture, he took questions from the audience.

In a private moment he reminisced fondly about the city of Pittsburgh and laughed at Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, making light of Trump's position as a "birther," (a person who rejects Barack Obama’s American citizenship), and brought up the billionaire’s numerous bankruptcies.

He said, “If President Obama is elected again, I believe he will spend a lot of time looking at his legacy, like Reagan did in his second term, and finally move forward.”

Korb also is a prolific author. He has written over a 100 articles and has several books. His books include, “The Joint Chiefs of Staff: The First Twenty-five Years,” “The System for Educating Military Officers in the U.S.,” “The Fall and Rise of the Pentagon,” “American National Security: Policy and Process,” “Future Visions for U.S. Defense Policy, Reshaping America’s Military,” “A New National Security Strategy in an Age of Terrorists,” and “Tyrants, and Weapons of Mass Destruction.”