Jointly with the labs, Vic developed the concept of nuclear weapons stewardship, holding the nation's nuclear weapons in our trust and answering to the President and the American public for the safety and reliability of the weapons. To Vic, stewardship represented the cornerstone of the compelling mission for which we had searched. Moreover, he made the fundamental observation that the laboratories were key to stewardship. Vic believes that only great laboratories can rise to the challenge of nuclear weapons stewardship. This drive for stewardship came at a time when most of the Department was much more interested in process and protocol.
Vision is the primary motivation of human action.
It allows us to live out our imagination instead of our memory. Vic, in addition, preached focus and discipline. Vic is a strategist. He preaches vision, mission and focus, but also worries about potential system failure modes. His nightmare scenario is that during the CTBT deliberations in the Senate, the laboratories would not make a convincing case that the nuclear stockpile can be maintained without nuclear testing.