Senator Walter Mondales
David L. Aaron was an employee for whom from 1974 to 1975?
David L . Aaron David Laurence Aaron ( born August 21 , 1938 ) is an American diplomat and writer who served in the Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton administrations . He graduated from Occidental College with a BA , and from Princeton University with an MPA . He later received an honorary Ph.D from Occidental College . He is currently director of the RAND Corporations Center for Middle East Public Policy . Life and career . Aaron was born in Chicago , Illinois , United States . He entered the U.S . foreign service in 1962 , where he served as a political and economic officer in Guayaquil , Ecuador . In 1964 he was assigned to the NATO desk at the Department of State . He subsequently served as a political officer to NATO where he worked on the Nuclear Planning Group and on the Non Proliferation Treaty . He then joined the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency where he served as a member of the U.S . Delegation to the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks ( SALT ) , during which Aaron was a key negotiator of an agreement with the Soviet Union to reduce the risk of nuclear weapon accidents . He was then recruited to serve on Henry Kissingers National Security Council staff during the Nixon administration , from 1972 to 1974 . During that time , Aaron drafted NSSM 242 on Nuclear Strategy , which came to be known as the Schlesinger Doctrine . In 1974 , on the recommendation of Zbigniew Brzezinski , Aaron became Senator Walter Mondales legislative assistant . The following year , Aaron was task force leader of the Senates Select Committee on Intelligence . He was the principal architect of the Committees recommendations . Aaron later followed Mondale to the Jimmy Carter Presidential campaign . In 1977 , Aaron was asked by Zbigniew Brzezinski , who had been appointed the National Security Advisor , to become Deputy National Security Advisor in the administration of Jimmy Carter . Aaron was one of several former Kissinger aides appointed by Jimmy Carter to foreign policy and defense positions . During his time at the White House , Aaron made a name for himself in foreign policy circles and was recognized as a rising star in the Democratic Party . Aaron was a special envoy to Africa , Latin America , China , Israel and Europe , and became a trusted envoy on Presidential missions . Shortly after Carters inauguration , Aaron attended the Bilderberg Conference , in which he undertook lengthy private discussions with German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt . In Israel , Aaron worked with Moshe Dayan on the concept of autonomy for the Palestinians . This concept helped to open the door for the Camp David Agreements , which are understood to have structured peace between Egypt and Israel . Aaron also represented the White House in talks with the Office of French President Valéry Giscard dEstaing in Paris , as well as with the Cabinet Office at 10 Downing Street in London . President Carter tapped Aaron to lead an inter-agency mission to structure an agreement with European nations to deploy U.S . Pershing Missiles and Ground Launched Cruise Missiles in Europe , in response to the deployment of SS-20 Intermediate Missiles by the Soviet Union . He persuaded key governments to accept the U.S . deployments , as well as to seek negotiations with the U.S.S.R . for the future bilateral elimination of the deployments . Aaron was also seen as a tough and sometimes controversial figure . The U.S . Ambassador in Paris complained that he was going behind his back in secret dealings with French President Giscard dEstaings office . In 1978 , he came head to head with Director of Central Intelligence Turner of the CIA , on Turners cutbacks and at the CIA . Aarons image as a tough customer was intensified during an attack on North Yemen by South Yemen which was backed by the Soviet Union . President Carter , Brzezinski and Cyrus Vance were on a mission to Egypt and Israel . He remained in Washington to coordinate the U.S . response . Aarons hard-line against Communist expansion led him to push for the dispatch of $400 million in arms to North Yemen . White House staff commented on his tough rule , one staff member was quoted as saying , Believe it or not , people were relieved when Brzezinski got back to town . When Reagan became President in 1981 , Aaron moved into the private sector , becoming Vice President for Mergers and Acquisitions at Oppenheimer and Co . and Vice Chairman of Oppenheimer International . Aaron left Oppenheimer in 1985 , to write and lecture , but went on to serve on the board of directors of Oppenheimers Quest for Value Dual Purpose Fund . Over the next several years he published three novels ( State Scarlet ; Agent of Influence and Crossing By Night ) which were translated into ten languages . He also wrote a television documentary , The Lessons of the Gulf War , hosted by former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff William J . Crowe . He was also a consultant for the 20th Century Fund , from 1990 to 1992 . Aaron was involved in the election campaigns of Walter Mondale and Bill Clinton . In Mondales campaign , Aaron played a leading role as senior consultant on foreign policy and defense . Aaron served in Clintons foreign policy team during his election campaign . In 1993 he became United States Permanent Representative to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development ( OECD ) in Paris , and in 1996 was assigned the additional job of White House Special Envoy for Cryptography . At the OECD he successfully negotiated the Convention to Prohibit Bribery in International Business Transactions . As Special Envoy for Cryptography , Aaron pushed for a global standard that would require computer users with high grade encryption to submit keys to their codes for scrambling data to an independent authority , which would hold them in escrow and make them available to law enforcement only under a court order . At the time , he argued that unbreakable codes in the hands of terrorists would threaten every countrys security . However , he was attacked by advocates of privacy rights , who said that the compromise could easily be misused by Governments and corporations . In 1997 he was appointed Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade , where ironically he negotiated privacy rules with the European Union on the handling of personal data . After Clintons second term in office , Aaron became senior international advisor at Dorsey & Whitney . He left Dorsey & Whitney in 2003 to join the RAND Corporation as a senior fellow . At RAND , he directs The Center For Middle East Public Policy and recently produced a non fiction book , In their Own Words : Voices of Jihad , published by the RAND Corporation . He is a member of the American Ditchley Foundation , the Atlantic Council , the Council on Foreign Relations , the International League of Human Rights , the National Democratic Institute , and the Pacific Council on International Policy . David married Chloe Aaron in 1962 , with whom he had a son ; his wife died in early 2020 . References . - The Other Side of the Story , Jody Powell , Morrow 1984 External links . - David L . Aaron Papers at the Seeley G . Mudd Manuscript Library , Princeton University