Fred Iklé Dr . Fred Charles Iklé ( August 21 , 1924 – November 10 , 2011 ) was a Swiss - born sociologist and defense expert who became a significant part of the US defense policy establishment . Iklé ' s expertise was in defense and foreign policy , nuclear strategy , and the role of technology in the emerging international order . After a career in academia ( including a professorship at MIT ) he was appointed director of the U . S . Arms Control and Disarmament Agency in 1973 - 1977 , before becoming Under Secretary of Defense for Policy ( 1981 to 1988 ) . He was later a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Department of Defense ' s Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee , a Distinguished Scholar with the Center for Strategic and International Studies ( CSIS ) and a Director of the National Endowment for Democracy . Iklé is credited with a key role in increasing U . S . aid to anti - Soviet rebels in the Soviet War in Afghanistan . He successfully proposed and promoted the idea of supplying the rebels with anti - aircraft Stinger missiles , overcoming CIA opposition . Background and early career . Iklé was born Fritz Karl Iklé in Samedan , Switzerland in 1924 , growing up in St . Gallen ; he anglicised his name after moving to the United States in 1946 . From 1964 to 1967 Iklé was a professor in political science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . He was also at the Rand Corporation and at Harvard University ' s Weatherhead Center for International Affairs . At Harvard he met Henry Kissinger , and in 1973 Kissinger ( then Richard Nixon ' s national security advisor ) recruited Iklé to government service . Government service . From 1973 to 1977 Iklé served as director of the U . S . Arms Control and Disarmament Agency . After the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980 , Iklé was appointed Under Secretary of Defense for Policy , serving from 1981 to 1988 . Under Secretary of Defense . As an under secretary of defense , Iklé led the effort to lobby for National Security Decision Directive 166 ( " Expanded US Aid to Afghan Guerrillas " ) , signed by Reagan in March 1985 . When he visited Pakistan in April 1985 , Iklé found that the CIA was still pursuing the war in a halfhearted manner . " We began to understand that what to us was a very big deal back in Washington , from the point of view of the president , is a second order priority handled by one GS [ civil service officer ] , " according to Michael Pillsbury , Iklé ' s deputy . Iklé sponsored a proposal to supply the rebels with Stinger shoulder - fired anti - aircraft missiles . The Stinger proposal was at first strongly opposed by the CIA , the U . S . State Department , and the Joint Chiefs of Staff . CIA Deputy Director John McMahon , who resisted the proposal , was the target of a letter - writing campaign by conservative groups . At a meeting on December 6 , 1985 , Iklé asked McMahon if the CIA needed Stingers . " I decided then and there that I had enough of carrying water for the Joint Chiefs and I said ' Fred , I ' ll take every Stinger you can send me , ' " McMahon recalled . Despite McMahon ' s apparent change of heart , the CIA again vetoed the Stinger proposal at an interagency meeting in mid - February 1986 . President Reagan signed an executive order to supply the Angolan guerrilla group UNITA with Stingers on February 18 , and the CIA finally agreed to supply them to the Afghan rebels on February 23 . McMahon resigned soon afterward . The decision to supply the Stinger to the Afghan rebels is often viewed as the turning point of the war . He is mentioned in chapter 14 of the novel Fail - Safe as someone working with the Air Force to reduce the chance of war by accident . Later life . Iklé remained at the Defense Department until 1988 , when he joined the Center for Strategic and International Studies ( CSIS ) . Iklé served as a Commissioner on the National Commission on Terrorism , which produced the Report of the National Commission on Terrorism in June 2000 , and he served for nine years as Director of the National Endowment for Democracy . He also co - chaired the bipartisan Commission on Integrated Long - Term Strategy , which published " Discriminate Deterrence " in January 1988 . In 1975 and 1987 , Iklé received the highest civilian award of the Department of Defense , the Medal for Distinguished Public Service . In 1988 , he was awarded the Bronze Palm . Iklé served as chairman of the Board of the Telos Corporation and as a director of the Zurich - American Insurance Companies . He was a Director of CMC Energy Services and served as Governor of the Smith Richardson Foundation and as a Director of the U . S . Committee for Human Rights in North Korea . He was a founding signatory of the Project for the New American Century ' s 1997 " statement of principles " . He was the author of several books and numerous articles on defense , foreign policy , and arms control , including " How Nations Negotiate " and " Every War Must End " . Further reading . Books :