Paul Warnke Paul Culliton Warnke ( January 31 , 1920 – October 31 , 2001 ) was a United States diplomat . He was born in Webster , Massachusetts but spent most of his childhood in Marlborough , Massachusetts , where his father managed a shoe factory . He attended Yale University , fought in World War II for five years in the United States Coast Guard , and then entered Columbia Law School . In 1948 , he joined the law firm Covington & Burling , run by Dean Acheson . He became a partner in 1956 . He hoped for a good job in the John F . Kennedy administration , but did not receive any appealing offers . However , he was offered the position of General Counsel to the Secretary of Defense in 1967 during the Lyndon Johnson Administration . He took that position and served under Robert McNamara , moving on to become Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs from 1967 to 1969 under McNamara and then Clifford . During his time in the Defense Department , he was a critic of the Vietnam War and an arms control advocate . He was not , however , as some people say , a total dove or pacifist . He disagreed with the domino theory and said that the war had been a huge mistake . But he also believed that the decision to enter it had been understandable and he supported some weapons buildup . After serving briefly under Richard Nixon in the same position , he joined the law firm of his former boss , which became known as Clifford , Warnke , Glass , McIlwaine & Finney . During this period he served as an adviser to presidential candidate George McGovern and also wrote a noteworthy article in " Foreign Policy " magazine , " Apes on a Treadmill " . That piece criticized the current buildup of nuclear weapons by both sides and suggested that the United States unilaterally stop developing the B - 1 bomber and the Trident submarine for six months . His hope was that the Soviets would respond with " reciprocal restraint " . Under President Jimmy Carter he was chief SALT negotiator and Director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency . He helped negotiate the unratified SALT II agreement with the Soviet Union and was a tireless advocate of slowing the arms race . Warnke saw arms control as a step - by - step process , like " trying to get down from the top of a tall tree . If you go down a branch at a time , you ' re gonna end up on solid ground . If you try and do it in a single step , you ' re gonna make one hell of a mess . " Unlike many of his critics , most famously Paul Nitze , Warnke didn ' t believe in the late 1970s that the Soviets had a desire to attack the United States or that they would succeed if they did . Warnke believed that the United States , with a " triad " of strong defenses - in the air , on land , in the sea - had a strong enough military to deter any Soviet assault . After leaving the Carter administration , he returned to private law practice and his work with Clark Clifford , forming Clifford & Warnke . He also stayed active in political issues as a member of the Committee for National Security . After the elderly Clifford became entangled in the BCCI scandal and was unable to practice , Warnke and many of the other lawyers in the firm moved to Howrey & Simon . Warnke died in Washington , D . C .