Perry, William James

Born in Pennsylvania. After graduating from school, in 1946-1947 he served in the US Army, including in occupied Japan.

In 1950 he graduated from Stanford University . In 1954-1964 he was director of the defense research laboratory, part of the company GTE.

In 1964-1977, he was the president of the electronics company, which he founded ESL Incorporated.

From 1977 to 1981 - Deputy Minister of Defense for Research and Development, led the procurement and development of new weapons.

1981–85: Managing Director of the Hambrecht & Quist investment company in San Francisco.

He was Deputy US Secretary of Defense from 1993 to 1994 .

United States Secretary of Defense from February 3, 1994 until January 23, 1997.

In March 1994, Perry traveled to Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan. Discussed the elimination of the former Soviet nuclear weapons on the territory of Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan. March 17, 1994 Perry in Moscow met with the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation Pavel Grachev. On the same day, William Perry met and negotiated with First Deputy Defense Minister Andrei Kokoshin and Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Colonel-General Mikhail Kolesnikov ^[1] .

In January 1995, he publicly spoke in support of the Nunn-Lugar program , reporting the removal of 2,600 Soviet nuclear warheads from carriers (missiles and aircraft) and the transport of 900 warheads from Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan to Russia. He also spoke about the "Sapphire Project" - the export of 600 tons of highly enriched uranium by the Americans from Kazakhstan. Perry said: “The Soviet nuclear complex is like a hydra - a many-headed monster from Greek mythology. It is useless to simply cut off warheads, the monster itself needs to be destroyed, otherwise new warheads will appear ” ^[2] .

In April 1995, Perry toured the post-Soviet republics on the route Kiev-Moscow-Alma-Ata-Tashkent.

In May 1995, Perry visited the Ukrainian-American exercises “Peace Shield 95” held at the Yavoriv military training ground ^[3] .

In 1996, Perry visited the Peace Shield-96 exercises in Ukraine. Then he visited the destroyed rocket base near the city of Pervomaisk in the Nikolaev area . There, on June 4, 1996, Perry met with Russian Defense Minister Pavel Grachev and Ukrainian Defense Minister Shmarov. It was announced that in the territory of Ukraine there was not a single nuclear-missile weapon left.

In October 1996, Perry came to Moscow, where he addressed the Duma deputies, trying to convince them to ratify the START-2 Treaty ^[4] .

He is a member of the Supervisory Board of the International Luxembourg Forum on the Prevention of Nuclear Catastrophe .

August 26, 2014 published an article written jointly with George Schulz , in which he recommended supporting Ukraine with arms supplies and training of troops and strengthening sanctions against Russia ^[5] .

State

• Presidential Medal of Freedom with Honors (1997) ^{[6] [7] [8] [9]} .
• (1980, 1981) ^{[10] [11] [12]} .
• (1962, 1997) ^{[10] [13]} .
• (1997) ^{[10] [13]} .
• (1997) ^{[10] [13]} .
• (1977, 1997) ^{[10] [11] [13]} .
• Medal of the National Air Navigation and Space Administration "For Distinguished Service" (1981) ^{[10] [11] [13]} .
• (1997) ^{[10] [13]} .

Foreign

• The Order of "Merit for the Federal Republic of Germany" degree of Commander of the Cross of the Commander ( Germany , 1981) ^{[11] [12] [14]} .
• The Order of Merit of the degree of the Grand Officer ( France , 1982) ^{[11] [12] [14]} .
• The Order of Merit for the Republic of Poland is the holder of the Grand Cross ( Poland , 1996) ^[15] .
• Order "For merits" I degree ( Ukraine , 1997) ^[16] . Awarded by the President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma at the residence in Washington ^{[17] [18]} .
• The Golden Order of Freedom ( Slovenia , 1997) ^{[19] [20]} . Awarded by the Ambassador of Slovenia to the United States, ^[21] .
• Order of King Dmitar Zvonimir ( Croatia , 1998) ^[22] .
• The Order of the British Empire degree Knight Commander ( Great Britain , 1998) ^{[13] [23] [24]} .
• Order of the Rising Sun with Big Ribbon ( Japan , 2002) ^{[24] [25] [26]} .
• Also awarded awards Albania , Bahrain , Hungary , Korea ^{[10] [13]} .