David L. Aaron

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David Laurence Aaron (b. 21 August 1938, Chicago) is an American politician, administrator, and international relations officer who served in the Jimmy Carter administration. He graduated from Occidental College with a BA, and from Princeton University with an MA. He later received an honorary Ph.D from Occidental College. He is currently director of the RAND Corporation's Center for Middle East Public Policy.

Aaron entered the foreign service in 1962, where he served as a political and economic officer in Guayaquil, Ecuador. It was not long until Aaron was headhunted; in 1964 he moved to the Department of State, where he served as an international relations officer. He also served as a political officer to NATO and was involved with the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. In addition, he served on Henry Kissinger's staff during the Nixon administration, from 1972 to 1974; he was a senior staff member of the National Security Council. An important advance in Aaron's career occurred when he became Senator Walter Mondale's legislative assistant in 1974, on the recommendation of Zbigniew Brzezinski. Aaron would latter follow Mondale to the White House, where he worked under Zbigniew Brzezinski. The following year Aaron was task force leader of the Senate's Select Committee on Intelligence.

In 1977, Aaron was appointed Deputy National Security Advisor in the administration of Jimmy Carter. His former boss, Walter Mondale, became Vice President. Aaron gained his appointment several weeks before Zbigniew Brzezinski became National Security Advisor, which gave him a big say in who was named for the National Security Council Staff. Interestingly, 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 recognised as a rising star in the Democratic Party. Aaron was also seen as a tough and controversial figure. In 1978, he came head to head with Director Turner of the CIA, on the situation in Iran. He believed that the CIA should have been able to predict the revolt. He later served on an inter-agency team working to improve the CIA's ability to predict conflict. Aaron's image as a "tough customer" was intensified when Carter, Brzezinski and Cyrus Vance were on a mission to Egypt and Israel. He remained in Washington to coordinate the response to the Soviet uprising in Yemen. The U.S. had already sent around $400 million dollars on arms to Yemen. Aaron's hard-line against Communist expansion led him to push for the dispatch of US forces. White House staff commented on his tough rule, one staff was quoted as saying, "Believe it or not, people were relieved when Brzezinski got back to town".

In October 1980, Aaron was put in a tight spot, when it he was accused of compromising a U.S. spy, Anatoly N. Filatov, in the Soviet Union. Jimmy Carter was quick to defend Aaron and insisted on his innocence. Research undertook by Washington Post journalist, Jack Anderson, indicated otherwise. According to Anderson, whilst at a party Aaron told an Eastern European diplomat above top secret "blue line" information regarding the Warsaw Pact. Another diplomat overheard the conversation and reported it to his own foreign office by cable. The cable was intercepted by the National Security Agency and, allegedly, destroyed. The cable is said to have tipped off the Soviets that Filatov was a double agent, working for the Americans. He was later cleared by a Senate panel on this issue, but questions still surround the situation. At the same time, Aaron was also under fire for allegedly leaking information to the press on how aircraft could avoid radar. Aaron denied that he had any involvement in the leak, but refused to testify on the matter. A White House insider said that Aaron "talked too much."

During his time in the White House, Aaron was invited to a Bilderberg Conference.

Aaron lost his job when Reagan became President in 1981. He moved into the private sector, becoming Vice President for Mergers and Acquisitions at Oppenheimer and Co. Aaron left Oppenheimer in 1985, to join the Lantz-Harris Agency as a writer and lecturer, where he remained until 1993. He was also a consultant for the 20th Century Fund, from 1990 to 1992. In 1996 he became United States Permanent Representative to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and Presidential Special Envoy for Cryptography. As Special Envoy for Cryptography, Aaron pushed for a global standard that would force computer users to submit keys to their codes for scrambling data to an authority, which would hold them in escrow. He was attacked by advocates of privacy rights, who said that the compromise could easily be misused by Governments and corporations. On the Euro, Aaron saw it as having advantages to many large corporations, but feared that a combined Europe would pose threats to America's financial dominance.

After Clinton's 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.

Aaron was involved in the election campaigns of Walter Mondale and Bill Clinton. In Mondale's unsuccessful campaign, Aaron played a leading role as senior consultant on foreign policy and defense. Aaron served in Clinton's foreign policy team during his election campaign.

He has served on the board of directors of Oppenheimer's Quest for Value Dual Purpose Fund.

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, the Pacific Council on International Policy and the RAND Corporation.

Aaron is the author of State Scarlet; Agent of Influence and Crossing By Nigh.