Summer 2003
Warrior for peace
Photo by Bridget Brown
Max Kampelman, Ph.D. ’52 (political science)—lawyer, teacher, diplomat, champion of democracy and human rights—is a statesman for these complex times. And yet, this veteran Cold Warrior still believes that, in the end, it’s all about good and evil.
“The heavens don’t dictate evils and atrocities,” says Kampelman—people do, and so people must stop them. This simple philosophy has served Kampelman well: a seasoned veteran of the diplomatic wars, he’s still fighting the good fight—and he still believes victory is possible.
Kampelman’s work in the 1980s as the chief U.S. nuclear arms-reduction negotiator with the U.S.S.R. led to the destruction of 2,700 nuclear weapons—and arguably a safer world. Largely for these efforts, he has earned a 1989 Presidential Citizens Medal and 1999 Presidential Medal of Freedom—the highest citizen honors in the United States—and 13 honorary degrees, including one from the University of Minnesota.
A pacifist early on, Kampelman came to support the use of force if necessary “to resist fascism, communism, terrorism, or other threats to U.S. national security, democracy, and human dignity.” There simply are times, he insists, for muscle. And a liberal arts education, he says, should not only broaden intellects and develop communities, but also teach students that “there is good and evil in the world,” and prepare them “to do their best to either convert … or resist [the evil].” Kampelman himself has learned those lessons well.
Curiously, it was a medical experiment that first brought Kampelman to Minnesota in the mid-1940s. Prominent University researcher Ancel Keyes (who developed K rations) had launched a study in which human participants severely restricted caloric intakes to determine the effects of starvation on health and mental functioning. Kampelman volunteered.
As a conscientious objector during World War II, Kampelman was required by law to participate in work of national importance. He picked the starvation study because he thought it “important when you consider prisoners of war and … concentration camps.” (The study remains “the classic work on human starvation,” he says.)
Meanwhile, to distract himself from his empty stomach, a very hungry Kampelman worked toward a political science Ph.D. and taught University classes. Soon, he met Hubert Humphrey (“the best teacher I ever had,” says Kampelman. “And that was not in the classroom”).
After campaign and U.S. Senate work for Humphrey in the 1940s and ’50s, and subsequent work in human rights, this self-described “Humphrey Democrat” was tapped as chief arms-reduction negotiator in 1985 by Republican President Ronald Reagan.
By this time, Kampelman had evolved from a conscientious objector who “could not see himself killing” to a Marine Corps reservist who still abhorred killing but recognized, he says, the importance of military strength in protecting and preserving democracies.
Kampelman believes unreservedly that only democratic societies can achieve fully what he calls the “ought” of human rights and dignity for all people. Acknowledging his debt to Gandhi’s non-violent revolutionary philosophy, he nonetheless believes that “the overwhelming force of love” that subdued Gandhi’s foes is far more elusive in a nuclear age, when nations and people in conflict are separated by great distances, their interactions mediated by technology—including both television and high-tech weaponry. In the absence of close human contact, says Kampelman, no “overwhelming … love” can intervene.
Since his successful efforts in arms negotiation ended in 1989, Kampelman has chaired the United Nations Association, Georgetown University’s Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, Freedom House, and the American Academy of Diplomacy, among other active commitments. Recently, he helped found the Council for a Community of Democracies (CCD), an international, nongovernmental group designed to unite the democracies of the world.
Given his push for worldwide democracy and his experience with arms reduction, Kampelman has a unique vantage point from which to view how events are unfolding in Iraq. So far, he likes what he sees.
“We were blessed by the accident of having forefathers who were wise enough to instill democracy,” he says, and the U.S. should “not be selfish” with it. And despite anti-American sentiment around the world, he believes removing the Iraqi Ba’ath regime lies within the U.S.’s self-interest and obligation.
A different sort of obligation, a personal one to his mentor, brought Kampelman back to the University of Minnesota in May for a Hubert Humphrey retrospective. As with most of his trips to Minnesota these days, his stay was brief. But even if from a distance, he has done the University and his liberal arts pedigree proud, sharing his gifts with the rest of the world.