REDMOND, Washington -- Defense Secretary William Cohen dropped in on the Microsoft campus on Thursday in a military helicopter to meet with CEO Bill Gates, and stumped for President Clinton's planned defense spending increases.
In a speech before a group of reporters and about 140 Microsoft employees and army personnel, he said new technology was critical to keeping the peace against everything from North Korean missiles to cyber terrorists.
"Some soldiers in the high-tech revolution do not fully understand or appreciate the soldiers in camouflage," he said.
Cohen stressed cooperation between the military and high-tech industries and said both feed American prosperity.
"You contribute to it, they help protect it," he said.
The secretary said the Defense Department has a strategy of "shape, respond, prepare" to maintain American dominance. That means keeping troops deployed to hold off trouble in global hotspots and building new high-tech weapons. It also means a bigger military budget, according to Cohen, who invoked futurist Alvin Toffler to make his point.
In introducing Cohen, Gates stressed the importance of the relationship with the Defense Department. He called the military "our biggest customer in the world," and said defense technology "is a challenge that pushes our software to the limit."
A major reason for increased spending is protection against Internet terrorism, Cohen said. A group of teenagers pulled off the "most serious and sustained attack ever against our information systems" during last year's Persian Gulf buildup, he said.
He was referring to two Northern California teenagers and an Israeli accomplice, who together penetrated hundreds of poorly secured government and military computer systems. No classified information was accessed, and the teens claimed no systems were harmed.
The Pentagon plans to spend US$3.6 billion during the next four years to beef up computer security, including installing a new chief information officer for the department.
"We cannot hope to solve these problems without a partnership with your industry," he said. "Time and again our national security has benefited when government and private organizations joined hands to serve the public interest."
Cohen came to Microsoft's headquarters in Redmond, Washington, as part of a West Coast tour that also included a visit to Boeing's aircraft assembly lines in Seattle. His meeting with Gates was part of Microsoft's third annual conference with the army.
