Bill Clinton: “Well, it depends. Let me say what I mean by that. It depends on what General Dynamics or any other kind of company in…”

“Well, it depends. Let me say what I mean by that. It depends on what General Dynamics or any other kind of company in this position projects will be the future demand for defense products that they can produce. Let me give you an example. For example, Sikorsky in Connecticut and another one of your helicopter companies I think is up in employment. And a lot of our allies may well be buying more short- haul aircraft and may be buying more helicopters in the future for more limited and different kinds of military operations. So there's no question that some military contractors will be able to continue to fully--or almost all military contractors--and do well. And there will be some things where the demand for products will actually increase. We, the United States, will be buying some new military products and technology that we have not purchased in the past. So some people will be there. On the other hand, with the overall budget going down and, therefore, with both the size of the Armed Forces and at least the guaranteed replacement of old products being less, a number of these defense contractors are going to have to look for alternative products. And I don't know enough about what General Dynamics' options are to know whether that's the right or the wrong decision. All I can tell you is that we're prepared to assist with joint research and development efforts and everything else in our power. We're prepared to assist those companies that are serious about converting. The Westinghouse plant--let me just tell you, the one in Maryland I visited--5 years ago was 16 percent nondefense. Today it's 27 percent nondefense. By 1995 it'll be 50-plus percent nondefense. And what I think you're going to see--I'll just make a prediction where I think you're going to see in many areas-- is a kind of a blending where the defense-nondefense line is regularly crossed and where the technology is being used for both civilian and military purposes. For example, at Westinghouse we saw some things making full circle. We saw military technology producing a civilian product; then we saw civilian technology being marketed back to the military for the first time. So I think that this will become a blurry line. Now, submarines have few uses other than military. I mean, it's hard to imagine--you know, maybe some weather uses there, maybe nonmilitary uses for submarines in the environmental area, particularly around the poles and other things. But I just think--I wish I could give you a yes or no answer, but I'd have to know more about what their options are and what they project the products to be.”