1993 Distinguished Graduate Award
CITATION
Edward Leon Rowny
As a distinguished soldier in three wars, as a statesman and advisor to Presidents Reagan and Bush, and as dean of American delegations to the Soviet Union on strategic arms limitations and reductions for over sixteen years, Edward Leon Rowny has served his country with courage, integrity, and a consummate sense of duty over a career spanning 49 years.
Three years after his graduation from West Point in 1941, he commanded an Engineer battalion in combat in Italy. During this command assignment, he was decorated with two Silver Stars, the Bronze Star Medal, and the Legion of Merit. Following the war, Edward Rowny returned to the Strategy Section, Operations Division, War Department General Staff, where he served for two years. In 1947, he left the Pentagon for Yale University, where he earned master's degrees in engineering and international relations.
The Korean War found him serving as G-4 and Corps Engineer for the Tenth Corps. He helped plan the successful amphibious invasion at Inchon, and later commanded the 38th Infantry
Regiment, Second Infantry Division. During this period he was awarded the Air Medal, his third Silver Star for gallantry in action and received two awards of the Legion of Merit.
Three years on the Staff and Faculty of The Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia, were followed by a three year assignment on the staff of Supreme Headquarters, Allied Powers
Europe. Returning to the United States, Edward Rowny graduated from the National War College in 1959, and was then assigned to the United States Army Element, Office of the Chairman, Joint
Chiefs of Staff. In 1961, he became Assistant Division Commander Support, for the 82nd Airborne Division.
A year later, General Rowny was directed to establish the Army Concepts Team in Vietnam. As Chief of the team, and at that very early stage of the conflict, he was responsible for the
development of counterinsurgency tactics and weapons doctrine that later proved invaluable for our forces in Vietnam. Returning to the Pentagon in 1963, he served as Special Assistant for
Tactical Mobility to the Assistant Chief of Staff, Force Development; and then as Deputy Assistant Chief of Staff for Force Development until 1965.
He commanded the 24th Infantry Division form 1965-66, and then served as Deputy Chief of Staff for Logistics for United States Army, Europe until 1968. At the completion of this
assignment he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal. General Rowny was assigned as Deputy Chief for Research and Development, Department of the Army, in 1969, and in 1970 he
became Commanding General, First Corps in Korea. In 1971 he began a two year tour as Deputy Chairman of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Military Commission.
General Rowny's last assignment on active duty was Joint Chiefs of Staff Representative to the Strategic Arms Limitations Talks, a position he held from 1973 to 1979, when he retired from
the Army. General Rowny's encyclopedic knowledge of the Soviet mentality and negotiating techniques, his unswerving determination to yield no advantage to our opponents, and his
broad grasp of broad strategic issues as well as the technical details of armaments and weapons systems made him a tireless advocate for an equal and adequately verifiable arms treaty.
After his retirement from the service, General Rowny worked against the ratification of the SALT II treaty, testifying before the Senate that the treaty was not in the best interests of the
United States . In 1981, President Reagan appointed, and the Senate confirmed, General Rowny as Chief Negotiator for the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks and Chairman of the United States
Delegation.
In 1985, President Reagan named General Rowny to be Special Advisor to the President and Secretary of State for Arms Control Matters. In 1989, President Reagan awarded Ambassador Rowny the Presidential Citizen's Medal for his extraordinary efforts as the architect of United States arms control policy of "Peace through Strength."
In 1990, Ambassador Rowny ended almost 50 years of service to his nation when he resigned from his position as Senior Arms Control Advisor to the President. Now a Senior Associate at the
Center for Strategic and International Studies, he is also a Distinguished Visiting Professor at George Washington University, where he teaches a course in International Negotiations.
Throughout a long and distinguished career of public service, Ambassador Rowny's every action has mirrored the words of the West Point motto: "Duty, Honor, Country." Admired and
respected by friends and foes alike, Ambassador Rowny has consistently demonstrated steadfastness, outspoken integrity, and a tough-minded perseverance that have been a major factor in maintaining the security of the United States and its Allies during the years of the Cold War.
Accordingly, the Association of Graduates of the United States Military Academy takes pride in presenting the 1993 Distinguished Graduate Award to a great soldier, statesman, and
patriot: Edward Leon Rowny, Class of 1941.