INTERARMS- AND THE MAN [The Washington Sunday Star, 4 April 1971]

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01315R000300230004-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 13, 2004
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: April 4, 1971
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2004/10/13 : CIA-RDP88-01315f 0 0Q2 ?OQOOZ,3 f
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In the antiquated splendor of Monte Carlo, a British jour-
,nalist tracks down the elusive Sam Cummings, armament broker
to the `vorl.d. Interarms, his huge private weapons business
P
otomac at old
-with a complex of warehouses located on the
town Alexandria, has an inventory ranging from carbines
to jet fighters. Anthony Haden-Guest reports on the man who
could outfit 40 army divisions.
'I-lE Tk:i\'IPTATION to
romanticize this business,"
Sam Cuinnlings says, "it's
- irresistible. Ile chuckles.
Cummings chuckles frequently, a
full, gleeful chuckle, with a fetching
sardonic timbre.' We walk out of the
sunlight, sloppy over that whole Co-
balt and orange ?Vistavision Monaco.
.."Do you like your tea strong" Of
course; all the English like their tea
strong:"
Sam Cummings, is American, 43,
with a manner of controlled buoyan-
cy. What with a closish crop of hair
and .a bland face running to plump-
ness; he has a' sornev flat collegiate
style, nondescript/casual, but expen-
sively so, in an ordinary blue blazer
(but tailored) and a plain broadcloth
shirt (but monogrammed). One
'might take hirn for a successful busi-
nessman, which he is, or - that con-
trolled buoyancy - for a successful
salesman, which he is also. Sam
Cummings is founder/owner of In-
terarms, unobtrusively a multirnil-
lionaire;avid the biggest private arms
-dealer in the world.
And we are meeting in Monte Car-
lo, that antiquated Las Vegas, which
also provided a convenient domicile
for that earlier armaments king, Sir
Basil Zallarof, f, for whom was pol-
ished the phrase, "Merchants of
Death." Cuminin s again gives that
sophisticated gtiffa\~-".Gid'e are.per-
fect whipping 'boys. For the press, for
politicians." Ile. pours the tea
(strong). His apartment,'it least, lacks
the ?aharoff touch, being in a block
of boL?rgeois niodernismus., a bit too
plush f-: or an office block and a h.it ion
glassily anonymous for apartlllCnts.
"Both everyone in the arms busi-
ness, and everyone Who writes about
the arms business" - the lightest of
glances -- "tends to exaggerate our
own importance. For ' instance, we
have this internal company humor,
which people misunclerstand."
Cummings indicates his telephone,
which is marked CAUTION. Speech
on this instr'iiment is :\'0T SFCURF,,
and tosses over a keychain. "1'his con-
sists mainly of a gold-plated Sten
tin bullet, with "Interarins" %% ittcri
on it, in English on one side, Russian
on the other. "You see, with us you'll
be all right.. . , with every side."
.r117: am' Cummings founded
E- --, Interarnis 17 years ago,
and it gained its present
y/ dominant status in the
private arms trade with astounding
speed. That status must, however, be
defined. "We are used as psychologi-
cal whipping boys," Cummings says
of the private dealers. "The greatest
traders in the business are govern-
ments." Which is, of course, true. Of
the world's traffic, a huge proportion
is direct government to government
transaction. The USSR, for instance,
as Sam points out genially, s?1ls to
South Africa. And one of Europe's
most hard-headed salesmen is neu-
tral Sweden--"Ver?y effective. And
they make very good-material. The
Bofors is a classic. To'our regret they.
don't stay" --- gurgle of merriment -
"neutral in the international arma=
merits sales field at all." The
1-take e ., -C "
post-war 'aims boom-there is now
one gun for every' man on the plan
et-has several Causes. Fundamental-
Iv, the East-West arms race has not
only kept up a torrential flow of
arms, but has meant that much of
the flood is instantly obsolescent and'
given or sold to friendly but smaller
Powers. Also there has been the
Third World, with its proliferation
of arias-hungry nations.
The importance of the private
ar'ms' dealer-Cuninlings, over-
1t?lie] iliingly'-cannot be revealed
through statistics. Nations, as arills
dealers, are huge but unwieldy.
They are hamstrung by politics, and
its attendant hypocrisies. (Consider
the South African imbroglio, and
that Sir Basil Zaharoff sold in his day
to both sides of the Baer War without
any fuss at all.) Private arms dealers
least, perfectly legally, on surplus,
and move perfectly legally through
the loo0holes and chinks of political
and economic relations.
(7 nterarms' precise volume of
business is difficult to
esti- mate. It includes trafficking
--- in military "materiel" -
"materiel," pronounced by Curn-
mings with a faint Gallic inflection, is
to arms dealers what "product" is to.
Movie producers: morally neutral
merchandise. It includes a trade in
refurbishing obsolete hardware for
the sporting market. It includes,.in
turnover, predominantly, deals in
which Cummings acted as broker or
middleman. As to his tilrnover,
guesses within arms circles have put it
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