WHY WEINBERGER? WHY CARLUCCI?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000301900083-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 24, 2012
• Sequence Number: 83
• Publication Date: December 19, 1980
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/24: CIA-RDP90-00965R000301900083-1
AltTICLE AMA= WASHINGTON POST
ON rAoz /7--R/ 19 DECEMBER 1980
Rowland Evans and Robert Novak,
,Why -Weinberger? Why Carlucci?
Back in California after being an-
nounced as secretary of defense, Caspar
Weinberger placed calls to Republican
members of the Senate Armed Services
Committee that deepened the loss of joy
among Reaganites six weeks after their
great victory.
Weinberger told the senators he
wanted as deputy secretary his own se-
lection: Frank Carlucci, a career civil
servant who is deputy director of Presi-
dent Carter's _CIA. Having heard rum- '
bles against Carlucci's appointment,
Weinberger wanted the senators to know.
how much he needed the bureaucrat.
who was his deputy at two domestic
agencies in Nixon-Ford days.
Almost surely, Ronald Reagan will ig-
nore muted . alarms from Capitol Hill:
and satisfy the wishes of his defense sec-
retary. That. guarantees more anguish.
within the Reagan transition; and raises
. some' unpleasant questions:
Why is Reagan getting a secretary and
deputy secretary at defense who both
need remedial courses in military nuts
and =bolts? Why did he pick a reputed.
'budget-cutter ("Cap the Knife") to re-
build the nation's leaky defense struc-
? ture? Why is he naming a deputy with-
out known convictions on national se-
curity who, fairly or not, is tied to the
Carter administration's undermining of
American intelligence (and whose nick-
name in CIA back rooms is "Hamlet")?
The answer falls under this rubric, de-
livered by a senior transition official, on
'Reagan decision-making since Nov. 4:
"Disorganized, disconnected, lackadaisi-
cal." Other transition aides about to re-
turn to private jobs agree. Viewing the
nation on the brink of domestic and for-
eign - chaos, they have been stunned at
the lack of urgency shown by the presi-
dent-elect and his inner circle.
, None of this was obvious in the 'eu-
lphoric post-election mood when defense
:experts. converged on the Pentagon to
:plan the Reagan takeover. To them, Cap
;Weinberger was just a "kitchen cabinet"
, member in California who during the
campaign wanted restraints on defense
'spending. Never did they dream of him
as secretary of defense.
One reason the non-dream became :
reality is the . misconception of the
kitchen cabinet's aged millionaires that
governing a great nation is like running a
big corporation. Felling to perceive that
the secretary of defense is responsible
for policy rather than administration,
they thought of Weinberger managing
' the Pentagon much like the Bechtel
I Corp. Reagan did not disagree:,
? No defense secretary has been less
familiar 'with defense problems since
,Charley Wilson in 1953 (when the hard-
ware was simpler and the dangers more
distant). Weinberger's transition experts
are preparing elaborate dossiers and
hours of tough questioning so he can sur-
vive Senate confirmation hearings. They
also recommend an experienced deputy
secretary for Weinberger to lean on in
choosing policy options.
' The list ie.long William Van Cleave, a
:nuclear arms expert who was a Reagan
;campaign adviser and heads his defense
transition team; Dr. John Foster, former
Pentagon research chief and now a
TRW, Inc., viee president; J. Fred
Busey, president of Texas Instruments;
former deputy secretary Paul Nitze, a.
converted Reaganite; Ambassador Sey-
mour Weiss, former State Department :11
politico-military chief. Outside the list, ist!i
push has been made for Tom Reed, al
former secretary of the Air Force. :1
But Weinberger insists on fellow neo:
phyte Carlucci, showing as little interest '
in a knowledgeable deputy as Reagan!
'did in a knowledgeable secretary. Nor;
did he share apprehension by defenses
'transition officials that as a senior intel-
ligence official of the Carter administra-
tion, Carlucci could not be totally sepa-
rated from its demolition of the CIA.
Van Cleave's men set out to find evi-
dence of Carluccfs complicity but dis-
covered none. ("Frank does not leave
footprints," said one prober.) His gov-
ernmental record is distinguished,
crowned by service as ambassador to
Lisbon during the Portuguese crisis of
the mid-1970s. But he shows no ideologi-
cal commitment to Reagan's national se-
curity policy. "He could work as easily
for George McGovern as Ronald Rea-
gan," one transition official told us. 4
Neither policy views nor experience I
seem to rate high in filling other Pentagon
posts. Rep. Robin Beard of Tennessee, an
expert on the volunteer army, would bring
rare expertise if named secretary of the
Army. But Beard may be passed over in
favor of John Marsh, a Wilke House aide
under President Ford. The reason: Jerry
Ford wants it, as a personal favor. '
Dr. John Lehman, a former deputy di-
rector of the arms control agency
(ACDA), is unusually qualified for secre-
tary of the Navy. But he may be passed
over for a junior member of the kitchen
cabinet: Bob Nesen, a 62-year-old Cadil-
lac dealer from Thousand Oaks, Calif.
Nobody planned a Pentagon hierarchy '
'so lacking in both background and policy
commitment. As with most new admin-
? istrations, it just happened. What makes
this cause for anguish is the nation's des-I
perate condition as it changes govern-
ment?a condition not often reflectedi
the last six weeks in the president-elect's
hunt-and-peck Cabinet making.
01900, Pled enterprises, Inn -
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/24: CIA-RDP90-00965R000301900083-1