President Clinton is expected to quickly name a successor to outgoing Defense Secretary Les Aspin, making a fresh start on shaping a post-Cold War military force and improving his credentials as commander in chief.
An announcement was expected Thursday. Several news organizations quoted officials as saying Clinton had settled on former deputy CIA Director Bobby Ray Inman for the Pentagon post.
Aspin, in announcing his departure Wednesday, cited “quite personal reasons” for submitting his resignation. He said that after 20 years of focusing on the military, “It’s time for me to take a break and to undertake a new kind of work.” His resignation is effective Jan. 20.
Clinton praised Aspin’s service, hailing his “wise counsel . . . solid leadership . . . and unflappable good humor.”
Besides Inman, contenders for the job were said to include retired Adm. William Crowe, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under President Ronald Reagan; former Gen. Colin Powell, recently retired Joint Chiefs chairman; CIA Director James Woolsey; Rep. David McCurdy (D-Okla.), a senior member of the Armed Services Committee; and former Sen. Warren Rudman (R-N.H.).
Inman arrived in Washington Wednesday from his home in Austin, Texas. Reached by phone at his hotel, he said, “I’m here for a Center for Naval Analysis board meeting and you catch me just on the way out to dinner.” He declined to comment on Aspin’s resignation.
Before news of the resignation, Inman told acquaintances that he expected media attention later in the day.
Of all Clinton’s Cabinet members, Aspin struggled the most through the first year of the administration. He is the first to leave.
He was unable to translate the policies he has loved to brainstorm about since his first stint in the Pentagon as a whiz kid during the Vietnam War into a confidence-building management performance.
The former Wisconsin congressman alienated Congress, bungled selling to the country the administration’s national security policies and ultimately failed at a Cabinet member’s top priority: protecting the president’s rear flank.
Aspin, a 55-year-old Milwaukee native who had a heart pacemaker installed last winter, said recently he was in better health than before, but friends said he was worn down by the constant battles, controversies and criticism that dogged his tenure.
Even before his inauguration, Clinton got off to a rough start with the country’s military establishment over his college-era efforts to avoid the draft during the Vietnam War and his campaign commitment to allow gays to serve openly in the military.
Clinton hoped that by tapping Aspin, a veteran defense analyst who chaired the House Armed Services Committee, he could get both the forward-looking thinker the Pentagon needed and the bridge to a military leadership and rank-and-file that was suspicious of a young president who avoided the draft and had little background in defense issues.
Over the last 11 months, however, amid criticisms that Clinton’s foreign policy was adrift, Aspin’s judgment, leadership and even his health were questioned.
Few disputed his knowledge of the Pentagon, honed during 22 years as a congressman who single-mindedly devoted his energies to military matters. But Aspin frequently stumbled as a manager and seemed unable to articulate the administration’s vision for a remodeled military in the post-Cold War era.
Most recently, an embarrassing dispute with Budget Director Leon Panetta over military spending evolved into open warfare. Aspin has been pressing the White House for an additional $50 billion to cover rising costs.
By going public, White House insiders believed Aspin had backed Clinton into a corner: handing over the money would leave fewer dollars for the social programs Clinton badly wants to fund, but refusing Aspin’s request would make him vulnerable to criticisms that he is weak on defense.
In Congress, Aspin’s rumpled appearance and pedantic discourses won him the affectionate nickname of “Professor Les.” But that style proved to be a handicap as a Cabinet member and adviser on national security, suggesting a lack of confidence and determination.
Clinton’s early push for gays in the military, his insistence on diversity in appointments and his own penchant for indecisiveness hampered Aspin’s attempt to shape Pentagon policy.
Aspin acknowledged recently that his worst mistake occurred during the Somali crisis. It was learned after the October deaths of 18 U.S. troops that he had refused a request to send additional armored support.
Dozens of Republicans on Capitol Hill called for Aspin’s resignation over the decision, especially after he gave a vague explanation to a congressional panel.
Clinton defended Aspin and his other foreign policy advisers, although the support often was lukewarm. During a recent television interview, Clinton said that Aspin and Secretary of State Warren Christopher “are doing the best they can. They’ve done many big things well.”
After Aspin’s departure was announced, several members of Congress praised his efforts.
“I think he was doing better and was getting some of these sticky issues and thorny issues behind him,” McCurdy said. “I think the secretary, by coming out and fighting for that ($50 billion), actually was improving his position vis a vis the military, and (it) was making him a stronger secretary.”
Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and a frequent critic of the administration on defense issues, said he “regretted” Aspin’s decision. Nunn said Aspin can take “great pride” in the work he did as defense chief, which will provide a “valuable foundation” for his successor.
Aspin’s major accomplishment was completing a so-called bottom-up review of the military for restructuring the armed services during the next five years.
“He was trying to shave down the size of the military forces. He was moving in the direction Clinton advocated,” said retired Rear Adm. Gene LaRocque, president of the Center for Defense Information, a Washington-based think tank.
LaRocque said that he was “a bit surprised” by Aspin’s resignation even though rumors had been circulating in Washington military circles that “Aspin wouldn’t be around at Christmas time.”
Despite such speculation, neither administration officials nor Aspin himself gave any outward clues that his departure was immiment.
At two news conferences on other Pentagon matters, one last Friday and one midday Wednesday, Aspin appeared relaxed and assured. He had expanded his public relations operation and traded his wrinkled, tan suits for a more starched-and-tailored power look.
Yet during an appearance Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Aspin was vague about his future at the Pentagon when asked if he hoped to stay there for some time.
“It’s more interesting and challenging than I could possibly imagine before I took the job,” Aspin replied.
