Word: haig
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State's loss of clout is most evident on Central American policy. Haig had made that arena one of his prime concerns, speaking out early and forcefully on the need to "draw the line" in El Salvador against the spread of Soviet influence. Haig's heated rhetoric was eventually cooled at White House insistence, but policymaking power remained at the State Department in the hands of Thomas Enders, Assistant Secretary for Inter-American Affairs. Enders tried to balance military moves with more emphasis on political and economic initiatives. Under congressional pressure, he even paid lip service...
Despite such criticism, Clark, 51, has grown increasingly self-confident. When he went to Washington 2½ years ago as Alexander Haig's deputy, Clark did not even pretend to be well informed on foreign affairs. "I had to start pretty much from ground zero and educate myself on subjects I'd never thought about before," he said. He was at his desk before 7 a.m. six and sometimes seven days a week, working his way through endless stacks of paper and earning the respect of his State Department colleagues. He played his role modestly and effectively, smoothing...
After Reagan was elected President, Clark was sounded out about senior posts in the new Administration. When Reagan pressed him to take the No. 2 job at the State Department to help smooth rocky relations between Haig and the White House staff, Clark came to Washington. His confirmation hearing was a debacle. As background in foreign affairs he listed his work as a young lawyer for a Salzburg ski-binding company, his wife's Czech origins and the education of his children in Germany. At one point, when Democratic Senator John Glenn asked for his views on official recognition...
...reluctantly approved, the biggest point in his favor being his access to the President. Clark and Haig hit it off, and Clark was responsible on several occasions for saving the high-strung Haig's job. He confined himself to making things run smoothly, playing the quintessential bureaucrat. When Richard Allen was removed as head of the NSC after a scandal concerning gifts from Japanese, Clark was moved into the post...
Clark's loyalties are steadfast only to Reagan. They seem to shift according to circumstance when other Administration officials are involved. For instance, after he moved to the NSC, Clark helped engineer the ouster of his former boss, Haig. In encouraging the President to vent his anger about the nuclear freeze movement and El Salvador, Clark prevailed over James Baker and his aides, whom Clark dismisses privately as "political types" and "civilians." In January, Clark interceded against a White House reorganization that would have diminished Meese's role. That intervention strained his relations with his old friend Deaver...