Word: laird
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...Freshly returned from World War II Navy service, Laird at age 23 was elected to his father's seat in the Wisconsin legislature upon the latter's death. He served six years, then won a congressional election in 1952. * The Russians reciprocate. Laird is the Cabinet officer most criticized in the Soviet press. He has recently been accused of "frightening Americans" with his statements about Russian missile development...
...approval of the President," said Laird. That did not quite answer all the questions about the deal in the first place, but it nicely served to make any further complaints on the matter seem slightly academic. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee, not fully satisfied, plans to pursue the issue in future hearings...
Less visibly, in his Pentagon office 3-E880, where he sits at a desk that once belonged to General Pershing, Laird was preparing his recommendation to Richard Nixon for the second withdrawal of American troops from Viet Nam. The announcement was originally expected this week, but the decision was made more difficult by the upsurge in Communist aggressiveness, which brought U.S. deaths for the most recent week to 244 v. 96 the week before. Ideally, the Administration would like the next announced withdrawal to be larger than the first one of 25,000 last June. That would maintain the sense...
...would anyone want Laird's job? Laird certainly did not. In fact, he asserts with feeling that he "wanted no part" of it; he accepted, loyal partisan that he is, only because Nixon had run out of alternative candidates. Politics, particularly the politics of the House of Representatives, where he has served from Wisconsin since 1953, is Laird's passion. He is good at the craft. His ready informality, which encourages even the Joint Chiefs of Staff and other senior men at the Pentagon to call their boss "Mel," fits the vocation. So do his competitiveness in debate...
There is nothing innocent about Melvin Laird. The sleek, expensive wardrobe, the thin cigar, the grim scowl when offering some dire pronouncement, the somehow roguish smile when lighthearted, make him easy to caricature, easy to suspect of ulterior motives. As a Congressman, he could be sly in good causes and in partisan ones. When he overthrew Charles Halleck as House minority leader, he managed to create the impression that he and Gerald Ford had split the rebel forces. Actually, they were united, and the putative split was a ploy. Once, just after Minority Leader Ford and his eminence grise. Laird...