Word: laird
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...Presidents-elect, Nixon relied heavily on the supporting cast he has learned to trust from close experience. Maurice Stans (Commerce) is a colleague from the Eisenhower days and a longtime Republican fund raiser. John Mitchell (Attorney General) was Nixon's law partner and campaign manager. Wisconsin Congressman Melvin Laird (Defense) has served Nixon occasionally as an adviser. California Lieutenant Governor Robert Finch (Health, Education and Welfare) is an old friend, campaign aide and confidant. In fact, Finch is matched in the boss's esteem only by William Pierce Rogers, Attorney General in the Eisenhower Administration, whom Nixon selected...
Nixon then turned to Melvin Laird, who is regarded as one of the shrewdest Republicans on Capitol Hill as well as one of the best-versed in public policy. For 14 of his 16 years in the House, he has been on the Appropriations Subcommittee, dealing with Defense, and has become an expert in the field. He knows the department's budget thoroughly, is acquainted with many military leaders, and has an intimate knowledge of Pentagon practices and politics. Laird was also an outspoken critic of McNamara on a number of is sues, berating him, as did other conservatives...
...Laird published A House Divided-America's Strategy Gap, which argued strongly in favor of the rockiest of hard lines in military and foreign policy. He inveighed against 20th century revolutionary movements, and condemned the United Nations as "dominated
...unstable nations." He blamed the failure to intervene in Hun ary in 1956 on Washington's "immoral and suicidal willingness to act as if there were Communist legitimacy." The U.S. had allowed itself to become intimidated by the fear of nuclear war, he said. "Above all," Laird concluded, "while we have the power, we must aim at confronting the enemy directly...
...last year or so, however, Laird seems to have moderated his views. He is for a negotiated settlement in Viet Nam, knowing that no other course is politically feasible. At his first press conference as Secretary-designate, he expressed the hope that the Viet Nam war would be over within a year. He still favors beefing up the U.S. military machine roughly along the lines advocated by the Joint Chiefs of Staff-converting the Navy to nuclear power, giving the Air Force the advanced manned bomber it has been seeking for years, going ahead with the Army's anti...