Word: mcnamara
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...only to wanting a strong bargaining position: "If you give the Russians anything before the talks begin, then either the negotiations never start or they drag on for several years without accomplishing anything. The Soviet Union will wait to see how much they can get before they sit down." McNamara, when he argued for arms control and against certain weapons projects, often provided a counterweight to civilian militarism on Capitol Hill. Today the balance is tipped sharply so that opposition to the military, particularly in the Senate, threatens to go to the opposite extreme. While the new skepticism can have...
Like the Nixon Administration overall, Laird marches under no grand ensign. After seven months, the White House still has no catch phrase to match New Frontier or Great Society. Laird's Pentagon has no strategy label comparable to "flexible response" in Robert McNamara's day or even the "bigger bang for a buck" of Charles E. Wilson's time. Like Nixon himself, Laird seems unencumbered by?some would say unequipped with?any particularly abiding philosophy. He is the only Secretary of Defense to come from Congress. Half his life ? he will be 47 next week ? was spent...
...than he otherwise might, some of the reductions seem?despite his protests?to fit into his long-term intentions. In appearing to be dragged into making economies, of course, Laird also maintains his credentials with the uniformed chiefs and with the congressional old guard that is still promilitary. Robert McNamara, by contrast, positively gloried in every dime saved and every pet project vivisected. Laird is too much a man of the Washington world to make enemies unnecessarily...
...prospect, then, is for the Army and Marines to shrink proportionally more than the Air Force and the Navy. While McNamara emphasized a balance of forces and strengthened conventional elements as well as nuclear components of the arsenal, Laird is likely to encourage at least a partial return to the approach of the Eisenhower years. The stress then was on developing strategic nuclear weapons?long-range bombers, missiles...
...Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency to ensure that they com- plement each other rather than work at cross purposes. He has set up a Domestic Action Council within the Pentagon to contribute to Government antipoverty efforts. He has downgraded the Office of International Security Affairs, one of McNamara's favorite shops, which acted as a little State Department within the Pentagon. Now it is more concerned with performing studies for the National Security Council...