Word: nunn
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Tower debate aside, Nunn's essential bipartisanship is almost uniformly accepted by his colleagues. So much so that even before he took over Armed Services, no less a Republican partisan than Dan Quayle called Nunn the "de facto" head of the committee even though it was chaired by the G.O.P.'s Barry Goldwater...
...Nunn was a man to reckon with almost from the day he entered the Senate. In fact, even before he was sworn in, he took steps to ensure that he'd be ready on day one. He hired a consultant to study the organization of several Senators' offices and had the desktops measured so he could plan his office space most efficiently. Six years later he was holding up SALT II for a Carter Administration commitment to increase conventional-forces spending. "They told me they couldn't think of how to spend more money," says Nunn, still incredulous. "That...
When it came to defense funding, Nunn had a kindred spirit in Carter's successor. But he clashed repeatedly with President Reagan over specific weapons systems. He didn't then, and still doesn't, think there is "anything magical" in the Navy's desire for 15 aircraft-carrier battle groups. He engineered the MX compromise, cut back Reagan's grandiose plans and today favors the single-warhead Midgetman over a rail-based MX. He described as "fantasy" Reagan's dream of a nationwide Star Wars shield and fought the former President's insistence that the 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty permitted...
Even NATO responded to his reach. In 1984 Nunn proposed cutting American troop strength in Europe as a way of forcing the allies to contribute more to the common defense. That threat, says former Defense Secretary James Schlesinger, "had beneficial effects." Today, with the Europeans enthralled by Mikhail Gorbachev's peace overtures, Nunn's views have changed. "I wouldn't introduce the same kind of legislation now," he says, "and I don't & favor driving the Germans to the wall on ((modernizing the short-range)) Lance missile. There are ways to keep the nuclear deterrent alive in Europe without getting...
Closer to home, Nunn virtually echoes Secretary of State James Baker's willingness to deal with Moscow in Central America. "Reagan pretended that the hemisphere is ours," says Nunn, "but the reality is that the Soviets are already major players in Cuba and Nicaragua. There's nothing wrong with acknowledging that reality and trying to fashion a policy that ties Moscow's need for Western credits to a diminution of their support for Castro and the Sandinistas...