Word: pentagon
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Pentagon Correspondent Bruce Nelan, who filed thousands of words for the story written by Associate Editor Burton Pines, got a quite different impression of the mood of the Navy when he attended a high-ranking strategy forum at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I. Says Nelan: "The atmosphere was awash in gloom and doom. The admirals could not understand why America's seapower was, as they saw it, being cut back to the danger point. They were puzzled as much as angry, feeling misunderstood and ill-used...
When the Hawkeye reports "multiple radar contacts inbound" to the carrier, the U.S. commander sends more F-14s aloft. And on his direct line to the Pentagon command center, he requests permission for "weapon release" so that he can order his men to fire before being attacked...
...skilled manager willing to delegate tasks, Vance demands that ideas and policy options bubble up from middle levels of the State Department bureaucracy. He adds ideas of his own, hones the arguments and choices from the perspective of his experience in Lyndon Johnson's Pentagon (in which he served as Deputy Secretary of Defense), always emphasizing practicality and erring, if at all, on the side of caution. Says Columbia History Professor Henry Graff: "Vance is a practitioner of turtle diplomacy." Graff defines this as the art of gradual but persistent pushing toward long-term goals. He adds: "Carter could learn...
...near-dormant status under Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. His main influence has been on arms control policy, where he works well with SALT Negotiator Paul Warnke. The two were close associates in the Defense Department in the late 1960s. A co-author of segments of the celebrated Pentagon papers, a onetime strategic affairs specialist at the Brookings Institution and a former diplomatic correspondent for the New York Times, Gelb is distrusted by hawkish opponents of the Administration's SALT policy...
...because of increased personnel costs. A presidential panel last week recommended reform of exorbitant military pensions. Now, a 20-year veteran can retire at 37 and draw a full pension for the rest of his life. Thomas V. Jones, chairman of Northrop, a major defense contractor, charges that the Pentagon and its suppliers have come to accept cost overruns as a way of life. He urges that the Defense Department sign fixed-price contracts with no renegotiations allowed. If costs cannot be estimated accurately, says Jones, the military should award a prototype or development contract rather than a production contract...