Word: pentagons
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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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...
...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 and his skill at cloakroom orchestration. Cartoonists err who portray him as a maniacal Strangelove, fondling a missile as if it were a kitten, or as a bullet-headed robot. His phiz, indeed, is a public-relations problem...
...Manhattan on the rocks as he contemplates his prized swimming pool. That scene is increasingly rare. Though he still manages to swim before breakfast and before going to bed, almost all his waking hours are spent before congressional committees, at press conferences, or in one of the endless Pentagon meetings...
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...
...whether the force level or degree of preparedness can be reduced without damaging real security requirements. Laird did not address himself to that issue except by implication. If indeed the country's security interests are being put in jeopardy by any of the steps taken, however reluctantly, by the Pentagon, then Congress or the Administration or both should be called to account. It appears, to the contrary, that Laird was merely being the shrewd tactician...