Word: vessey
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...criticize the "peacekeeping" role of the Marines. Said he: "The people in the Mideast have been fighting since the days of Abraham. Asking our Marines to stop the fighting there is like trying to change the course of Niagara Falls with a bucket." Hopkins said that General John Vessey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had testified before his committee that all five chiefs oppose the current use of the Marines...
...August, National Security Adviser Clark convened a special meeting of top officials: the new Secretary of State, George Shultz, Arms Control and Disarmament Director Rostow, Defense Secretary Weinberger, CIA Director William Casey and General John W Vessey Jr., the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Each of these men brought one aide. Absent, however, were the two officials who had been most influential in formulating arms-control policy: Perle and Burt. Perle was combining a vacation with a stay at the Aspen Institute arms-control workshop in Colorado. Burt, who had been nominated to replace Eagleburger as Assistant Secretary of State...
Nevertheless, the chiefs went into "the Tank," their inner sanctum in the Pentagon, to decide on a joint position. They split: Vessey and Air Force Chief of Staff Charles Gabriel leaned in favor of the plan, while Army Chief of Staff Edward C. Meyer, whose service had responsibility for the Pershing II and who therefore had a proprietary interest in seeing it continued, leaned against it, along with Chief of Naval Operations James Watkins. The chiefs' equivocal report never reached the President, who had asked...
Back in Washington, Bush assembled top security officials, including Weinberger, General Vessey and key White House aides for a meeting that began at 9 a.m. and lasted almost two hours. Summed up one participant: "Everyone was gung-ho." The President joined the conversation via speakerphone for five minutes. One White House staffer warned that there would be "a lot of harsh political reaction" to a U.S. strike at the small island nation. Replied the President: "I know that. I accept that." Still, Weinberger and Vessey wanted to learn more about the weapons and willingness to fight of the Cubans...
...extraordinary Pentagon press conference eight hours after the President's Tuesday announcement, Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger and General John Vessey Jr., Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, briefed reporters in Washington on the progress of the fighting while attempting to explain why journalists were not being allowed to observe it. The reasons: the necessity for complete secrecy to ensure the success of the surprise attack, and concerns over correspondents' safety. When would the press be allowed in? "I hope as soon as tomorrow," said Weinberger, adding, "I wouldn't ever dream of overriding the commander...