Weinberger: The Knife Is Moving Sharply

The incident is already a Pentagon legend. On one of his first days as Secretary of Defense, Caspar W. Weinberger, 63, arrived at his desk to find a report giving the reasons for a single budget item; it was 2,916 pages long. Weinberger hit the roof, to the extent that his easygoing temper can fly. He called for an all-out war on the stultifying proliferation of paper and procedures throughout the department. As a senior official put it, the bureaucratic problem of putting together a budget had become so imposing that "the numbers were driving the policy. We set out to reverse that." Thus did the new Secretary begin to do what the President had chosen him to do. More manager than strategic thinker, Weinberger, in the words of a Reagan aide, "is someone who will run the place."

In running the place, Weinberger draws on a long history of administrative experience. He earned the President's respect and confidence in the 1960s as finance director in Reagan's California cabinet, and has remained close to the President. As Director of the Office of Management and Budget under Richard Nixon and as Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare under both Nixon and Gerald Ford, Weinberger became known as "Cap the Knife," the vigorous slasher of budgets and waste.

Since coming to the Pentagon, the Knife has focused on paring away bureaucratic procedures and recarving department responsibilities. He has yet to make a dent in the bloated Pentagon budget, but his procedural reforms may, in the long run, yield substantial savings. His principal targets: the Pentagon's elaborate and illogical procurement and budget planning processes. Weinberger has appointed a special assistant to search out waste and fraud and has been open to outside ideas. Ehner Staats, on his final day in office as Carter's Comptroller General, sent Weinberger a letter with 15 recommendations to improve Pentagon efficiency; eleven of the proposals have been adopted, and two more are under study.

A confident administrator who likes to trust his subordinates, Weinberger has sought to decentralize authority within the department. Last March he ordered a 50% reduction in the amount of budget-related paperwork sent to his office, thus shrinking the direct involvement of his personal staff. He has also given new responsibilities to the Secretaries of the Army, Navy and Air Force, whose roles had become largely ceremonial in recent years.

Weinberger's predecessors tended to concentrate power in the Office of the Secretary, involving themselves in decisions at every level and running the Pentagon as if it were a small business. Like Reagan in the White House, Weinberger prefers to delegate, acting as chief executive of a big, diversified conglomerate. At the same time, he will take an avuncular interest in even the lowliest aide and will gladly spare a few minutes to look at a secretary's vacation snapshots. In general, he tries to devote his own time to long-range planning and big issues like the manned bomber or the MX basing system, over which he is apt to fret and ruminate. Some feel that such agonizing takes too long and that he could make up his mind faster.

Weinberger does his pondering in a third-floor Pentagon office, which is dominated by Titian's Titian and Assistant, on loan from the National Gallery. Among his redecorating touches: adding some antique military swords to his office and installing a hi-fi system. The Secretary likes to contemplate the nation's security to classical music. He generally arrives at work between 7:30 and 8 a.m. He puts in twelve hours and returns home with a full briefcase for postdinner consideration. He lives in a $750,000 town house near Washington's Embassy Row with his wife of 38 years, Jane; they have two children and two grandchildren. His tireless approach to studying defense problems has generally impressed Pentagon brass. Observes one senior official: "It's impossible to snow Cap." Says another: "He has been briefed and rebriefed and rebriefed, and each time his questions are more sharply focused." The Secretary is also praised for keeping his meetings on the right track. Says one of his aides: "The old obfuscating techniques don't work with Cap. He has an internal gyroscope that keeps his course in any conversation."

Weinberger's redistribution of Pentagon power has enhanced his standing with the brass, but at the same time, it has compelled him to crack down on the services' long tradition of competition and bickering. "Cap has said over and over again that he will not stand for gamesmanship," says an aide. Weinberger quickly demonstrated that he means it. He intervened in the bitter interservice dispute over the Rapid Deployment Force by creating a new four-service command for Southwest Asia. Once when several Air Force generals fell into disagreement over some very basic figures on aircraft costs, Weinberger ended the session and told the officials to come back when they could all argue from the same set of facts. His putdowns are soft, however. Says an aide: "He can chew people out and leave them with their egos intact better than anyone I've seen."

Like Reagan, Weinberger believes that the 1980 election gave the Administration a mandate to revitalize America both economically and militarily. He is passionate about communicating this to the Soviet Union. Says he: "It is no longer safe for the Soviets or anyone else to regard America as weak, irresolute or divided." The Secretary's methods of signaling this hard line to the Soviets are not always diplomatically sound and have upset U.S. allies, particularly in Europe, on several occasions. Secretary of State Alexander Haig has often found himself "clarifying" or otherwise cleaning up after Weinberger's seemingly casual references to such explosive issues as reviving plans for the neutron bomb, linking arms control to Soviet policy in Poland or selling arms to China. While Weinberger has not really trespassed on Haig's turf, he has not hesitated to express views that differ from those of the Secretary of State. He opposed, for example, Haig's effort to set a deadline for arms talks with the U.S.S.R. Yet once the President has spoken, Weinberger abides by the decision. Cap the Knife, with his reverence for good management, is a consummate team player.

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