CLINTON GETS A ‘TWO-FER’: ASPIN DEPARTURE PERMITS HALPERIN NOMINATION TO BE ABANDONED GRACEFULLY

(Washington, D.C.): The resignation of
Secretary of Defense Les Aspin allows
President Clinton a desperately needed
opportunity to try a fresh start in the
formulation and execution of national
security policy. His ability to
exploit that opportunity fully, however,
will depend in part on whether he also
sheds some of the personnel baggage
Secretary Aspin would otherwise leave
behind. Heading this list, of
course, is Mr. Aspin’s misbegotten choice
for Assistant Secretary of Defense for
Democracy and Peacekeeping, Morton
Halperin.

It is a well-established tradition
that a new Cabinet officer is entitled to
select his own subordinates. As a result,
the appointment of a successor to
Secretary Aspin should occasion the
tendering of resignations by all those he
put into senior positions. It should also
elicit requests from those — like
Halperin — whose nominations have not
yet been acted upon by the Senate that
their nominations be withdrawn.

Why Halperin Should Be a
Non-Starter for Inman

Naturally, the new Secretary of
Defense may wish to retain the services
of some or even many of Mr. Aspin’s
appointees for reasons of continuity, at
least during a transition period. Still, it
is inconceivable that the President’s
next choice for this post — reported to
be retired Adm. Bobby Inman — would wish
to invest the immense political capital
and squander the good will that typically
accompanies a “honeymoon”
period by embracing the Halperin
nomination.

Given the strong opposition to
Halperin among members of the Senate
Armed Services Committee, the Secretary
of Defense-designee must expect that he
risks at the very least an unpleasant
confirmation hearing — unless he
makes it clear beforehand that Halperin
will not be serving in an Inman Pentagon,
either as a consultant, an Assistant
Secretary or in any other capacity.

Adm. Inman may have a special interest
in having Halperin’s name withdrawn. As
part of the campaign mounted over the
past few months by the embattled
nominee’s partisans, the one-time
Director of the National Security Agency
and Deputy Director of the CIA was
occasionally cited as an example of a
relatively centrist former official —
one of very few — who was not opposed to
the choice of Halperin for a senior
Defense Department job. Of course, it is
one thing to opt not to fight another
man’s appointee and an altogether
different matter to make that appointee
your own. Bobby Inman is assuredly
too politically savvy to saddle his own
tenure as Secretary of Defense with this
albatross.

The Bottom Line

The Center for Security Policy
believes that, with the resignation of
Secretary Aspin, President Clinton has
been given a chance honorably to abandon
an ill-considered nomination. By so
doing, he will be able to avoid the
bloody — and assuredly losing — fight
that would have eventuated had he
resubmitted Morton Halperin’s name when
the Senate reconvenes in January.

Such an outcome seems assured in light
of material now being prepared by the
Center that compiles the myriad
misleading statements, half-truths and
falsehoods served up by Halperin in the
course of his first, nine-hour hearing
before the Armed Services Committee. This
careful documentation of the reality
of the Halperin record persuasively
demonstrates that the judgment, policy
recommendations and integrity of this
individual are exceedingly difficult to
defend. President Clinton and Adm. Inman
should be grateful that they no longer
need to do so.

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