Bush Names Tower to Top Defense Post : New Pentagon Head Hints at Manpower Reductions in Military

President-elect Bush rounded out his national security team Friday with the long-expected selection of former Texas Sen. John Tower as defense secretary. Tower promised “as much, if not more, defense for less money.”

Tower hinted at manpower reductions throughout the armed services. But, he stressed, “I would not advocate, for the immediate future, any significant troop reduction in Europe.”

The vice president pronounced himself “totally satisfied” with Tower’s fitness to serve after a detailed FBI background check that left the former chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee dangling in suspense for nearly a month.

Wide Support Predicted

Predicting that the selection will be greeted with “wide support abroad and at home,” Bush said he believes Tower has been strengthened by the ordeal. He said the exhaustive investigation into Tower’s professional and personal life had yielded a “clean bill of health.”

For his part, Tower, 63, told reporters that the unusual semi-public debate over his qualifications “was not comfortable but I understand the process.”

The background check had delved into his connections with the defense industry as well as into allegations of womanizing and drinking problems.

“I got up every morning and laughed myself silly over what I was reading in the newspapers,” he said.

Bush called Tower a man of “great experience, expertise and commitment to peace and freedom” and a man devoted to reform.

Meanwhile, sources reported that Bush had chosen Oklahoma Gov. Henry Bellmon and former Democratic Rep. Thomas (Lud) Ashley of Ohio to be his appointees to the National Economic Commission, which is charged with recommending ways to reduce the federal deficit. Bellmon is a former senator who once served as ranking Republican on the Budget Committee; Ashley is a friend of the President-elect since their days together at Yale.

Teeter to White House

A transition source also said campaign strategist Robert Teeter, who is serving as co-chairman of Bush’s transition team, has ended many days of deliberation by agreeing to go to the White House as deputy chief of staff.

Filling that position clears the way for the selection of a host of other White House jobs.

At the same time, Republican sources said former Republican Rep. Henson Moore of Louisiana remains a leading candidate to become energy secretary.

Transition sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the vice president will announce at least three more Cabinet choices early this week.

These will include conservative Rep. Jack Kemp as secretary of housing and urban development and Chicago mass-transit official Samuel Skinner as secretary of transportation, the sources said.

They also said health educator Louis Sullivan continues to be the leading candidate for secretary of health and human services. If chosen, he would be the first black in Bush’s Cabinet. However, sources said the background check on Sullivan had only barely begun and Bush had not yet offered him the post.

The appointment of Tower completes Bush’s selection of a national security team. He previously named former Treasury Secretary James A. Baker III as secretary of state, chose retired Air Force Gen. Brent Scowcroft as national security adviser and said he would retain William Webster as director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Seven Members to Go

Bush has now named seven Cabinet members and has seven to go.

Tower has held a variety of sensitive posts since retiring from the Senate in 1985, including stints as an arms control negotiator for President Reagan and as head of a review board, popularly known as the Tower Commission, appointed by Reagan to probe the Iran-Contra affair.

Tower told reporters that he has no reservations about the Strategic Defense Initiative. However, he added, “I understand the value of SDI, not just as a deterrent potential but also as a very, very valuable negotiating tool.”

Asked if that meant that he thought of it only as a bargaining chip for arms-reduction talks, he responded, “Not a chip, leverage--negotiating leverage.”

‘Holding the Line’

Bush said a prime challenge facing his Administration is continuing “our policy of strength while making progress in holding the line on spending.”

Tower immediately picked up on this theme, telling reporters, “The bottom line is that we must provide at least as much if not more defense for less money.” He promised “very close cooperation” with Congress.

“We must refine and reform our management and procurement procedures,” he added.

Although ruling out any immediate troop reductions in Europe, Tower said he favors a process of “rationalizing our force structure” with an eye to saving money.

‘Economy in Manpower’

“You can achieve economy in manpower everywhere,” Tower said.

In response to questions on other matters, Bush:

- Said “there is no expectation that we will or won’t” have a summit meeting with Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev next year. He said he didn’t want to signal unwillingness to build on recent progress in U.S.-Soviet relations, but also didn’t want to “send out the other signal” of acting too hastily.

- Said he “wouldn’t overstate the importance” of the U.S. talks with the Palestine Liberation Organization. He stressed that the Reagan Administration has embarked on a dialogue and not a negotiation.

Questions on Tower’s qualifications, in part, focused on the ex-lawmaker’s ability to control the Pentagon’s bureaucracy and purchasing system, particularly in light of his staunch support for the arms buildup in the early 1980s and in light of the consulting contracts he holds with major defense firms.

Asked if Tower would remove himself from Defense Department matters involving corporations for which he had consulted, Bush said, “I expect so. . . . I think we’ll bend over backward in that regard.”