No Drinking Problem, Tower Tells Senators

In an extraordinary exchange for a confirmation hearing on a Cabinet nominee, Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) Wednesday asked his former colleague, Defense Secretary-designate John Tower, point-blank if he had a drinking problem.

“I have none, senator,” Tower responded. “I am a man of some discipline.”

In public and private sessions before the Senate Armed Services Committee Wednesday, Tower was forced to answer charges brought by conservative critics that he is morally unsuited for the Pentagon post because of alleged heavy drinking and womanizing.

Tower Uncomfortable

Nunn, chairman of the committee, asked the clearly uncomfortable nominee in open session whether drinking would affect his performance as defense secretary.

“I think that it is essential that the secretary of defense be at all times capable of exercising the duties and responsibilities of his office, some of which are even more sensitive and more critical than the general public realizes,” said Tower, a 24-year Senate veteran and former chairman of the Armed Services Committee.

“And, therefore, I think that there should be zero toleration of anyone, the secretary of defense or any other sensitive job in the Defense Department, who has an alcohol problem.”

Tower has acknowledged heavy drinking in the past but says that today he indulges only in an occasional glass of wine.

In addition, Nunn obtained a pledge from Tower that he would not tolerate sexual harassment of women in the military. Tower, who has been divorced twice, was charged by his second wife in divorce proceedings with “marital misconduct” with a number of women while he was still married.

Tower was also grilled by committee members on potential conflicts of interest arising from his post-government work as a highly paid consultant to a half-dozen major defense contractors.

Approval Probable

But, as the fourth day of hearings ended, it appeared that his nomination would be approved by the panel and confirmed by the full Senate. A committee vote is scheduled for today unless new charges against the retired Texas senator arise.

In remarks to reporters after the 3 1/2-hour session Wednesday, Nunn said that he is “wrestling” with the seriousness of the charges about Tower’s personal behavior before deciding whether to vote for his nomination.

“I am weighing all of that,” Nunn said. “My final judgment will have a lot to do with that.”

He said, however, that he does not believe Tower’s consulting work created “legal or ethical violations. There are only appearance problems.”

Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) hammered on those “appearance problems” in pressing Tower on the appropriateness of leaving his position as chief strategic arms negotiator in talks with the Soviet Union to go to work advising defense contractors on the talks’ probable outcome.

Tower was U.S. delegate to the strategic arms reduction talks from January, 1985, when he retired from the Senate, until April, 1986, when he became a defense industry consultant and lobbyist.

Tower has said that he sold his advice to clients--including missile maker Martin Marietta Corp.--about the talks to help them plan “product development.”

Levin asked Tower about the “appearance, having come directly from negotiations which are ongoing, highly confidential, privileged negotiations, you’re then advising clients on the impact of those negotiations . . . on their product.”

Tower acknowledged that “there might be an appearance problem, although I don’t believe that there’s been any specific charge that I, in any unethical way, used my experience to serve my clients.”

At another point in the hearing, Tower described his role as a consultant to arms firms in terms that provide a textbook description of how a Washington insider can turn his knowledge and access into big money. Tower has said that he was paid more than $750,000 in the two years after he left government service for advising six major defense firms.

Sen. Alan J. Dixon (D-Ill.) asked Tower exactly what he did for the companies to earn the huge fees.

“Being available at the end of the telephone for advice from someone who has some degree of experience and sophistication in a field is of value to people,” Tower explained. “Sometimes I think people don’t fully comprehend that the advice of Washington insiders, who have had a great deal of experience, has a value. Management decisions are sometimes made on that advice. So it’s really hard to calculate; it’s an intangible.”

Meanwhile, in a move that underlines the importance of East Asia to the future of U.S. military forces, it was learned that Tower has picked Paul D. Wolfowitz, currently U.S. envoy to Indonesia and a key figure in the Ronald Reagan Administration’s policy toward the Philippines, to fill the Pentagon’s top policy-making post.

Transition officials said that Wolfowitz will become undersecretary of defense for policy, a position held from 1981 until 1988 by the more European-oriented Fred C. Ikle. In that spot--effectively the Defense Department’s mini-State Department, Wolfowitz, 44, will help plan U.S. arms control positions and international military commitments.

The choice of Wolfowitz, considered a moderate in regional matters but a hard-liner on nuclear arms policy, was made as the United States and the Philippines begin a crucial round of negotiations on the U.S. military’s continued access to bases in the Philippines.

Staff writer Melissa Healy contributed to this story.