After Aspin, the Opportunity

There is no question that Les Aspin, President Clinton’s defense secretary, has not been in the best of health. This hard-working, highly regarded former congressman underwent surgical implantation of a cardiac pacemaker in February, and it is likely that the strain of office was simply too much. That, in fact, was the context into which Aspin’s sudden resignation Wednesday was officially placed.

Clinton said he accepted the decision with regret and hoped that Aspin, 55, who will stay on through most of January, would be available down the road for another assignment in the Administration. That was the way the announcement ought to have been put. Aspin has made some mistakes in office--the disastrous October U.S. military operation in Somalia is laid at his doorstep. But he was hardly the only high-level Administration official to have misstepped once or thrice in Clinton’s first year.

However, it is also fair to say that the Administration’s foreign policy team, taken as a whole, has been undergoing a bumpy shakedown cruise. Some of the criticism of the team’s performance was excessive, even mean. But it’s hard to believe that Clinton, or Secretary of State Warren Christopher, could have been very happy with the way things were working. This is why, health reasons or not, the Aspin departure gives the President a terrific opportunity to get his sputtering foreign policy act together.

Christopher seems to have hit his stride in recent weeks--we like that he is speaking out a little more candidly and we wish he would do more of that. But there is still a question about the National Security Council, where chief adviser Anthony Lake is a too-quiet, stealth-like presence. Thus the sudden Aspin vacancy allows the President to give momentum to his foreign policy by naming a new, major figure to the A-team. Indeed, Clinton is reported to have already made that choice and is expected to make it public soon.