Cohen: His Arsenal Lacks Only Management Experience

Secretary of Defense-designate William S. Cohen is likely to be an able defender of President Clinton’s military policies before Congress and the public but is inexperienced at running a bureaucratic behemoth like the Pentagon.

Cohen, 56, is a moderate Republican who has earned respect and credibility on defense issues among lawmakers of both parties on Capitol Hill as a senator from Maine. Charismatic, he has proven effective at making his case to voters on key issues. And he is highly regarded around the world.

Clinton said Thursday that he decided on Cohen partly in hopes that the Republican, who enjoys good relations with many Democrats, can help quell GOP sniping on defense issues and forge bipartisan support for the administration’s defense policies.

But it still is an open question whether Cohen, who is leaving the Senate this year after spending the bulk of his career as a lawyer and lawmaker, will have the determination and managerial ability to keep the armed services in line and push them into addressing the challenges they are facing.

Harry Summers, a retired Army colonel now serving as a defense analyst, said that Cohen is “quite knowledgeable” about defense issues and effective on Capitol Hill but noted that there are “two components” to the Pentagon’s top job--the political side and the job of managing the bureaucracy.

Cohen, if confirmed as expected, will face no dearth of challenges during his first few months in office. By law, the Pentagon must conduct a sweeping review of the current defense policy and make formal recommendations on how to change the size and mission of the nation’s military for the 21st century.

He also could expect to have to defend the Pentagon’s budget against increasing attacks from liberals, who want to transfer some of the money to popular domestic programs, and against constricting amendments by conservatives, who want to limit Clinton’s authority to deploy troops abroad.

And he also would have a spate of international trouble spots to watch, from overseeing what many analysts believe will become an increasingly difficult U.S. troop deployment in Bosnia to terrorist threats in Saudi Arabia and possible turmoil in North Korea.

What is more, by almost any standard, Cohen would have a difficult act to follow. The man he would replace, current defense chief William J. Perry, is almost universally regarded as one of the best Pentagon chiefs in recent memory--partly because of his ability to manage the department.

Nevertheless, Cohen would bring strong attributes to the job that analysts said are likely to appeal both to Republicans and Democrats:

* He has spent 24 years in Congress, the last 18 as a senator. As a longtime member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, he is considered one of Capitol Hill’s most knowledgeable spokesmen on defense issues and has broad experience in dealing with Defense Department and military leaders alike.

* While nowhere near as conservative as today’s Republican leadership, Cohen has won the respect of the GOP lawmakers who have the most influence on defense matters, from Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.) to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). And his word is heeded by many Democrats as well.

Cohen’s stands on military issues are somewhat conservative. Elected in 1978, he ran on a platform calling for increased military preparedness. And in 1981, he supported the Reagan administration’s massive defense buildup, which poured billions of dollars into buying military weapons.

He also opposed the nuclear freeze movement in the 1980s, backed the MX missile and the push for a 600-ship Navy and has argued that the United States must not abandon its global military reach in the post-Cold War era, calling for more mobile forces and a national missile defense.

Cohen is considered a pragmatist and an unabashed internationalist.