Weinberger Discusses Nation’s Security

Former secretary of defense Caspar W. Weinberger hailed President Clinton’s choices for key Cabinet posts Saturday during a stop at the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace, but warned that unless the new military leaders advocate for a larger defense budget, the nation’s security will be at risk.

“They’re very good people,” Weinberger said of Madeleine Albright, nominated as the new secretary of state, and William S. Cohen, nominated as secretary of defense. “My question is: What kind of Cabinet members will the president allow them to be?

“As a nation, we have seriously begun down a path of neglect in the last few years with regard to our defense budget. . . . That eventually would make it impossible to win a war like the Gulf War.”

As part of the special events sponsored by the library on the 55th anniversary of Pearl Harbor, Weinberger spoke about his new book, “The Next War,” a fictional account of the major wars the world is most likely to face and their implications for the current U.S. defense system.

Susan Eisenhower, granddaughter of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, was also a guest speaker and talked about her new book, “Mrs. Ike,” an account of Mamie Eisenhower’s life.

Weinberger’s lecture before about 150 guests, including a handful of protesters, focused on the defense system’s ability to “fight and win two major conflicts simultaneously.” The former statesman, who worked under presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George Bush, said the end of the Cold War does not translate to a world without conflicts.

“We can’t shelter behind our oceans anymore. . . . missiles can cross the ocean in 18 minutes,” Weinberger said.

Defense spending should not be at the level it was during the Cold War, but it also should not jeopardize research and development, including a possible revival of Reagan’s antimissile plan, which cost the U.S. about $40 billion in the 1980s, Weinberger said.

“While we’re still spending a lot of money, we’re not getting the effect from it that we did before . . . because of the deep cuts in research and development,” Weinberger said.

Among the people who attended Weinberger’s lecture were several protesters who began shouting questions about the former defense secretary’s role in the conviction of Jonathan Pollard, an American Jew who spied for Israel. The protesters were promptly asked to leave.

Following Weinberger’s speech, Susan Eisenhower took the lectern with a more personal topic--her grandmother, Mamie Eisenhower.

“Somehow we have this idea that people like Mamie, people who don’t have a job outside of the home, have no important role,” Eisenhower said. “That’s not true at all. . . . She made enormous contributions to the family and society.”

Eisenhower decided to write a book about her grandmother after she completed “Breaking Free: A Memoir of Love & Revolution.”

“I watched a whole nation learn about its history . . . and it made me reflect on my own,” she said.

Eisenhower used from 300 to 400 unpublished letters to piece together her grandmother’s life before and after her White House years. The book chronicles such events as Dwight and Mamie Eisenhower having to go through the death of their first-born son--Susan’s uncle--and the couple’s years in the military.

“I found a letter that my grandfather had written to my grandmother to be opened only in case of his death during World War II,” Susan Eisenhower said during an interview before her speech. “It was signed ‘Your lover, for all these years’ . . . He didn’t even sign it.”

In the midst of researching her book, Eisenhower said she encountered many surprises, such as the passion in Dwight Eisenhower’s letters to his wife. She “couldn’t help” but learn more about herself and her family.

“I see this book as a celebration of the institution of marriage,” Eisenhower said.