President Names Army Secretary West to Serve as Head of VA

Army Secretary Togo West Jr., who became a forceful advocate for fair treatment of women in the nation’s largest military service, was named Tuesday by President Clinton to head the huge Department of Veterans Affairs.

President Clinton announced the expected move at a White House ceremony, hailing the 55-year-old lawyer as an official who “has always understood the special responsibility we owe to our men and women in uniform both during and after their years of service.”

West has weathered a number of crises in his four years as the civilian head of the Army. Confronted by evidence of widespread sexual harassment of female soldiers, he demanded equity for women. Faced with recent charges from conservatives that the Clinton administration was giving coveted burial space in Arlington National Cemetery to big Democratic Party donors, he refuted the allegations.

White House aides said Clinton would invoke a little-known section of the Vacancy Act to allow West to become acting VA secretary Jan. 2. His formal nomination will be sent to the Senate for confirmation later that month.

West, who served on active duty as an Army lawyer from 1969 to 1973, said he would face a new challenge running the VA. “I’ve been advised not to expect people to salute me and march off. But that’s not my style,” he said. He said his goal was to proclaim “rules of engagement to serve the veterans: to serve them effectively, efficiently and with compassion.”

He will oversee a far-flung bureaucracy consisting of more than 170 hospitals, nursing homes, cemeteries and benefit offices.

The VA Cabinet position has been vacant since the July resignation of Jesse Brown, a career veterans advocate who headed the department during Clinton’s first term. The president’s first choice to replace Brown, Deputy VA Secretary Hershel W. Gober, withdrew his nomination Oct. 24 after Republicans demanded the longtime Clinton friend from Arkansas face a public inquiry into allegations that he made “unwanted contact” with two women at a veterans event.