The un-Rumsfeld: Robert Gates's way at Defense

Observers say Gates has established himself as a pragmatist and effective navigator of the Washington bureaucracy.

from the March 19, 2007 edition

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WASHINGTON - When Robert Gates took over at Texas A&M University in 2002, he piqued students' curiosity when he began joining members of the school's storied Corps of Cadets on early- morning runs, often joking that he wanted to lead the pack of runners because otherwise he'd get left behind.

For a man known to lead by example, the morning runs were the kind of thing that gave Mr. Gates, an outsider, the entree he needed and allowed him to use his presidency to gently remake the school as he wanted it. Now, having left that job reluctantly in December to become secretary of Defense, he is finding those leadership skills fully tested by an unpopular war, a stretched-to-the-limit military, an increasingly critical Congress, and a restive public.

So far, his report card looks promising.

In the three months since he moved to the Pentagon, Gates has clearly established himself as a pragmatist and effective navigator of the Washington bureaucracy whose low-key style belies an insistence on accountability and a willingness to act decisively when crises threaten to spiral out of control, observers say. Perhaps most important, he is the un-Donald Rumsfeld.

While the former Pentagon boss was seen as blustery and combative and put ill- prepared underlings on the defensive, Gates is quickly becoming known as an analytical thinker and consensus-builder, listening to all sides before asserting his authority. "I think the management style we're seeing in D.C. is quintessential Bob Gates," says Doug Slack, who knew Gates when Professor Slack was the speaker of the faculty senate at Texas A&M in College Station. "He's a guy who listens and then takes action."

There is no better example of that style in his short tenure at the Pentagon than earlier this month when he reacted angrily – and publicly – to the Army's slow response to dilapidated facilities at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. He ultimately forced the resignations of the secretary of the Army and the Army's surgeon general. And last Tuesday, Gates acknowledged the misstep of his senior military adviser, Marine Gen. Peter Pace, who expressed his personal views of homosexuality. General Pace's personal views "don't have a place here," Gates said.

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