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
Page 2 of 3
The Defense secretary is also credited with leading the way to increase the size of the military, announcing within weeks that he would grow the Army and Marine Corps over the next five years, and introducing troop-friendly initiatives such as expanding a program that would pay them for deploying for early or extended combat stays. Assuring lawmakers that he did not return to Washington to be a "bump on a log," Gates says he will speak truth to power. That posture has helped President Bush move forward with an escalation of the war in Iraq to a doubting Congress now seemingly forced to play a game of wait and see.
Affable but serious, Gates has already garnered the respect of officials in the halls of the Pentagon, but he is seen more than just a Mr. Fix-It at the Defense Department. The diplomatic community has warmed to him, and to some observers, it's no coincidence that the Bush administration has reversed itself and is now engaging directly with Iran and Syria.
"I suspect that Bob Gates could be the most powerful man in Washington if he chose to be," says Paul Eaton, a retired Army two-star general and vocal critic of Mr. Rumsfeld and the war effort.
While many have high hopes for what Gates can do, he's not a cure-all, says an analyst.
"There's a lot of blame to go around for what happened in Iraq," says Robert Work, vice president for strategic studies at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments in Washington and a retired marine. "I would hope people don't say, 'Rumsfeld's gone, and suddenly everything is going to get easier.' That's not the way it works."
Gates and his wife, Becky, maintain a home in the relative calm of the San Juan Islands in Washington State, but it's Washington, D.C., he knows best. After joining the CIA in 1966, he became an analyst of Soviet policy. That position didn't stop him from joining an antiwar protest in Washington in 1970. Gates went on to become the CIA's director in 1991 under President George H.W. Bush, who became a close personal friend and at whose urging Gates reportedly returned to Washington.
In his book about the end of the cold war, "From the Shadows," Gates lamented the demise of some of the former presidents for whom he worked. "Public service in a rough-and-tumble American democracy is not for the weak or faint of heart," he wrote.
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