REAGAN ON THE DEFENSE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000505400082-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 9, 2010
• Sequence Number: 82
• Publication Date: April 18, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/09 :CIA-RDP90-005528000505400082-9 STAT
NF;~'S~'i'FFK
18 PFrL 1983
Meagan on the Defense
The president's own party
~ the time Ronald Reagan put in a call
B to Senate Budget Committee chairman
Pete ~'. Domenici, the votes were lined up,
the budget numbers had been written on a
big green chalkboard and the clerk was ,
ready to call the roll. But Domenici, his teeth
clenched with anger, nevertheless excused
himself, stubbing out yet another Merit
cigarette as he made his way to the phone
booth marked "Senators Only." Domenici
listened politely, his face noticeably redden-
ing as Reagan barked into the phone: "I'm
the president and I Rant you to hold offfor a
while. People on that committee are up for
re-election. They're goin? to be coming to
me for help:"
Reagan's threat came too late. After Do-
menici hung up the phone, he joined all but
four Republicans on the budget committee
in voting for adefense-spending increase
that came to only half what the president
had v.?anted. Although the vote was as much
s~~mbolic as substantive, it was Reagan's
sharpest rebuke yet from his own party-
and pe: baps his biggest defeat on Capitol
Hill. Even his prime-time appeal to the na-
tio^ afortnight before had produced a>hat
1 eR J erse}? Rep. Marge Roukema called "a
conspicuous silence," suggesting that the
Great Communicator may have taken his
case to the public once too often (page ?.3)-
and that he had badly misjudged its mood.
"I was in Ankeny and Des Moines, in
Red Oai` and Atlantic." said conservati~~e
Iow:. Sen. Charles Grassley, ticking off the
places he had ~?isited during the Easter re-
cess. "People told me flat out that they were
concerned about waste and abuse and mis-
management in the Pentagon. And these
weren't left-wing crazies. They were blue-
coliar workers and veterans-people who
elected Ronald Reagan and elected me.
Thee said: 'Turn off the spigot!"'
Growing public and congressional hostil-
it~~ to the administration's hard-line mili-
:an stance is likely to cause Reagan even
birger problems in the weeks ahead. For
example, a presidential commission is soon
expected to unveil a new MX deployment
plan that seems to call into question the very
foundation of Reagan's defense strategy
(page 24). Although the administration Ras
cheered last week by a revised-and sof-
tened-version of a pastoral letter by Ro-
delivers a sharp rebuke
man Catholic bishops opposing nuclear
weapons, arms talks with the Soviet Union
may be permanently stalled and Kenneth
Adelman-Reagan's choice to head the
Arms Control and Disarmament Agency=
seems headed this week for a close and
contentious confirmation vote. Even an up-
tick in the economy hasn't softened opposi-
tion to Reagan's defense buildup: traveling
to Pittsburgh for ajobs-retraining confer-
ence last week, he drew an angry crowd of
4,000 blue-collar supporters who held signs
like "Bread Not Bombs."
Message The message was seemingly lost
on Reagan, just as it had been earlier in the
week after a tense meeting with Senate Re-
publicans. GOP leaders had hoped to con-
vince Reagan that federal budget deficits
and the public mood would not accept his
request for 546.3 billion in extra military
spending. Secretary of State George Shultz
insisted that a vote against Reagan would
"send the wrong signal" to the Soviets, and
Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger's
seU righteous, all-or-nothing attitude only
stiffened the resolve of some senators to fight
the president. But it was a visibly angry
Reagan who had the last word: "When are
we going to have the guts to stand up for
what's right instead of what's popular?"
But what's "right" by Reagan has be-
come increasingly less popular with the
American public. "That consensus ...you
once felt out there to recoup on the military
isn't there anymore," says Republican
House leader Roben Michel. Indeed, polls
show that Americans are increasingly skep-
tical of large defense budget increases, and
Reagan'sfoeeign-policy approval rating has
been steadily sapped by events in Central
America and the failure to realize any real
progress at the arms-negotiating table. He
has repeatedly ignored or rebuffed natural
allies like the conservative Grassley, who
argue that there is enough waste in the
Pentagon to keep budget increases to a
minimum without endangering national se-
curity. And Deputy Defense Secretary Paul
Thayer, who has consistently argued for a
reordering of defense priorities, Vitas appar-
ently been neutralized by Weinberger and
has had virtually no impact on the shaping
of the administration's military po]ic}?.
`F1agFlying':Meanwhile. Weinbergerand
national-securitc adviser William Clark-
alon with C A irector t tam asev an
united Nanons Am assa or cane ' tr -
patrick-have prodded Reaear. to to ?e a
to his military buildup.
more muscular approach to foreign-policy
issues. "Clark and W einberger want to go off
the cliff with the flag flying," complains or-e
top Reagan adviser. The two seized tw~ctiral
control of the defense-budget lobbying Llita.,
and Clark barred other top Reagan aides
from strategic deliberations: And along
with Weinberger, Clark refused to compro-
mise on the Pentagon budget-{yen though.
a little flexibility might have enabled tltc
administration to win a good deal more of its
requested increases. Privately, top aisles
blamed the two for the Senate loss, ~vCgi
though in public, the Whin House was
blaming the press. "We could have had a
deal and a victory and a unified party,"
moaned one. "Instead we have a presidcr;t
repudiated by his own party."
But if Reagan's repudiation was partly
caused by what one White House aide called
"tactical stupidity," it was also of his own
making. Indeed, the president. has recently
embraced foreign policy as fervently as he
pushed his economic-recovery program-
and with the same inflexibility. Part of?thc
reason for Reagan's intransigence, says ot;e
longtime adviser, is that "he's always l~c-
lievedthat you've got to be strong before the
Russians will listen to you. It's a spiritual
thing with him." Moderate GOP Sen. Slade
Gorton of Washington agrees: "What we
heard from him was 100 percent personal
conviction. There wasn't an ounce of politi-
cal calculation in it."
Reagan's personal convictions, however,
are fraught with serious political risks.
"We're scaring everyone half to death with
this nuke staff," complains one ranking ad-
ministration official. "All the talk about
missiles and warheads and megatonnage
has rekindled the warmonger stuff." And as
last week's demonstration in Pittsburgh
also points out, the perception that Reagan
is cutting social programs to pay for dEfettse
increases has once again revived the "fair-
ness" issue that has dogged him from the
start of his presidency. ".4ll of a sudden you
hear we're sacrificing the Great Society on
the altar of the military-industrial com-
plex," says one Reagan official.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/09 :CIA-RDP90-005528000505400082-9