Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 10, 1994 TAG: 9404100044
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: B7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
"We had such a heavy fog that the pilot asked me to take over," Perry deadpanned, getting a round of laughter.
The image of the soft-spoken, 66-year-old mathematician seizing the controls of a bucking jet may also be an apt description of Perry's first two months in charge of the government's largest agency.
Since taking over after the forced resignation of Les Aspin, Perry has garnered praise from the military's top brass and Pentagon political appointees. And he has easily assumed the role of policy spokesman so sought after, but never achieved, by his predecessor.
For example:
It was Perry, not Secretary of State Warren Christopher, who enunciated the administration's new goal of a "pragmatic partnership" with Russia, which envisions cooperation between the superpowers while keeping up a military guard as a hedge against a worsening of relations.
Perry has been blunt about the dangers emerging on the Korean peninsula, warning that the administration will stop North Korea from developing an arsenal of nuclear weapons, even at the cost of another war.
Instead of boasting of the success achieved in getting Serbs to pull artillery back from around Sarajevo under the threat of NATO air strikes, Perry used the event to warn of the limits of air power, offering Vietnam as a case study of the potential "quagmire" that could await the U.S. military.
However, that cautiousness earned Perry his first criticism.
Speaking on NBC's "Meet the Press" last Sunday, Perry said the United States would not use force to prevent the fall of Muslim enclaves in Bosnia, even though he left open the possibility circumstances could change. Still, that led to heckling from State Department officials and his first critical Herblock political cartoon - portraying Perry holding a sign in front of President Clinton saying, "To Serb aggressors . . . You don't have to worry about us!"
When Perry was first named, few anticipated the technocrat with the professorial demeanor would make waves so publicly, Pentagon observers say.
Perry "has emerged much more forcefully in the policy arena than people anticipated," said Lawrence Korb, an assistant secretary of defense in the Reagan administration, now a specialist on defense with the Brookings Institution.
Korb said Perry's clear and succinct enunciation of policy is a sharp contrast to former congressman Aspin, "who never made the transition from legislator to political executive. Bill Perry is the professional executive who doesn't speak until he's made up his mind."
Barry Blechman, the chairman of the Henry L. Stimson Center, a nonprofit institution that supports research on international security issues, said Perry has managed to "show his good sense with his clear articulation of policy."
But Blechman said Perry "shouldn't be underestimated for all his niceness. . . . There's a relentlessness there, a persistence. When he has a good idea, he pursues it."
Air Force Secretary Sheila Widnall, who has known Perry for years in academic and government circles, says there is "a different atmosphere . . . a different organizational style" inside the Pentagon, primarily because of Perry's penchant for meetings that run on time and end with clear results.
Perry has also made a point to meet at length with the top enlisted officers from every service and has been careful to keep in close contact with Capitol Hill.
Perry's flurry of meetings isn't just window-dressing, one four-star general said.
After a recent breakfast session, one participant said Perry listens, understands the weapons systems and knows the meaning of the word "consult."
by CNB