Wolfowitz makes a better impression

0 Comments | Insight on the News, June 24, 2002 | by Kelly Patricia O'Meara, | Hans S. Nichols, | J. Michael Waller

Former secretaries of state Henry Kissinger and George C. Shultz pick their proteges carefully and then keep them close. Of course, Shultz once was close to Kissinger, with whom he served in the Nixon administration as secretary of labor, one of four Cabinet posts the latter held.

In late May the Hudson Institute--a think thank that may have more of its alumni sprinkled throughout the current Bush administration than any other--gave Shultz its annual James H. Doolittle award, named after the World War II hero. Kissinger and Shultz used the occasion to cozy up to Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, who gave the keynote address.

But Wolfowitz didn't always leave Shultz with such a positive impression. On his first assignment as assistant secretary of state for East Asia and Pacific affairs a jet-lagged Wolfowitz nodded off to sleep, practically falling into his food during the dinner toast in Japan of then-secretary of state Shultz. A colleague promptly awakened him, reminding Wolfowitz that Shultz did not typically like his new assistants to nod off while he spoke. Wolfowitz, widely believed to be one of the most hawkish members of the Bush national-security team, recounted the episode for the Hudson audience.

According to Wolfowitz, when he asked his colleague how he kept his own eyes open during Shultz's lengthy toast, the veteran diplomat scribbled on a note: "I'm sitting on my fork."

Wolfowitz's anecdote received hearty chuckles from the crowd, but the appearance suggested an exotic bond with Shultz and Kissinger, as well as to the prominent neoconservatives in the crowd. Calling Shultz an "apostle of diplomacy through force," Wolfowitz burnished his own image as the White House horse in the high-stakes races with diplomats at the State Department. While Wolfowitz avoided direct comments on current affairs--or criticism of current Secretary of State Colin Powell's handling of them--his remark that "It takes a confident man to sit still and take no action" was interpreted by some guests as a clear reference to President George W. Bush.

Wolfowitz also told a story about how Shultz, after dining with then-California governor Ronald Reagan in the late seventies and noting his clarity of purpose, urged him to run for president. Noticing the same qualities in then-governor of Texas Bush at a similar dinner in 1999, Shultz gave him the same advice. Kingmaker, indeed.

KELLY PATRICIA O'MEARA IS AN INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER, HANS S. NICHOLS IS A REPORTER AND J. MICHAEL WALLER IS A SENIOR WRITER FOR Insight.