Military Maneuvers

By Bruce van Voorst/Washington

Since the day Bill Clinton was sworn in, his command over the armed forces has suffered from the sort of contempt rarely shown by the men and women in uniform toward a newly minted President. Believing that 12 years of Republican indulgence has habituated the military to calling its own shots, the President has dreamed of reaffirming civilian leadership over the Pentagon. But his hands have been tied both by his image as a draft dodger and by the popularity and political adroitness of General Colin Powell, the extraordinary Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who virtually dictated the Pentagon's opposition to admitting homosexuals to the armed forces and resisted military involvement in Bosnia. Last week Clinton finally got the chance to take the helm. Two chances, in fact -- one meticulously planned; the other fortuitous.

After weeks of pondering who should succeed Powell when he retires at the end of September, Clinton named a new Chairman who commands many of Powell's positive qualities but little of his glamour. The President's choice was Army General John Shalikashvili, 57, currently the Supreme Allied Commander at NATO. An officer of the sort the Army calls a "warrior," Shalikashvili muddied his boots as a buck private, commanded a division and a corps, and boasts the sort of American Dream career that fascinates Presidents.

The son of a Georgian army officer and grandson of a czarist general, Shalikashvili was born in Warsaw and at the end of World War II fled Poland with his family in a cattle car, just ahead of the Soviet army. After migrating to the U.S. and teaching himself English by watching John Wayne movies, he joined the Army and steadily rose through the ranks. A virtually unpronounceable surname (shah-lee-kash-VEE-lee) and a reputation for passing on to subordinates the credit that more flamboyant officers reserve for themselves have earned him the diminutive "General Shali." He made his first international impact running Operation Provide Comfort to feed Iraq's Kurds and protect them from Saddam Hussein. During a tour this spring through the former Soviet-bloc capitals, says an aide, Shalikashvili "showed he's as much diplomat as general."

Though his recent readings include Balkan Ghosts, which warns against getting involved in places like Bosnia, he is supervising NATO planning for air strikes there and, a former aide says, "is not quite so reluctant to use force" -- a hawkishness that separates him from the more conservative Powell. While he meets the President's first requirement -- what Defense Secretary Les Aspin described as "somebody who can run military operations" -- the general is virtually unknown to the public and untutored in the ways of Congress and public relations. That could prove doubly attractive if it makes him more compliant than his predecessor.

The day of Shalikashvili's nomination, a Marine Corps blunder handed Clinton another chance to show who's boss. In an effort to reduce the number of failed marriages that collapse under the rigors of Marine life, General Carl Mundy, the commandant, announced -- without consulting Aspin -- that the corps would refuse to accept married recruits as of Sept. 30, 1995. The political equivalent of a fragmentation grenade, Mundy's directive would have created a paradoxical situation in which the Marines would accept gay recruits -- as long as they kept mum about their sexual orientation -- but not married heterosexuals. "If they are not allowed to be homosexuals and they're not allowed to be married," asked Representative Pat Schroeder, "what are they supposed to do -- take cold showers?"

Clinton and Aspin immediately jumped in to rescind the order, which they had never approved. Any new policies on the matter, Aspin flatly stated, would be submitted to him for review. The next day, Mundy, who had been outspoken in opposition to accepting gays in the service, performed his act of contrition at a press conference. He acknowledged "blind-siding" the President. "I just kicked this one in the grandstand," he said. "I did not adequately inform my civilian superiors of the policy." While many military experts sympathized with Mundy's concern for the impact of marriage troubles on his troops, Clinton pounced on the political and constitutional folly of such a policy. "The President nailed the Marine Corps hide to the wall on an issue where he had moral authority," said one Pentagon insider. "Dealing with the other chiefs should be easier from here on."

In hopes of warming the relationship further, Aspin argued that his boss actually has much in common with the mainstream military -- a lot of Baptist, small-town Southern boys. Administration sources also confirmed that over the next five years Clinton may be prepared to spend up to $20 billion more on defense than he originally promised. With Les able to offer more, Clinton might finally take real command at the Pentagon.