Fareed Zakaria: Gates's Lonely Battle to Rationalize the Pentagon
[Fareed Zakaria is editor of Newsweek International.]
...Gates is an unabashed admirer of President Dwight Eisenhower, whose portrait hangs behind Gates's desk. He respects Ike's restraint, his emphasis on the trade-offs involved in funding the military and his reluctance to create what he called a "military-industrial complex." Eisenhower understood, Gates reminded his audience at the presidential library in May, "that even a superpower such as the United States -- then near the zenith of its strength and prosperity relative to the rest of the world -- did not have unlimited political, economic and military resources. Expending them in one area -- say, a protracted war in the developing world -- would sap the strength available to do anything else." Eisenhower "was wary of seeing his beloved republic turn into a muscle-bound, garrison state -- militarily strong but economically stagnant and strategically insolvent."...
Eisenhower's seriousness of purpose was reflected in more than just his military strategy. He also believed in fiscal restraint and that government should run deficits during recessions but surpluses during recoveries. In 1960 his vice president, Richard Nixon, implored him to cut taxes to give the economy a temporary boost -- and thus help Nixon's electoral prospects. Eisenhower declined, intent on leaving office with a budget surplus, which turned out to be the last one for more than three decades. Robert Gates is a genuine conservative in Eisenhower's tradition. Unfortunately, between Gates and the painting behind him, there are only two of them in Washington these days.
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...Gates is an unabashed admirer of President Dwight Eisenhower, whose portrait hangs behind Gates's desk. He respects Ike's restraint, his emphasis on the trade-offs involved in funding the military and his reluctance to create what he called a "military-industrial complex." Eisenhower understood, Gates reminded his audience at the presidential library in May, "that even a superpower such as the United States -- then near the zenith of its strength and prosperity relative to the rest of the world -- did not have unlimited political, economic and military resources. Expending them in one area -- say, a protracted war in the developing world -- would sap the strength available to do anything else." Eisenhower "was wary of seeing his beloved republic turn into a muscle-bound, garrison state -- militarily strong but economically stagnant and strategically insolvent."...
Eisenhower's seriousness of purpose was reflected in more than just his military strategy. He also believed in fiscal restraint and that government should run deficits during recessions but surpluses during recoveries. In 1960 his vice president, Richard Nixon, implored him to cut taxes to give the economy a temporary boost -- and thus help Nixon's electoral prospects. Eisenhower declined, intent on leaving office with a budget surplus, which turned out to be the last one for more than three decades. Robert Gates is a genuine conservative in Eisenhower's tradition. Unfortunately, between Gates and the painting behind him, there are only two of them in Washington these days.