Perry Nomination Brief w/ Clinton & Press

[jdwilson@gold.chem.hawaii.edu (Jim Wilson (VA))]

CP's & Friends:

FYI
> Date: Tue, 25 Jan 94 03:08:42 GMT
> Posted: Tue Jan 25 03:08:40 GMT 1994
> Subject: Perry Nomination Brief
> 
> 
> Subject:  Remarks by President Bill Clinton and Deputy Secretary
> of Defense William J. Perry upon the announcement of Dr. Perry's
> Nomination as Secretary of Defense --
> Conducted at the White House on Monday, January 24, 1994, at
> 3:00 p.m.
> 
> 
>      President Clinton:  Thank you very much, and good afternoon.
> I want to welcome all of you here, especially the distinguished
> members of Congress who are here, and the members of Secretary
> Perry's family who he will introduced later.
> 
>      One year ago I selected Dr. Bill Perry to serve as my Deputy
> Secretary of Defense.  Today, based on his lifetime of
> accomplishment and his solid leadership at the Pentagon, I'm
> proud to announce my intention to nominate him as the next
> Secretary of Defense.  He has the right skills and management
> experience for the job.  He has the right vision for the job.  He
> has served with real distinction as both Under Secretary and
> Deputy Secretary of Defense.  For years, and throughout his
> service this past year, he has been at the cutting edge on
> defense issues.
> 
>      Years ago he had a vision of the power of stealth technology
> -- technology that helped the United States win the Persian Gulf
> War, and helped save American lives.  He's been a leader in
> reforming the Pentagon's procurement process and improving
> financial accountability.  I expect he'll have more to say about
> that today and in the weeks and months ahead.
> 
>      He's been instrumental in developing a defense budget for
> the coming fiscal year that protects the readiness of our forces
> and promotes our aggressive efforts at defense conversion, and
> the development of dual-use technologies, and the creation and
> the preservation of American jobs.  He played an important role
> in the recent breakthrough to eliminate Ukraine's nuclear
> weapons.
> 
>      He brings a broad and valuable background to this job.  He
> has proven experienced in the private sector.  He's the chairman,
> director, and founder of several successful defense-related
> corporations.  He's served in the United States Army.  His
> academic career as a professor of mathematics and engineering has
> also contributed to our nation's security.
> 
>      In every aspect of his work, Bill Perry has earned high
> respect from members of both parties.  In the Congress and the
> military, among those who study military strategy, and in the
> business community.  He's demonstrated leadership, integrity, and
> a mastery of his field.  Time and again we heard about him and
> what I have come to know personally -- Bill Perry is a real pro.
> You can depend on him.  That's why Secretary Aspin and many
> others recommended that I select Dr. Perry for this post.
> 
>      Let me note, with appreciation that Secretary Aspin has
> agreed to stay, as he said he would, until his successor is
> confirmed.
> 
>      Now we have a lot of work ahead of us.  We need to continue
> reshaping our forces for this new era so that they remain the
> best trained, the best equipped, the best prepared, and the most
> strongly motivated in the world.  We must implement the
> recommendations through the Bottom-Up Review.  We must continue
> to deal with the new threats of weapons proliferation and
> terrorism.  We must continue our aggressive work at defense
> conversion to save and create American jobs, and to maintain our
> industrial base that is so critical for our national defense.
> And we must reform the procurement process.
> 
>      Bill Perry comes extraordinarily well prepared to meet these
> challenges.  I hope, and I trust that Congress will quickly
> confirm him, and I look forward to working closely with him as an
> integral part of the national security team.  I think he will do
> a remarkable job.
> 
>      Dr. Perry?  (Applause)
> 
>      Dr. Perry:  Thank you very much.  Thank you, President
> Clinton, for the confidence you've shown in me by this
> nomination.  If I am confirmed, it will be a real privilege to
> serve as your Secretary of Defense.
> 
>      I would like to take just a moment to introduce my family
> that is here.  My wife Lee, my daughter Robin, and son David.
> (Applause)  I have three other children not here today, and eight
> grandchildren not here.  We have a large and happy family.
> 
>      Over the past year, I have welcomed the attention of
> President Clinton to the challenge of reshaping our forces for
> this new era.  We have worked to follow-up the vision that Les
> Aspin had in establishing the Bottom-Up Review.  I appreciate,
> also, Mr. President, your commitment to maintaining the readiness
> and the morale of our fighting forces.
> 
>      I also look forward to serve because this is a time of great
> change, great challenge, and great opportunity.  The national
> security problems facing the United States today are complex and
> difficult.  We are making a transition from the security posture
> evolved to deal with the Cold War, to a very different security
> posture.  I look forward to carrying out your commitment.  To
> make those changes in a way that addresses the need of our
> military and civilian personnel, our defense facilities, and the
> communities that depend on them.
> 
>      This new security posture must deal both with the problems
> in the post-Soviet world, while we simultaneously seize the
> opportunities.  We read about the problems every day -- in
> Mogadishu, Sarajevo, Pyongyang, but we must not lose sight of the
> opportunities in this new post-Soviet world.
> 
>      For example, this year we have what I would call a window of
> opportunity to make a major reform to the defense acquisition
> system so that we combine modern equipment for our military
> forces at affordable prices.  The President has already made a
> commitment to readiness, but the acquisition and new equipment
> deals with the forces five years hence, or ten years hence, so we
> must look to that problem as well.
> 
>      I have the full commitment of the President to proceed on a
> vigorous program of acquisition reform, and I believe that we can
> work effectively with the Congress to establish real reform in
> the system, and it's long overdue.
> 
>      Last week, Mr. President, at the NATO Summit meeting, we
> provided leadership for the new Partnership for Peace in NATO.
> This partnership opens the door to a security partnership with
> our former enemies in the now extinct Warsaw Pact, but it does
> not draw a line dividing Europe at the very time we are trying to
> bring Europe together.
> 
>      We also provided the leadership for the historic agreement
> on nuclear weapons reached at the Moscow Summit.  When fully
> implemented, this agreement will see the country with the third
> largest number of nuclear weapons in the world voluntarily become
> a non-nuclear state with all of its nuclear weapons dismantled.
> This summit agreement takes a major step back from the nuclear
> abyss, and takes a major step forward for peace and stability in
> the world.
> 
>      The British novelist Graham Greene once wrote, "There always
> comes a moment in time when a door opens and lets the future in."
> The ending of the Cold War opens such a door.  The summit
> agreements will help us guide the future as it comes in.
> 
>      Mr. President, I have great respect for the way you have
> been guiding our national security, and I am enthusiastic about
> the opportunity to help you guide it.  I understand very well the
> demands of this job and the strains that it puts on one's family.
> My family and I have discussed this at considerable length this
> weekend, and they fully support my decision.
> 
>      Mr. President, I am looking forward to working with you, the
> Vice President, General Shalikashvili, Tony Lake, Warren
> Christopher, and the rest of our national security team, and I
> look forward to serving the American people.
> 
>      I thank you.
> 
>      (Applause)
> 
>      Q:   Did you have to be persuaded to take this job?  And
> what do you think will be the toughest part of it?
>      Dr. Perry:  No, I did not have to be persuaded to take the
> job.  I met with the President to discuss this job Friday
> morning, and I left that meeting fully prepared to take on the
> job.  I had a meeting with my family that evening, because it's
> not just me that's getting into this job.  I put them under
> considerable strain when I do it, too.  We had a follow-up
> meeting on Saturday morning with the White House where I told
> them that if I had to accept the job at that time, my answer
> would have to be no.  I met, then, with the Vice President, and
> he told me I could take my time, take some time on the decision,
> meet with my family further.  I took advantage of that.  On
> Sunday afternoon I called the Vice President back and said if you
> still want me for your Secretary of Defense, I'm eager to serve.
> 
>      Q:   Why did you have second thoughts?
>      Q:   Why didn't you say yes immediately?  What did you have
> to think about?
>      Dr. Perry:  I tried to explain that.  It was because I did
> not want to drive my family into a decision, into my decision
> without their support, so I wanted to wait until I had their full
> support for it.
> 
>      Q:   Mr. President, why was this job so hard to fill?
>      President Clinton:  It wasn't easy to fill.  It wasn't hard
> to fill, I mean.  We had an abundance of talented people to
> consider, but I asked Secretary Perry and he said yes.  It wasn't
> difficult at all.  I can't say any more than you already know
> about what happened in the previous example, but we didn't go on
> a big search here.  We had a very short list, and I quickly
> narrowed it to one.  I had an interview with one person, I asked
> him if he'd take the job, and he did.  I don't think that
> qualifies it as difficult.
> 
>           Now I have had some difficult positions to fill.  This
> one wasn't.
> 
>      Q:   What do you think he brings to the job that your
> current Defense Secretary did not?
>      President Clinton:  I don't think the two things are
> related.  Secretary Aspin made his statement last month.  We had
> our press conference on that.  We answered your questions.  It's
> got nothing to do with what we've said here today.
> 
>      Q:   Are you going to go along with Secretary Aspin's views
> on military women in planes and ships?
>      Dr. Perry:  Yes.
> 
>      Q:  That's good.  (Laughter)
>      Dr. Perry:  Secretary Aspin created many important legacies
> this year.  I mentioned the Bottom-Up Review, his work on all of
> the social aspects in the military.  In particular, his
> advancement of women in combat is one which I enthusiastically
> support.
> 
>      Q:   Is there anything at all in your background that's come
> out over the past weekend that could conceivably cause you or the
> Administration any problems during the Senate confirmation
> process?  In that regard, I'm specifically also referring to the
> so-called "nanny problem"?
>      Dr. Perry:  Nothing has come out that I believe would cause
> me any problems in the confirmation process.
> 
>      Q:   Dr. Perry, do you think that in terms of conservative
> government in Moscow that there's a possibility there may be a
> new Cold War starting?
>      Dr. Perry:  I would observe that we cannot control the
> events in other countries, including Russia.  But we can
> influence them.  I believe the President has adopted a program to
> assist, not just the Russians, but many of the former nations in
> the former Soviet Union, to help stabilize their economy.  This
> is the most constructive thing we can do to minimize the chance
> of that unfortunate disaster occurring.
> 
>      Q:   Was your answer categorical about the nanny questions,
> Dr. Perry?
>      Q:   (inaudible)...the budgetary crisis that the Pentagon
> faces and the possible difficulty you may have in actually
> carrying out the blueprint the President has laid out?
>      Dr. Perry:  In order to carry out the Bottom-Up Review with
> the funds that are posed for it, we will have to manage the
> Pentagon very well.  We will have to have real acquisition
> reform.  We will have to have careful planning and management of
> our programs.  We have to do all of this while we're maintaining
> a very high level of readiness and a level of morale and cohesion
> in the military forces.  It is a difficult management job.  I
> believe it's doable, and that's what I'm undertaking to do.
> 
>      President Clinton:  Thank you very much.
> 
>                               (END)
>