WASHINGTON, Oct 7 (Reuters) - The United States goes into its war on world terrorism with a wealth of military experience among its key players -- apart from Commander-in-Chief George Bush.
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Among Bush's five main advisers are two former Secretaries of Defense and a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff as well as the present chairman. The fifth member of the inner war cabinet is the group's intellectual -- National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, the first black woman to hold the post.
The following are pen pix of President Bush and his key advisers -- Vice-President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Colin Powell, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General Richard Myers, and Rice.
PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH (Commander in Chief)
Bush, 55, has no direct combat experience and during his election campaign was derided by critics for what they said was his lack of knowledge of foreign affairs.
However since the Sept. 11 suicide plane attacks on New York and Washington, his reputation has soared with opinion polls showing nearly 90 percent of Americans saying he has done a good job in handling the first crisis of his presidency.
After gaining a bachelor's degree from Yale and an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1975, Bush worked as a Texas oil man, coming into regular contact with business leaders from the Muslim world in the Middle East.
Bush did not see service in Vietnam, enlisting in 1968 as a pilot in the Texas National Guard.
VICE PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY
Cheney, 60, was defense secretary under Bush's father. His finest hour came in 1991 when he directed the U.S. military operation that expelled Iraq's army from Kuwait.
Cheney, a courtly figure who until his return to public life as vice president was chief executive of Halliburton Co., the world's largest oil-field service company, is a long time friend of the Bush family.
Cheney was President Gerald Ford's White House Chief of Staff in the mid-1970's and has long struggled against heart disease going back to 1978.
If Bush was incapacitated or killed, Cheney would take over as president.
SECRETARY OF DEFENSE DONALD RUMSFELD
Rumsfeld, 69, is serving as defense secretary under a second U.S. president. He held the post, the youngest person to do so, from 1975 to 1977 under President Gerald Ford.
Rumsfeld has been charged by Bush with making a top-to-bottom review of the military, a task that has assumed added importance in view of the present crisis.
Even before coming into the Bush administration, Rumsfeld warned of the dangers of "rogue" states and individual gaining access to weapons of mass destruction.
He is also a strong supporter of the so-called "Son of Star Wars" missile defense plan.
SECRETARY OF STATE COLIN POWELL
Powell, 64, a career soldier, was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Bush's father and was in charge of the U.S. military during the Gulf War.
One of the most respected men in America, and the first black Secretary of State, Powell was courted by both Democrats and Republicans as a future presidential candidate when he retired from the military in 1993.
Powell, who survived a helicopter crash during a highly decorated tour in Vietnam, is no "blood and guts" military man. He favors military intervention only if there is a clear strategic goal, popular support and the use of crushing forces to ensure victory.
NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER CONDOLEEZZA RICE
A Russian expert, the only woman and the youngest member of the inner war cabinet, Rice, 46, is the group's main intellectual.
Rice outlined her vision of America's post-Cold War role in an essay for "Foreign Affairs" magazine one year before Bush's election and her appointment as national security adviser.
America must have a "disciplined and consistent foreign policy that separates the important from the trivial" instead of acting crisis by crisis as was done under President Bill Clinton, she wrote.
"It takes courage to set priorities because doing so is an admission that American policy cannot be all things to all people -- or rather to all interest groups."
The greatest influence on Rice's early thinking was Professor Josef Korbel, an ex-Czech diplomat who fled Nazism and communism for the United States. He was also, ironically, the father of Madeleine Albright, secretary of state under President Clinton.
CHAIRMAN OF THE JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF RICHARD MYERS
Air Force General Myers is an expert in computer and space warfare who was only confirmed in his job three days after the Sept. 11 suicide plane attacks on New York and Washington.
Myers, 59, a former head of the Air Force's Space Command, is the first non-Army general in more than a decade to hold the military's top job.
Bush said he chose Myers because he's had a lot of experience in space ... a lot of experience on the leading edge of technology."
Myers did not attend one of the elite military service academies but entered the air force in 1963 through the officers training program at Kansas State University. He was a fighter pilot during the Vietnam War. |
