ACCESSION 
NUMBER:322292

FILE ID:POL105

DATE:01/24/94

TITLE:CLINTON NOMINATES PERRY AS NEXT SECRETARY OF DEFENSE (01/24/94)

TEXT:*94012405.POL

CLINTON NOMINATES PERRY AS NEXT SECRETARY OF DEFENSE



(Deputy secretary spearheaded Stealth technology)  (490)

By Alexander M. Sullivan

USIA White House Correspondent

Washington -- President Clinton picked William Perry, a Pentagon management

expert, to be the next secretary of defense January 24.



Perry, the Defense Department's deputy secretary, had served as an

undersecretary of defense during the Carter administration and is credited

with spearheading the drive for Stealth technology aircraft and with

designing the special financing arrangements which made its secret

development possible.



"Years ago," Clinton pointed out, Perry "had a vision of the power of

1tealth technology," a manufacturing technique which renders aircraft

difficult to spot on radar.  That technology, Clinton noted, came of age in

time for the Persian Gulf War "and helped save American lives."  Perry

began the Stealth project while undersecretary of defense for research and

engineering.



Perry is noted within the military-industrial complex as an innovative

thinker on acquisition of defense materiel and on improving accountability

for defense expenditures.  He had been co-director of the Stanford

University Center for International Security and Arms Control and served as

a businessman and banker dealing with defense-related topics.



He has been a member of the president's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board

and the technology review panel of the Senate's Select Committee on

Intelligence.  Perry, 67, is a mathematician and was a professor of

engineering at Stanford.



Perry said he had Clinton's commitment to press Congress for a new reform

plan on weapons acquisition tailored to meet readiness requirements as the

U.S. military decreases in size.



Clinton, in a White House ceremony, said he will nominate Perry because of

Perry's "lifetime of accomplishment and his solid leadership at the

Pentagon."  The president said Perry "has the right skills and management

experience for the job.  He has the right vision for the job."



Perry had served "with real distinction" as both undersecretary and deputy

secretary of defense, Clinton said.  "For years, and throughout his service

this past year, he has been at the cutting edge on defense issues," the

president added.



He said Perry had been "instrumental" in developing the new defense budget,

which "protects the readiness of our forces and promotes our aggressive

efforts at defense conversion, the development of dual use technologies,

and the creation and preservation of American jobs."



Clinton also credited Perry with "an important role" in the trilateral

agreement by which Ukraine agreed to keep its commitments under the Lisbon

protocol to eliminate the nuclear weapons left behind when the Soviet Union

dissolved.  Clinton did not elaborate on Perry's contribution to the pact,

signed in Moscow January 14.



Perry's nomination follows the withdrawal of retired Admiral Bobby Ray

Inman, the former intelligence executive who accused the Washington news

media of unfounded attacks on his reputation.  Pending Perry's confirmation

by the U.S. Senate, Defense Secretary Les Aspin will continue to serve in

his post.



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