Wolfowitz to take No. 2 Pentagon post
Wolfowitz to take No. 2 Pentagon post
By Charles Aldinger
WASHINGTON (Reuters): Paul Wolfowitz, President George W. Bush's selection for the No. 2 job at the Pentagon, has held senior posts at the U.S. Defense and State departments and long been an intellectual conservative voice in U.S. arms and national security issues.
Wolfowitz is an expert on East Asia and the Middle East who served as U.S. ambassador to Indonesia and then at the Pentagon during the 1991 Gulf War in the administration of President George Bush.
An energetic, quiet New York native and prolific writer on foreign policy issues, Wolfowitz has since 1994 headed the private Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University.
"Paul is a very able and likable man who knows Asia and the Middle East. He's done work on a wide range of issues in Washington and is respected by Democrats and Republicans," said a senior Pentagon official, who asked not to be identified.
But some experts said Wolfowitz, who served as undersecretary of defense for policy from 1989 to 1993 under Bush, may have burned some bridges with Bush supporters after leaving that office.
In subsequent speeches and articles, he questioned the U.S. decision not to remove Iraq's President Saddam Hussein from power as the Gulf War ended.
He also advocated supplying U.S. arms to Iraqi dissidents and setting up a safe haven for them in southern Iraq, perhaps with protection from the U.S. military.
The Pentagon job under then-Defense Secretary Dick Cheney made Wolfowitz the principal civilian official responsible for strategy, plans and policy. And Wolfowitz said he made it known at the time Washington was missing an opportunity to remove Saddam after a crushing military defeat.
Wolfowitz is admired for a crisp writing style in numerous articles on policy and strategy, including a notable 1983 publication on preserving peace in the nuclear age.
Wolfowitz was U.S. ambassador to Indonesia from 1986 to 1989 after serving for five years as assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs.
He served as deputy assistant defense secretary for regional programs from 1977 to 1980. Before that he held a variety of senior positions in the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, including assistant to the director for strategic arms limitation talks.
Paul Dundes Wolfowitz was born in New York on Dec. 22, 1943, and graduated from Cornell University. He received master's and doctorate degrees in political science and economics from the University of Chicago.
Before joining government service, he taught at Yale and at the National War College in Washington.
Wolfowitz is divorced and has two daughters and a son.