William Cohen

William Sebastian Cohen
20th United States Secretary of Defense
In office January 24, 1997 – January 20, 2001
President	Bill Clinton
Deputy	John Hamre (1997–2000) Rudy de Leon (2000–2001)
Preceded by	William Perry
Succeeded by	Donald Rumsfeld
United States Senator from Maine
In office January 3, 1979 – January 3, 1997
Preceded by	William Hathaway
Succeeded by	Susan Collins
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Maine's 2nd district
In office January 3, 1973 – January 3, 1979
Preceded by	William Hathaway
Succeeded by	Olympia Snowe
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs
In office January 5, 1981 – January 3, 1983
Preceded by	John Melcher
Succeeded by	Mark Andrews
Chairman of the Senate Special Committee on Aging
In office January 4, 1995 – January 3, 1997
Preceded by	David Pryor
Succeeded by	Chuck Grassley
Born	28 August 1940 (1940-08-28) (age 69) Bangor, Maine
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Janet Langhart
Alma mater	Bowdoin College Boston University
Religion	Unitarian Universalist[1]

William Sebastian Cohen (born 28 August 1940) is an author and American politician from the U.S. state of Maine. A Republican, Cohen served as Secretary of Defense (1997–2001) under Democratic President Bill Clinton.

Early life and education

Cohen was born in Bangor, Maine. His mother, Clara, was of Protestant Irish ancestry, while his father, Reuben Cohen, was a Russian Jewish immigrant; the two owned the Bangor Rye Bread Co.^[2][3] Cohen attended Hebrew school as a child.^[4]

After graduating from Bangor High School in 1958, Cohen attended Bowdoin College, graduating cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Latin in 1962.

While in high school and college Cohen was a basketball player, and was named to the Maine all-state high school and college basketball team, and at Bowdoin was inducted into the New England All-Star Hall of Fame. Cohen attended law school at the Boston University School of Law graduating with a LL.B (law degree) cum laude in 1965.

Legal, academic, and early political career

After graduating from law school, Cohen eventually earned partnership in a Bangor law firm. Cohen became an assistant county attorney for Penobscot County (1968–1970). In 1968, Cohen became an instructor at Husson College in Bangor, and later was an instructor in business administration at the University of Maine (1968–1972).

Cohen served as the vice president of the Maine Trial Lawyers Association (1970–1972) and as a member of the Bangor School Board (1971–1972). Cohen became a fellow at the John F. Kennedy Institute of Politics at Harvard University in 1972, and in 1975 was named as one of the U.S. Jaycee's "ten outstanding young men."

Cohen was elected to and served on the Bangor City Council (1969–1972) and became the mayor of Bangor (1971–1972).

House of Representatives and Senate

In the 1972 election, Cohen won election to a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, representing Maine's 2nd congressional district, succeeding Democrat William Hathaway, who was elected to the US Senate.

Senator William Cohen early in his career

During his first term in Congress, Cohen became deeply involved in the Watergate investigation. As a member of the House Judiciary Committee, he was one of the first Republicans to break with his party, and voted for the impeachment of President Richard Nixon. During this time, Time magazine named him one of "America's 200 Future Leaders."

After three terms in the House, Cohen ran for and was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1978, defeating William Hathaway in his first bid for reelection. Cohen went on to be reelected in 1984 and 1990, serving a total of 18 years in the Senate from 1979 to 1997.

In 1994, Cohen investigated the federal government's process for acquiring information technology, and his report, Computer Chaos: Billions Wasted Buying Federal Computer Systems, generated much discussion. Cohen retired from the Senate in 1996; Susan Collins, who had worked for Cohen, was elected to succeed him. (Maine's other current senator, Olympia Snowe, had also worked for Cohen, while he was in the House.)

While in the Senate, Cohen served on both the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Governmental Affairs Committee (1979–1997) and was a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee 1983–1991 and again 1995–1997. He also participated in the drafting of several notable laws related to defense matters, including the Competition in Contracting Act (1984), the Montgomery GI Bill Act (1984), the Goldwater-Nichols Act (1986), the Intelligence Oversight Reform Act (1991), the Federal Acquisition Reform Act (1996), and the Information Technology Management Reform Act, also known as the Clinger-Cohen Act (1996).

Secretary of Defense

After retiring from the Senate, Cohen was appointed by President Bill Clinton to the position of Secretary of Defense during Clinton's second term, from 1997 to 2001. This appointment was rare because it was one of the few political appointments that crossed party lines in recent history.

As Secretary of Defense Cohen played a large role in directing the United States military actions in Iraq and Kosovo, including the dismissal of Wesley Clark from his post as the NATO Supreme Allied Commander. Both Operation Desert Fox in Iraq and Operation Allied Force in Kosovo were launched just months after al-Qaeda carried out the United States embassy bombings in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya, in 1998.

Nomination and confirmation

On December 5, 1996, President Clinton announced his selection of Cohen as secretary of defense. Cohen, a Republican about to retire from the United States Senate, was the "right person," Clinton said, to build on the achievements of William Perry, "to secure the bipartisan support America's armed forces must have and clearly deserve." In responding to his nomination, Cohen said that during his congressional career he had supported a nonpartisan national security policy and commended the president for appointing a Republican to his cabinet.

Cohen and President Bill Clinton at The Pentagon, September 1997.

During his confirmation hearings, Cohen said he thought on occasion he might differ with Clinton on specific national security issues. He implicitly criticized the Clinton administration for lacking a clear strategy for leaving Bosnia and stated that he thought U.S. troops should definitely be out by mid-1998. He also asserted that he would resist further budget cuts, retain the two regional conflicts strategy, and support spending increases for advanced weapons, even if it necessitated further cuts in military personnel. Cohen questioned whether savings from base closings and acquisition reform could provide enough money for procurement of new weapons and equipment that the Joint Chiefs of Staff thought necessary in the next few years. He supported the expansion of NATO and looked on the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction as the most serious problem the United States faced.

After confirmation by a unanimous Senate vote, Cohen was sworn in as the 20th Secretary of Defense on January 24, 1997. He then settled into a schedule much fuller than he had followed in the Senate. Routinely he arrived at the Pentagon before 7 a.m., received an intelligence briefing, and then met with the Deputy Secretary of Defense (John Hamre 1997-2000, Rudy de Leon 2000-01) and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (Gen. Hugh Shelton). The rest of the day he devoted to policy and budget briefings, visits with foreign and other dignitaries, and to what he termed "ABC" meetings at the White House with Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and National Security Advisor Sandy Berger as well as President Bill Clinton. He also traveled abroad several times during his first months in office.

Defense budget

One of Cohen's first major duties was to present to Congress the Fiscal Year 1998 Defense budget, which had been prepared under Secretary Perry. Cohen requested a budget of $250.7 billion, which represented 3 percent of the nation's estimated gross domestic product for FY 1998. Cohen stressed three top budget priorities: people (recruiting and retaining skilled people through regular military pay raises, new construction or modernization of barracks, and programs for child care, family support, morale, welfare, and recreation), readiness (support for force readiness, training, exercises, maintenance, supplies, and other essential needs), and modernization (development and upgrading of weapon and supporting systems to guarantee the combat superiority of U.S. forces). This meant increasing the funds available for procurement of new systems, with the target set at $60 billion by FY2001.

When he presented the FY1998 budget, Cohen noted that he would involve himself with the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR), which would focus on the challenges to U.S. security and the nation's military needs over the next decade or more. When the QDR became public in May 1997, it did not fundamentally alter the budget, structure, and doctrine of the military. Many defense experts thought it gave insufficient attention to new forms of warfare, such as terrorist attacks, electronic sabotage, and the use of chemical and biological agents. Cohen stated that the Pentagon would retain the "two regional wars" scenario adopted after the end of the Cold War. He decided to scale back purchases of jet fighters, including the Air Force's F-22 Raptor and the Navy's F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, as well as Navy surface ships. The review included cutting another 61,700 active duty service members — 15,000 in the Army, 26,900 in the Air Force, 18,000 in the Navy, and 1,800 in the Marine Corps, as well as 54,000 reserve forces, mainly in the Army National Guard, and some 80,000 civilians department-wide. Cohen also recommended two more rounds of base closings in 1999 and 2001. The Pentagon hoped to save $15 billion annually over the next few years to make possible the purchase of new equipment and weapon systems without a substantial budget increase above the current level of $250 billion.

International relations and situations

Cohen and Sellapan Ramanathan

Cohen, General John H. Tilelli, Jr., Commander in Chief, United Nations Command/Combined Forces Command/U.S. Forces

As he settled into office, Cohen faced the question of the expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which he supported, and its relationship to Russia. At a summit meeting between President Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin in Helsinki, Finland, in March 1997, Yeltsin acknowledged the inevitability of broader NATO membership. Two months later he agreed, after negotiations with NATO officials, to sign an accord providing for a new permanent council, to include Russia, the NATO secretary general, and a representative of the other NATO nations, to function as a forum in which Russia could air a wide range of security issues that concerned that country. Formal signing of this agreement would pave the way for a July 1997 invitation from NATO to several nations, probably including Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic, to join the organization.

The proposed U.S. missile defense system received attention at the Helsinki summit, where Clinton and Yeltsin agreed to an interpretation of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty allowing the United States to proceed with a limited missile defense system currently under development. Specifically, Clinton and Yeltsin agreed to distinguish between a national missile defense system, aimed against strategic weapons, not allowed by the ABMT, and a theater missile defense system to guard against shorter range missile attacks. Some critics thought that any agreement of this kind would place undesirable limits on the development of both theater and strategic missile defenses. The Helsinki meeting also saw progress in arms control negotiations between the United States and Russia, a matter high on Cohen's agenda. Yeltsin and Clinton agreed on the need for early Russian ratification of the Second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START II) and negotiation of START III to make further significant cuts in the strategic nuclear arsenals of both nations.

Cohen (left) and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori pose for photographers prior to their meeting at the Kantei building in Tokyo, Japan, on September 22, 2000.

The continuation, at least until mid-1998, of the existing peacekeeping mission involving U.S. forces in Bosnia and the possibility that other such missions would arise worried Cohen, who earlier had expressed reservations about such operations. Humanitarian efforts that did not involve peacekeeping, such as in Rwanda in the recent past, also seemed likely. Other persistent national security problems, including tension with Iraq in the Persian Gulf area, Libya in North Africa, and North Korea in East Asia, could flare up again, as could the Arab-Israeli conflict.

In preparing future budgets, the challenge would be to find the right mix between money for operation and maintenance accounts on the one hand and modernization procurement funds on the other, while facing the prospect of a flat DoD budget of about $250 billion annually for the next decade or so. A relatively new problem that could affect the DoD budget was vertical integration in the defense industry. It occurred on a large scale in the 1990s as mergers of major defense contractors created a few huge dominant companies, particularly in the aerospace industry. They were called vertical because they incorporated most of the elements of the production process, including parts and subcomponents. Cohen and other Pentagon leaders began to worry that vertical integration could reduce competition and in the long run increase the costs of what the Department of Defense had to buy.

Social issues

Finally, Cohen had to address social issues that engaged the widest public interest. These issues included the status and treatment of lesbians and gays in the military, the role of women in combat as well as in other jobs in the services, racism, and sexual harassment.

Recent years

Cohen and his wife, author Janet Langhart, August 2006.

After leaving the Pentagon in 2001, he founded a business consulting firm called The Cohen Group with three Pentagon officials, Bob Tyrer, Jim Bodner and H.K. Park. In addition to the numerous recognitions received by Cohen, he was presented with the prestigious Woodrow Wilson Award for Public Service by the Woodrow Wilson Center of the Smithsonian Institution on March 7, 2002 in New York City.

On January 5, 2006, he participated in a meeting at the White House of former Secretaries of Defense and State to discuss United States foreign policy with Bush administration officials.

Cohen is also the author of several books, including mysteries, poetry, and (with George Mitchell) an analysis of the Iran-contra affair. Cohen is currently head of an international business consulting firm located in Washington D.C. called the Cohen Group. He is a Chairman Emeritus of the US-Taiwan Business Council. The Washington Post recently ran an article (May 28, 2006) entitled "From Public Life to Private Business" about Cohen's abrupt transition to the business of Washington lobbying within "weeks of leaving office." It discussed the affairs of the Cohen Group in greater detail and while alleging no specific impropriety, took a generally negative view of the former Senator and Secretary of Defense.

On August 21, 2006, Cohen's novel, Dragon Fire, was released. The plot revolves around a secretary of defense who contends with a potential nuclear threat from a foreign country. He is also set to release a memoir with his wife, author Janet Langhart, entitled Love in Black and White. It is a memoir about race, religion, and the love Langhart and Cohen share over similar life circumstances and backgrounds.^[5] On August 22, 2006, Cohen appeared on The Daily Show to promote his novel.

On August 25, 2006, William Cohen appeared on Fox & Friends First primarily to promote his new novel, but towards the end of the broadcast declared the following while being interviewed by Brian Kilmeade: "I think there should be a commitment to universal service. I think that only a few people are really committed to this war against terrorism.... We ought to have a real call to national service to commit ourselves to some form of public service...to put us on a war footing mentality."

On January 3, 2007, William Cohen appeared on CNN to support John Shalikashvili's OpEd in support of ending the policy known as 'Don't ask, don't tell' saying, "The vast majority of service members are personally comfortable working and interacting with gays and lesbians, and there is only so long that Congress can ignore the evidence".^[6]

Cohen and Madeleine Albright are co-chairing a new "Genocide Prevention Task Force."^[7] Their appointment was criticized by Harut Sassounian ^[8] and by the Armenian National Committee of America.^[9]

Personal life

Cohen filed for divorce from his first wife Diana Dunn, on February 15, 1987.

On February 14, 1996 Cohen and Janet Langhart^[10] were married. Langhart is a former model, Boston television personality, and BET correspondent. Janet Langhart was known as the "First Lady of the Pentagon" during Cohen's tenure as Secretary.^[11]

Attack at Holocaust Museum

On the afternoon of June 10, 2009, Cohen was present at the U.S. Holocaust Museum, waiting for his wife Janet Langhart, for the world premier of her one-act play, Anne and Emmett. The play imagines a conversation between Anne Frank and Emmett Till.^[12] While Cohen waited, an elderly man with a long gun attacked the facility, fatally shooting a security guard before being wounded himself by the other guards. Cohen and Langhart were not injured, and appeared on CNN that afternoon to tell what they had seen and respond to the shooter's racist beliefs. Her play had been promoted in the Washington Post the week before, and was being presented in honor of the eightieth anniversary of Anne Frank's birth.^[13]

Trivia

Cohen served as a best man in then-Senate Naval Liaison John McCain's second wedding (Gary Hart was a groomsman). McCain later became his Senate colleague.^[14]

Recent Publications

• July 7, 2009, On Common Ground Forbes
• June 8, 2009, Smart Power is Soft Power Politico
• June 3, 2009, Nuclear cooperation with U.A.E. in our interest The Hill
• May 28, 2009, Obama’s chance to cement ties with India The Financial Times
• May 28, 2009, No time to cut missile defense The Washington Times
• April 23, 2009, The World Depends on U.S.-China Cooperation The Wall Street Journal
• September 30, 2008, The India Deal that Merits Forbes Magazine
• December 30, 2007, Changing Our Direction www.nationalinterest.org
• August 12, 2007, What is This Man Thinking? Washington Post
• February 5, 2007, Perfect Partners Asian Wall Street Journal
• July 17, 2007, Commentary: North Korea's declaration of independence CNN.com

See also

• List of United States political appointments that crossed party lines

Notes

References

• Official biography via the Department of Defense
• William Cohen at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: William Cohen

• Thursday October 2009 Audio interview about government terrorism, individual liberty and foreign war policies. University of Illinois in-depth radio progrsms on Focus 580
• Computer Chaos: Billions Wasted Buying Federal Computer Systems. Investigative report of Senator William S. Cohen.
• William Cohen to Co-Chair Genocide Prevention Task Force
• Biography from the University of Maine
• Voting record maintained by the Washington Post
• Genocide Deniers Set Course for Genocide Prevention

v • d • e United States Senators from Maine Class 1 Holmes • Parris • Holmes • Shepley • Dana • Williams • Fairfield • Moor • Hamlin • Nourse • Hamlin • Morrill • Hamlin • E. Hale • Johnson • F. Hale • Brewster • Payne • Muskie • Mitchell • Snowe Class 2 Chandler • Sprague • Ruggles • Evans • Bradbury • Fessenden • Farwell • Fessenden • Morrill • Blaine • Frye • Gardner • Burleigh • Fernald • Gould • White • Smith • Hathaway • Cohen • Collins

v • d • e United States Secretaries of Defense Forrestal • Johnson • Marshall • Lovett • Wilson • McElroy • T. Gates • McNamara • Clifford • Laird • Richardson • Schlesinger • Rumsfeld • Brown • Weinberger • Carlucci • Cheney • Aspin • Perry • Cohen • Rumsfeld • R. Gates

v • d • e Cabinet of President Bill Clinton (1993 – 2001)   Cabinet Secretary of State Warren Christopher (1993 – 1997) • Madeleine Albright (1997 – 2001) Secretary of the Treasury Lloyd Bentsen (1993 – 1994) • Robert Rubin (1995 – 1999) • Lawrence Summers (1999 – 2001) Secretary of Defense Les Aspin (1993 – 1994) • William Perry (1994 – 1997) • William Cohen (1997 – 2001) Attorney General Janet Reno (1993 – 2001) Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt (1993 – 2001) Secretary of Agriculture Mike Espy (1993 – 1994) • Dan Glickman (1994 – 2001) Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown (1993 – 1996) • Mickey Kantor (1996 – 1997) • William Daley (1997 – 2000) • Norman Mineta (2000 – 2001) Secretary of Labor Robert Reich (1993 – 1997) • Alexis Herman (1997 – 2001) Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala (1993 – 2001) Secretary of Education Richard Riley (1993 – 2001) Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Henry Cisneros (1993 – 1997) • Andrew Cuomo (1997 – 2001) Secretary of Transportation Federico Peña (1993 – 1997) • Rodney Slater (1997 – 2001) Secretary of Energy Hazel O'Leary (1993 – 1997) • Federico Peña (1997 – 1998) • Bill Richardson (1998 – 2001) Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jesse Brown (1993 – 1997) • Togo West (1998 – 2000) • Hershel Gober (acting) (2000 – 2001)   Cabinet-level Vice President Al Gore (1993 – 2001) White House Chief of Staff Mack McLarty (1993 – 1994) • Leon Panetta (1994 – 1997) • Erskine Bowles (1997 – 1998) • John Podesta (1998 – 2001) Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency Carol Browner (1993 – 2001) Ambassador to the United Nations Madeleine Korbel Albright (1993 – 1997) • Bill Richardson (1997 – 1998) • Richard Holbrooke (1999 – 2001) Director of the Office of Management and Budget Leon Panetta (1993 – 1994) • Alice Rivlin (1994 – 1996) • Franklin Raines (1996 – 1998) • Jacob Lew (1998 – 2001) Director of National Drug Control Policy Lee Brown (1993 – 1995) • Barry McCaffrey (1996 – 2001) Trade Representative Mickey Kantor (1993 – 1997) • Charlene Barshefsky (1997 – 2001) Director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency James Lee Witt (1996 – 2001) Director of Central Intelligence John M. Deutch (1995 – 1996) • George Tenet (1997 - 2001) Administrator of the Small Business Administration Philip Lader (1994 – 1997) • Aída Álvarez (1997 - 2001)