100 Days: Foreign Policy and National Defense
W A S H I N G T O N, April 24 -- As George W. Bush took the oath of office as the 43rd president of the United States, the most significant gaps in his experience were in the often-intertwined realms of national defense and foreign policy.
During the first 100 days of his administration, the new commander in chief confronted major controversies in both.
Clear and Present Danger?
"We will build our defenses beyond challenge, lest weakness invite challenge," the former Texas governor pledged in his inaugural address.
Bush assumed the presidency determined to achieve that goal, in large part, by building a shield to protect the U.S. from ballistic missile attack — regardless of strong opposition from Russia and China, which the president has called "strategic competitors," and such traditional "strategic partners" as Great Britain and Japan.
"The president is not ambiguous," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told reporters in his first press Pentagon press conference. "He intends to deploy a national missile defense."
The administration's strong rhetoric on the $30 billion system, however, was accompanied by a more cautious approach on the diplomatic front.
"While they came into office with both six-guns blazing," observes ABCNEWS White House Correspondent Terry Moran, "… the attitude with allies and potential rivals is: 'We're going to do this, but the door is open — Let's talk about how we can get it done.'"
Few were surprised by Bush's push for missile defense, but the White House's announcement in February that a major defense budget increase would have to wait for a sweeping strategic review of the military's mission and needs caught many of the Pentagon's top brass off-guard.
"[R]eality jumped up and bit him in a part of his anatomy," former Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleberger says of Bush. "I think what the president was doing, once he came into office, was to realize that simply [to] across-the-board dump money into the defense budget, was not a wise thing to do."
