Although the whole story behind Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel’s resignation, announced Monday, has yet to be told, the public is free to draw its own conclusions about his service and departure.
Given the importance of the issues handled by the secretary of defense, most Americans would probably prefer to hear that Mr. Hagel is leaving President Barack Obama’s Cabinet over policy differences and not some personal dispute. Administration officials have told reporters that the White House viewed Mr. Hagel as a passive leader who occasionally could not articulate a clear view on complex military matters.
One fact is clear, though. Mr. Hagel’s successor will be the fourth occupant of that key post in six years of the Obama presidency, which is unfortunate in terms of continuity of leadership. Mr. Hagel was preceded by Robert M. Gates and Leon E. Panetta, who, like Sen. Hagel, were military and political veterans.
It was probably clear from the beginning that Mr. Hagel, 68, a sometimes taciturn Vietnam War veteran and former senator from Nebraska, was not going to fit easily into a White House West Wing group dominated by senior adviser Valerie J. B. Jarrett, national security adviser Susan E. Rice and chief of staff Denis R. McDonough. None of them had ever been elected to anything, nor had any idea of what it is like to be on a battlefield.
Another personal and professional conflict that Mr. Hagel may have found hard to bear was with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin E. Dempsey, the Army general who is frequently out front on administration war policy and reportedly much appreciated in the White House.
Finding a successor to Mr. Hagel, and achieving Senate confirmation of the choice, may not be easy for Mr. Obama, although it is absolutely necessary for the country to have credible leadership at the head of the Pentagon for the next two years. Mr. Hagel will not be easy to replace either, in terms of the quality of his work in office, which includes managing the endless wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, engineering Mr. Obama’s pivot to Asia and trying to trim the Pentagon’s bloated budget.
Mr. Obama may want someone more pliable in the position, but that may not be the most important characteristic for a successful secretary of defense.
First Published: November 26, 2014, 5:00 a.m.
