Schlesinger, James R. (1929–), economist, strategic analyst, secretary of defense, and first secretary of energy.Schlesinger served as secretary of defense during 1973–75, a turbulent period marked by the final stages of the
Vietnam War, severe cuts in the defense budget, the end of
conscription, and the beginning of the
All‐Volunteer Force. A Phi Beta Kappa and 1950 summa cum laude graduate of Harvard College, he subsequently earned a Ph.D. at Harvard, then taught economics at the University of Virginia (1955–63). Next came service at the RAND Corporation as a senior staff member (1963–67) and director of strategic studies (1967–69). He entered government in 1969 as assistant director of the Bureau of the Budget, in 1971 became chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, and in 1973 was appointed Director of Central Intelligence.
Moving later that same year to the
Department of Defense, Schlesinger forthrightly portrayed the impact of declining budgets, inflation, and spiraling personnel costs on force structure, modernization, and readiness. He laid before Congress a series of hard choices and the likely consequences of each. The United States, Schlesinger maintained, could not escape great responsibilities in a world where “military power remains relevant.” He offered a vision of continued American involvement in world affairs based on strength, prudence, and reliability. Because of his background at RAND, Schlesinger was perhaps the secretary of defense most accomplished as a nuclear strategist. He claimed that it was “a dangerous illusion” to think that in the 1990s, when the United States no longer dominated in
nuclear weapons, that
deterrence of the Soviet Union could be based on the ability to inflict “unacceptable” retaliatory damage. “Deterrence is not a substitute for defense,” he stressed. Instead, he maintained, deterrence, defense, and also detente “are inextricably bound up with one another in the maintenance of an equilibrium of power.”
In 1976, Schlesinger was named assistant to the president to develop a national energy policy; when the Department of Energy was established the following year, he became its first secretary.
[See also
Consultants;
Nixon, Richard M.;
Strategy: Nuclear Warfare Strategy.]
Bibliography
James Schlesinger , The Political Economy of National Security, 1960.
James Schlesinger , America at Century's End, 1989.
Lewis Sorley
