Editing Caspar Weinberger (section)

===Secretary of Defense===
[[File:U.S. Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger with Chairman of The Joint Chiefs of Staff General David C. Jones.jpg|thumb|222x222px|U.S. Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger with [[Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff]] General [[David C. Jones]] during [[United States Senate Committee on Armed Services|Senate Armed Services Committee]] Hearings at [[United States Capitol|Capitol Hill]].]]
[[File:Ariel Sharon 1982 HD-SC-98-07543.JPEG|thumb|Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger (left) with Israeli Minister of Defense [[Ariel Sharon]], 1982|alt=|222x222px]]

Weinberger was vying for Reagan to appoint him as Secretary of State but was given the position of Secretary of Defense instead.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Denton |first1=Sally |year=2016 |title=The Profiteers: Bechtel and the Men Who Built the World}}</ref>

Weinberger took the lead in implementing a [[rollback]] strategy against Soviet communism. In 1984, journalist Nicholas Lemann interviewed Weinberger and summarized the strategy of the Reagan administration to roll back the Soviet Union:
{{blockquote|Their society is economically weak, and it lacks the wealth, education, and technology to enter the information age. They have thrown everything into military production, and their society is starting to show terrible stress as a result. They can't sustain military production the way we can. Eventually it will break them, and then there will be just one superpower in a safe world – if, only if, we can keep spending.<ref>Nicholas Lemann, "Reagan: The Triumph of Tone" [http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2016/03/10/reagan-triumph-of-tone/ ''The New York Review of Books'' 10 March, 2016]</ref>}}

Lemann notes that when he wrote that in 1984, he thought the Reaganites were living in a fantasy world. But in 2016, he says, that passage represents "a fairly uncontroversial description of what Reagan actually did".

Although not widely experienced in defense matters, Weinberger had a reputation in Washington as an able administrator; his powers as a cost cutter earned him the sobriquet "Cap the Knife". He shared Ronald Reagan's conviction that the [[Soviet Union]] posed a serious threat to the United States, and that the defense establishment needed to be modernized and strengthened. Belying his nickname, at [[the Pentagon]] Weinberger became a vigorous advocate of Reagan's plan to increase the [[United States Department of Defense|Department of Defense]] budget. Readiness, sustainability, and modernization became the watchwords of the defense program. In his early years at the Pentagon, Cap Weinberger was known as "Cap the Ladle" for advocating large increases in defense spending.

[[File:Caspar Weinberger inspects helicopter.jpg|thumb|Caspar Weinberger inspecting new hardware, [[Fort Lewis (Washington)|Fort Lewis, Washington]] on April 22, 1983|alt=|222x222px]]

As Secretary of Defense, Weinberger oversaw a massive rebuilding of US military strength. Major defense programs he championed included the [[B-1B]] bomber and the "[[600-ship Navy]]". His efforts created economic and military-industrial pressures that were associated with the beginning of [[Perestroika]] and the beginning of the end of both the [[Cold War]] and the [[Soviet Union]].<ref name="Owens">{{cite magazine |last = Owens |first = Mackubin Thomas |date = June 5, 2004 |url = http://old.nationalreview.com/owens/owens200406051832.asp |title = The Reagan of History: Reflections on the death of Ronald Reagan. |magazine = National Review Online |access-date  = April 20, 2006 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121020103134/http://old.nationalreview.com/owens/owens200406051832.asp |archive-date = October 20, 2012}}</ref> However, this thesis was contested by a study on the causes of the collapse of the Soviet Union by two prominent economists from the World Bank – [[William Easterly]], and [[Stanley Fischer]] from [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology|MIT]]: "...{{nbsp}}the study concludes that the increased Soviet defense spending provoked by Mr. Reagan's policies was not the straw that broke the back of the [[Evil Empire speech|Evil Empire]]. The Soviet war in Afghanistan and the Soviet response to Mr. Reagan's Star Wars program caused only a relatively small rise in [USSR] defense costs. The massive US defense effort throughout the period from 1960 to 1987 contributed only marginally to Soviet economic decline."<ref name="downfall"/>

The same study points out the key reason for the economic decline of the USSR was relying on [[Planned economy|centrally-planned]] [[Fixed capital|industrial-expansion]] to drive [[economic growth]], rather than driving growth by [[Productivity#Importance of national productivity growth|increasing worker productivity]] via [[Profit motive|incentives]]; [[France]] and [[Japan]] were also mentioned (in 1994) as other centrally-planned economies that could soon experience [[:File:Real GDP growth rate in Japan (1956-2008).png|similar]] [[François Mitterrand#1st term|troubles]].<ref name="downfall">{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/06/17/business/worldbusiness/17iht-think_2.html | work=The New York Times | title=Many Can Learn From Soviet Downfall | first=Reginald | last=Dale | date=June 17, 1994 | access-date=April 28, 2010}}</ref> While the [[Reagan Doctrine]] was not a key factor in causing the economic implosion of the USSR, which was driven by [[Analysis of Soviet-type economic planning|internal contradictions]], the Reagan proxy-rollback policy of the 1980s (which replaced [[Détente]] that Nixon and Carter generally pursued during the 1970s) was the [[Containment#Ronald Reagan (1981–89)|key factor]]<ref name="knopf">{{cite web
 | last = Knopf
 | first = Jeffrey W.
 |date=August 2004
 | url = http://www.ccc.nps.navy.mil/si/2004/aug/knopfAUG04.asp
 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090301021952/http://www.ccc.nps.navy.mil/si/2004/aug/knopfAUG04.asp
 | archive-date = 2009-03-01
 | title = Did Reagan Win the Cold War?
 | work = Strategic Insights, Volume III, Issue 8
 | publisher = Center for Contemporary Conflict at the Naval Postgraduate School
 | access-date = 2006-04-19
 }}</ref> in preventing [[expansionism|expansion]] of the [[Eastern Bloc#Property relocation|Soviet economic empire]], and [[Right of conquest|sustenance]] of their declining [[National security#Economic security|domestic economy]] from [[plunder|external sources]]. Reagan was one of the [[Predictions of Soviet collapse#Conventional wisdom discounted a collapse|few people]] to [[Predictions of Soviet collapse#Ronald Reagan|predict this possibility]]. The final piece of the puzzle was the Soviet leadership: [[Leonid Brezhnev|Brezhnev]], [[Yuri Andropov|Andropov]], and [[Konstantin Chernenko|Chernenko]] were hardline Communists, and prevented any significant changes, but [[Mikhail Gorbachev|Gorbachev]] was a reformer—and once [[Perestroika|economic reforms]] and [[Glasnost|political reforms]] began, they became unstoppable. British journalist Bernard Levin wrote in 1977:

{{blockquote|I do not believe it possible that the thirst for freedom and decency in the countries of the Soviet Empire can remain much longer unslaked, and that any attempt ... to satisfy it by real reforms, will be cataclysmically destructive of the eroded foundations of the entire State system.  ... there will be no stopping the tide once the first sluice has been opened. Memories of the Czech tragedy of 1968 will still be fresh ... the most significant element of the Prague Spring was the way in which, once Mr Dubcek had shown that he supported the Czech desire for liberation, no attempt by him and his equally brave colleagues to go slowly proved availing — the scent of freedom in the nostrils of his people was too strong.<ref>{{cite web
 | last = Levin
 | first = Bernard
 |date=August 1977
 | url = http://www.quadrant.org.au/magazine/issue/2009/11/the-most-accurate-prediction-in-history
 | title = The Most Accurate Prediction in History
 | work = The Times (London)
 | publisher = Times Newspapers Ltd
 | access-date = 2013-01-14
 }}</ref>{{better source needed|date=March 2020}}
}}

These events came at the cost of helping to triple the US [[national debt]], and funding [[Osama bin Laden|radicals]]. Weinberger pushed for dramatic increases in the United States' [[nuclear weapons|nuclear]] funding, and was a strong advocate of the controversial [[Strategic Defense Initiative|SDI]], an initiative which proposed a space- and ground-based missile defense shield.<ref>{{cite news |last=Weinberger |first=Caspar W. |date=February 26, 1987 |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1987-02-26-8701160014-story.html |title=Weinberger: No Division On SDI |work=Chicago Tribune |access-date=2013-01-13}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.mda.mil/about/weinberger.html|title=Ronald Reagan Award Winner|date=February 24, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130224122215/http://www.mda.mil/about/weinberger.html|archive-date=2013-02-24}}</ref>

Weinberger was reluctant to commit the armed forces, keeping only a token force of American marines in Lebanon that then became victims in the October [[1983 Beirut barracks bombing]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1982/10/29/world/weinberger-reluctant-on-bigger-beirut-force.html |title=Weinberger Reluctant On Bigger Beirut Force |date=October 29, 1982 |website=www.nytimes.com |publisher=The New York Times Company |access-date=8 April 2014}}</ref> In the wake of that terrible event, he laid out his engagement policy in a November 1984 speech on "The Uses of Military Power" at the [[National Press Club (United States)|National Press Club]] as the Six Tests.<ref>{{cite journal| title = Weinberger's Six Tests| url = http://www.airforcemag.com/MagazineArchive/Pages/2004/January%202004/0104keeper.aspx| access-date = 2013-06-20| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20131212123627/http://www.airforcemag.com/MagazineArchive/Pages/2004/January%202004/0104keeper.aspx| archive-date = 2013-12-12| url-status = dead |date=January 2004 |volume=87 |issue=1 |journal=Air Force Magazine}}</ref>

Unlike President [[Ronald Reagan|Reagan]] and Secretary of State [[George Shultz|Shultz]], Weinberger did not regard any of [[Gorbachev]]'s actions—whether it was [[perestroika]] or [[glasnost]]—as reassuring indicators of his stated intentions.<ref name="Yarhi-Milo">{{cite journal |last=Yarhi-Milo |first=Keren |title=In the Eye of the Beholder: How Leaders and Intelligence Communities Assess the Intentions of Adversaries |journal=International Security |year=2013 |volume=38 |issue=1 |pages=7–51 |doi=10.1162/isec_a_00128|s2cid=57565605 |doi-access=free }}</ref>{{rp|34}} "Not only did Gorbachev give up all of the Soviet 'non-negotiable' demands [regarding the [[INF Treaty]]], but he gave us precisely the kind of treaty that the President had sought for seven years. That act of course does not mean—any more than does the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan—that the USSR has given up its long-term aggressive designs."{{r|Yarhi-Milo|p=34}} Initially, Reagan's views were in line with Weinberger's views, but he began to reevaluate his perception of Gorbachev's intentions in 1987, the year Gorbachev accepted the U.S. proposal on INF.{{r|Yarhi-Milo|p=35}}

Weinberger resigned as Secretary of Defense on November 6, 1987.<ref name =resign>{{cite news| url = https://www.nytimes.com/1987/11/06/us/weinberger-as-expected-resigns-post.html| title = Weinberger, As Expected, Resigns| author = Brinley, Joel| date = November 6, 1987| access-date = August 15, 2019 |newspaper = The New York Times}}</ref><ref name =LA>{{cite news| url = https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-11-06-mn-12873-story.html | title = Weinberger Quits With Call for Strong Defense| author = Gerstenzang, James| date = November 6, 1987| access-date = August 15, 2019|newspaper = Los Angeles Times}}</ref>

====Iran–Contra affair====
The [[Iran–Contra affair]] concerned the selling of US missiles to Iran. The funds received from Iran were then channeled to guerilla rebels known as [[Contras]], who were fighting the socialist government of Nicaragua.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.brown.edu/Research/Understanding_the_Iran_Contra_Affair/i-background.php|title=Understanding the Iran-Contra Affairs - The Iran-Contra Affairs|website=www.brown.edu}}</ref> Such funding had been specifically denied by the US Congress.

Though he claimed to have been opposed to the sale on principle,{{Citation needed|reason=when and where he claimed?|date=April 2019}} Weinberger participated in the transfer of United States [[MIM-23 Hawk|Hawk]] and [[BGM-71 TOW|TOW]] missiles to [[Iran]] at that time.

Iran–Contra resulted in a major scandal with several investigations which resulted in fourteen Reagan administration officials being indicted.<ref>{{Cite news |work=Business Week |url=http://www.businessweek.com/1997/25/b353254.htm |title=Pointing a Finger at Reagan |access-date=2008-04-22 |author=Dwyer, Paula |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080416182515/http://www.businessweek.com/1997/25/b353254.htm |archive-date=2008-04-16 }}</ref><ref name="McDonald">{{cite press release |last=McDonald |first=Dian |date=24 December 1992 |title=Bush Pardons Weinberger, Five Others Tied to Iran-Contra |url=https://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/news/iran/1992/921224-260039.htm |location=Washington |publisher=[[United States Information Agency]] |access-date=29 December 2018 |via=GlobalSecurity.org}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.usdoj.gov/pardon/bushgrants.htm|title=Pardons and Commutations Granted by President George H.&nbsp;W. Bush|access-date=2008-04-22|publisher=United States Department of Justice}}</ref>

After his resignation as Secretary of Defense, legal proceedings against Weinberger were continued by [[Independent Counsel]] [[Lawrence Edward Walsh|Lawrence E. Walsh]]. On June 17, 1992, Weinberger was indicted on five felony charges related to the Iran-contra affair, including accusations that he had lied to Congress and obstructed Government investigations.<ref name = indict>{{cite news| url = https://www.nytimes.com/1992/06/17/us/weinberger-faces-5-counts-in-iran-contra-indictment.html | title = Weinberger Faces 5 Counts In Iran-Contra Indictment | author = Brinley, Joel | date = June 17, 1992 | access-date = August 15, 2019 |newspaper = The New York Times}}</ref><ref>{{cite press release |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |url=https://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/news/iran/1992/920606-231623.htm |title=Weinberger charged in Iran-Contra matter |publisher=[[United States Information Agency]] |date=16 June 1992 |access-date=29 December 2018 |via=GlobalSecurity.org}}</ref> He was defended by defense attorney Carl Rauh.

Prosecutors brought an additional indictment just four days before the 1992 presidential election. This was controversial because it cited a Weinberger diary entry contradicting a claim made by President [[George H. W. Bush]]. Republicans claimed that this action contributed to Bush's later defeat. On December 11, 1992, Judge [[Thomas F. Hogan]] threw out this indictment because it violated the five-year statute of limitations and improperly broadened the original charges.<ref>{{cite news |last=Johnston |first=David |title=Charge in Weinberger Case That Caused Furor Before Election is Thrown Out |newspaper=The New York Times |date=December 12, 1992 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/12/12/us/charge-in-weinberger-case-that-caused-furor-before-election-is-thrown-out.html }}</ref>

Before Weinberger could be tried on the original charges, he received a [[pardon]] on December 24, 1992, from Bush, who had been Reagan's [[Vice President of the United States|vice president]] during the scandal.<ref name="McDonald" /><ref>{{cite news |last=Johnston |first=David |date=25 December 1992 |title=Bush Pardons 6 in Iran Affair, Averting a Weinberger Trial; Prosecutor Assails 'Cover-Up' |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/12/25/us/pardons-bush-pardons-6-iran-affair-aborting-weinberger-trial-prosecutor-assails.html |work=The New York Times |edition=National |page=A00001 |access-date=29 December 2018}}</ref>