Of all the big businessmen recruited by Dwight Eisenhower for his first Administration, the biggest was Charles Erwin Wilson, president of General Motors Corp. When blunt, chain-smoking "Engine Charlie" was named Secretary of Defense, he promised to give the job "the darnedest whirl it ever had." This week, as he heads into retirement, Charlie Wilson, 67, can look back on quite a whirl.
The spinning started even before the Senate confirmed him. Clashing head-on with conflict-of-interest laws ("If I had come here to cheat, by God, I wouldn't be here"), Engine Charlie battled the Senate Armed Services Committee for ten days...
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